Eric Hosmer has a hefty free agent deal with the Padres, but getting there wasn’t easy for the first baseman. And just because he’s comfortable now doesn’t mean he’s going to ignore his peers who are somewhat inexplicably still out there looking for work.
Eric Hosmer isn’t buying Rob Manfred’s excuses, either
Tuesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at Eric Hosmer’s comments about the slow offseason now that he’s got a deal.
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Hosmer thinks “something is wrong” with the “integrity of the game” Rob Manfred likes to mention, if said integrity creates a situation where successful players are still free agents in early March while teams are out there clearly not trying to win.
“[Commissioner Rob] Manfred says the integrity of the game is first and foremost, that’s what we want to protect,’’ Hosmer says. “But the way the process went down this year, something is wrong with it.
“I don’t think all of the teams are trying to be competitive or doing everything they can to protect the integrity of the game. If that was the case, why are guys like Carlos Gonzalez and [former Royals teammate] Mike Moustakas still on the market? That raises a lot of red flags. When you’ve got guys that are proven at this level, and have done it for many years at this level that are still on the market looking for jobs, that just tells you something isn’t right about it.”
This comes out shortly after Justin Upton said the era of courting free agents is over, replaced by one where teams call free agent to tell them how bad they are to push them down to their intended price point. More like neggotiations ha ha don’t think about that for too long or it’ll fall apart okay
What we have here is two guys secure in their paychecks and jobs, speaking up about other players who aren’t quite so lucky. The players have spent this offseason getting more and more vocal about teams’ treatment of them, with Upton and Hosmer joined by Cubs’ star Kris Bryant in the last week: Bryant wants to be the Cubs’ union representative now, and between what he’s seen happen to free agents this winter combined with the Cubs messing with his service time, he’s become invested in the idea of a stronger pro-labor push within MLB.
The Players Association is going to need more leadership from the likes of these three if they’re going to change their situation by the time the next collective bargaining occurs in 2021, but that might not be a problem given MLB’s denials of any wrongdoing and their continued ignoring of players who, normally, would be under contract by now.
- Speaking of Rob Manfred, Craig Calcaterra explained why MLB’s commissioner is so upset about sports gambling right now.
- Dayton Moore isn’t ruling out a Royals’ reunion with Mike Moustakas, but if it happens, it won’t be on a long-term deal.
- Pinstripe Alley looks at how the Yankees’ rotation stacks up with the rest of the AL East.
- The Braves are not going to hit a lot of dingers in 2018.
- Speaking of the Braves, it’s entirely possible Brian Snitker’s worst decisions as manager saved his job instead of costing him it.
- Keon Broxton is reportedly generating more trade interest than Domingo Santana.
- Nationals’ 2017 first-round pick Seth Romero was sent home from spring training for violating a team policy. It’s not Romero’s first time being sent home from a team, either.
- The Mariners and Ichiro Suzuki appear to be reuniting.
- The Tigers are hosting open tryouts, so get on down to their camp if you think you’ve got what it takes.
See More:
