Eric Hosmer was headed to Washington. Instead. He will be going to Boston. Hosmer used his no-trade clause to reject a move to the Washington Nationals as part of the deal with Juan Soto and Josh Bell headed to San Diego. As Hosmer goes to the Boston Red Sox, Luke Voit will be a part of the deal.
Luke Voit is headed to the Nationals in the trade that brings Soto and Bell to SD, per a source. (Deal pending medicals, still not quite final.) Voit replaces Eric Hosmer in the deal, with Hosmer instead going to Boston, along with cash and/or prospects for an unspecified return.
— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) August 2, 2022
Additionally, the first baseman is owed $39 million over the next three seasons. His no-trade protection comes from the eight-year, $144 million deal he signed with the San Diego Padres in 2019. There was a full no-trade clause for the first three years, then limited no-trade protection in the following years.
The 32-year-old has eight home runs with a .272/.336/.391 slash line in 90 games for San Diego. The former All-Star and 2015 World Series champion hit a combined .259/.316/.412 through his first five seasons in San Diego. What’s more impressive is that his offense has improved over the past three seasons. Hosmer has a .273/.336/.411 batting line from 2022-2022. He ranks 21st out of 26 first basemen with 0.4 WAR and 24th with a .391 slugging percentage. According to SNY’s Andy Martino, the Padres were originally going to send Hosmer, Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagan to the New York Mets for Dominic Smith. The deal, of course, never went through.
Hosmer will fill the void for the Red Sox as they struggled to get consistent production from first base. Franchy Cordero and Bobby Dalbec have seen their fair share of difficulties throughout the season. Red Sox first baseman have combined to hit .224/.294/.368 with 10 home runs in 104 games.
As for Boston, their 2022 deadline is nothing but being sellers. General manager Chaim Bloom picked up Tommy Pham, Reese McGuire, Emmanuel Valdez and Wilyer Abreu. However, they parted ways with their primary catcher Christian Vazquez and reliever Jake Diekman in separate trades. For Hosmer, this allows him to build up his value once again.
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Players Mentioned:
Eric Hosmer, Luke Voit, Chris Paddack, Emilio Pagan, Dominic Smith, Franchy Cordero, Bobby Dalbec, Tommy Pham, Reese McGuire, Wilyer Abreu, Christian Vazquez, Jake Diekman
