San Diego Padres: A Closer, More Advanced Look at Eric Hosmer

Hosmer’s OPS+

Eric Hosmer’s OPS+ tells more of the same story. From 2011-’17, these were his OPS+ numbers: 118, 81, 118, 99, 122, 102, 132.

Again, his 2012 and 2014 seasons were borderline-disastrous in the big picture of his career but would be decent seasons for 50% of MLB position players.

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To put things in perspective once again, Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds led all of MLB in OPS+ last season with 168. Hosmer’s 132 last year isn’t a far cry from the league leader in Votto.

If this is the player we can expect to see over the next few, prime-of-his-career seasons, it makes the San Diego Padres investment worth every penny.

Padres’ new first baseman’s advanced fielding stats

Eric Hosmer has won a handful of Gold Glove Awards for his play at first base over the last seven seasons. From 2011-’17 his UZR was as follows: -10.5, -12.8, 2.5 (Gold Glove), -0.4 (Gold Glove), 1.0 (Gold Glove), -8.4, and -0.3 (Gold Glove).

In Hosmer’s Gold Glove-winning seasons, his UZR never ranked above 11th among MLB first basemen (2013, 13th; 2014, 11th; 2015, 17th; 2017, 14th).

Researching and finding those stats certainly weaken my faith a little bit in the Gold Glove Award selection process, but I’m not the first to make that observation and won’t be the last either.

Next: Padres Have Stockpiled Arms to the Point it's Unfair

If the San Diego Padres get, for example, a handful of seasons like Eric Hosmer had in 2017, again, their considerable investment in a fringe-elite player will have been completely justified.