San Diego Padres: 5 player improvements needed to contend

Eric  Hosmer has to walk more and strikeout less

There is no question that Eric Hosmer has been downright terrible for the Padres since they signed him with back-to-back negative WAR seasons, according to FanGraphs.

He had a career-year in 2017 with the Kansas City Royals hitting .318/.385 with 25 home runs and 98 RBI.

But in two seasons with San Diego, he’s combined to hit just .259/.316 with 40 home runs.

The home run numbers are not terrible and about what you would expect with someone switching to the pitcher-friendly Petco Park as their home stadium.

But two things that really stick out are the elevated strikeout rate and the lowered walk rate.

In that 2017 season, he struck out 15.5 percent of the time, but in 2018 he struck out 21 percent of that time, and in 2019, he increased that even higher to 24.4 percent.

That’s an unbearable amount of strikeouts to have when you aren’t hitting 30-plus home runs.

His walk percentage in 2017 was 9.8 percent, and he kept that up in 2018 at 9.2 percent, but that number took a nosedive in 2019, to just 6 percent.

It’s really pretty simple – at least in theory – for Hosmer, quit striking out so much and start taking more walks.

If that happens, then I think we see the averages go back up, and he’ll be a much more productive player for the Padres.