St. Louis Cardinals: Stay away from Eric Hosmer, please

The St. Louis Cardinals might be considering the Kansas City first baseman but I beg that they do not.

I recently wrote a speculation piece linking the St. Louis Cardinals to the former first baseman of the Kansas City Royals, Eric Hosmer. In that piece (here if you want to read it) I equated Hosmer as a better version of Matt Carpenter. And, while I still stand by that, I have taken flack on social media for this stance.

Let me be clear: Matt Carpenter has a great upside (albeit the St. Louis Cardinals have yet to really see it) and when he is on, the man is on and the team follows suit. In that regard, and through a comparison of numbers, I posited that Hosmer is a better Matt Carpenter. What is meant by this is that the numbers that Hosmer posts are what Carpenter could be and should be.

Now then, let me also be clear: I hope the St. Louis Cardinals have zero interest in Hosmer.

Yes, he is a great player and yes his numbers have been good-to-great, but I’m afraid his asking price will be far too high. While the St. Louis Cardinals have the money now and will certainly have the money in the future thanks to the television deal, I hope they spend it on someone else of impact other than Hosmer.

I am also terribly wary of any player whose agent is Scott Boras. I respect Boras but that man demands high dollars for his clients and sometimes demands beyond their actual value. Thanks to our friends at MLBTR, we have an idea of what Boras might be asking.

Yesterday our MLBTR counterparts posted a review of Hosmer and looked at what he might earn in free agency. MLBTR suggests that the Royals will likely issue a qualifying offer ($17.4M) to Hosmer and I cannot say that I blame them– must get something when Hosmer walks.

In the MLBTR piece, they link to a Kansas City Star piece by Sam Mellinger wherein Mellinger discusses his thoughts on Boras’ ask for Hosmer. Mellinger notes that some executives expect for Boras to seek eight years worth $200MM. Wow.

MLBTR believes that Boras will be seeking ten years and $20M AAV.

Both MLBTR and Mellinger believe that these two asks are too high for Hosmer (or any other first baseman) but I believe this to be completely in the operating mode of Scott Boras. MLBTR compares Hosmer to Edwin Encarnacion who had troubles landing a $20M over three years but noted that Edwin was considerably older than Hosmer is now.

In Mellinger’s piece, he compares Hosmer to Chris Davis to point out that the $20-25MM AAV is not too high an ask (not for Boras). He points out that Davis earned the $23MM AAV contract with lesser numbers and a body that was two years older.