By now, you’ve probably heard that the San Diego Padres have agreed to sign Eric Hosmer to an eight-year, $144 million contract. Pundits seem a bit gunshy about laughing at the deal given baseball’s current economic landscape — if anything, the Padres have earned some praise for actually paying a free agent real money. I’ll say this: if Hosmer provides value off the field like Jayson Werth did when he signed with the Washington Nationals, it’s a win for San Diego.
But the Padres are as irrelevant as MLB teams get for us Detroit Tigers fans.