A bad contract swap between the Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres

I talked about one trade between the Miami Marlins and the San Diego Padres yesterday but how about another one? the previous trade was about saving money for The Fish and giving San Diego salary space to pursue offensive upgrades that they want. It would’ve also upgraded their weak out field.

A bad contract swap between the Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres might make some sense.

The San Diego Padres have been trying hard to trade Eric Hosmer for a while. In fact they almost traded him to the New York Mets recently. Eric Hosmer is seen as a bad contract as he’s not seen to be worth the $21 million that he receives annually. Luckily for San Diego, the first baseman’s salary goes down to $13 million next season through 2025.

San Diego might not have much time to wait as they badly need to cut payroll to afford offensive help this season. Enter the Miami Marlins. we actually have an exact contract match for Hosmer in RF Avisaíl García. Avi is making $12 million a year through 2025 (or 2026 as he has a team option for that season). Avi also happens to be an out fielder, an area where San Diego especially needs help.

It makes sense for San Diego to cut payroll for the season and save money long-term as well while improving at a position of need. So why would the Miami Marlins do this trade? Well for one thing Avi is a worse player than Hosmer. Its not even close really. Avi is a career .267/.321/.424 hitter, that is currently batting .218/.250/.288.

Hosmer is currently batting .290/.351/.409 with a  career batting line of .278/.337/.430. The extra money this season shouldn’t be an issue, when The Fish are so far away from the luxury tax barrier. He would also only cost $1 million more than Avi, who we’re already stuck with for the same length of time.

Eric Hosmer is better than Avisaíl García, so if the Miami Marlins ae going to be stuck with a bad contract, why not him? We need to dump Avi and this might just be a good enough trade to get that job done.