Mailbag: is Hosmer the problem?

Answering questions about Juan Soto, the Dodgers, potential Padres clubhouse problems and more.

San Diego Padres baseball is back tomorrow, with a road series against the New York Mets. We’ll talk more about the rest of the season tomorrow, today is mailbag day!

---

The Padres in recent years, have had hot starts and horrible collapses. 2019 and 2021 were blamed on Green and Tingler. This year they brought in Bob Melvin. Can Bob Melvin turn this around? Is there a bigger clubhouse problem? At what point do fans start to question that this is a larger organizational problem and not a manager problem?

So, this question was sent in last week and I never got around to answering it. What’s funny is that it’s just as applicable now, although I don’t know (after winning the Diamondbacks series and a few days off) that anyone would’ve asked it this week.

Anyway, there are some answers I can provide. First, Bob Melvin is about as good as it gets for MLB managers. If he can’t solve your problem, then it’s something bigger than a manager problem. There is no world in which Bob Melvin is as much the problem as Andy Green and Jayce Tingler.

Not to pick on the guy that we always pick on, but I really do wonder what effect Eric Hosmer has on the clubhouse. We saw it happen last season, as much as you can see and hear something that’s happening in the clubhouse, when Hosmer was nearly traded and then the clubhouse was immediately divided against the front office.

Hosmer is a guy that’s used to being one of the best players on his team and the go-to leader. Now he’s one of the worst players in all of baseball and he’s actively hurting his team, both with his performance and with his contract. If he’s trying to continue to be a leader, and is being treated as one (i.e. getting in the lineup when he doesn’t deserve to be), that could have some weird ramifications that could ripple throughout the clubhouse.

In Bob we trust.