Lol no.
Hosmer had a very comparable year last year to Rizzo. Rock solid defensively, walks a ton. Thats a really good contract for his prime years.
If you only look at last year, then sure, I can see why it's not a bad contract.
However, you need to look at more than that. For example, the year before last he had a wRC+ of 102. He had another good year in 2015 but in 2014 his wRC+ was 98. 2 of the last 4 years he's been a league average hitter, and his career wRC+ is 111. That's really not very good for a 1st baseman.
As far as his defense being "rock solid" that just doesn't seem to be true. Here's a long article from FanGraphs about Hosmer's defense. The key portion is below...
"The advanced numbers, the traditional numbers, the video scouts all say the same thing: Eric Hosmer is a perfectly ordinary defensive first baseman, likely one whose below-average range is cancelled out by a penchant for scooping balls in the dirt. How does that equate to three Gold Glove Awards? I’m not sure, and it probably shouldn’t, but my best guess it that those within the game — the managers whose votes make up 75% of the Gold Glove process — appreciate scoops more than the numbers do. Yost literally says Hosmer has “average range,” but that his scoops “[save] us countless errors, countless runs, because infielders can grab a ball, and they can turn around and throw it in the vicinity and know that Hos is gonna pick it.” What that quote tells me is that Yost believes Hosmer’s scooping ability far outweighs any range deficiencies he might have, though the numbers reveal no evidence of that being true.
As for this year? This year, thus far, is a perfect example of why we want the largest sample possible before working with defensive metrics. Every piece of evidence we have during Hosmer’s three Gold Glove years indicates he’s exactly league average, yet we see his 2016 spray chart. More than likely, Hosmer’s just had a disproportionate number of tough, diving play opportunities, and he’s converted a couple less than normal, and since the hits have piled up, so have the negative defensive runs saved. Hosmer almost certainly hasn’t been playing his best defense this year, but it’s just as likely that his bloated runs-saved total is as much a result of “facing a tough schedule,” per se. After all, we’ve got a much larger sample than just this one year, and that much larger sample points to Hosmer being perfectly average."
Let’s Talk About Eric Hosmer’s Defense | FanGraphs Baseball
If we are purely looking at the numbers, last year he was 17th (of 21 qualified) 1st basemen in DRS. The year before he was 16th (of 17 qualified). Two years ago he was 14th (of 21 qualified).
I'm not saying he's bad defensively but it's pretty clear that he's not close to an above average defensive first baseman. 1st base isn't really a priority defensive position either but if you are going to have average, or below average, defense there you'd expect to get very good offensive output. Hosmer though has not been that, or at least he's shown he's not that about half the time. To draw a comparison, over the past 4 years among 1st baseman, he is 16th in wRC+ with 116 (Rizzo is 4th at 144). Players near him in the list?
Carlos Santana, 13th, 120 - just signed for 3 years, $60 million
Adam Lind, 14th, 117 - just signed for 1 year, $1.5 million
Chris Davis, 17th, 114 - two years ago signed a massive 7 year, $160 million contract which has been a disaster
The point here is not that Hosmer is a BAD player, it's just that he is very overpaid for a history of being an average hitter and an average (at best) defender. Production at 1st base can be found fairly easily compared to other positions.
It's just not a good contract.
