Eric Hosmer Shares Thoughts on Kansas City Royals' Hot Start, Life as a Podcaster

As a key piece of the Kansas City Royals' 2015 World Series squad, Eric Hosmer has plenty of thoughts on his former team's resurgence now that he has entered the media landscape on MoonBall Media's Diggin' Deep Podcast.

In the two months since Eric Hosmer announced his retirement, the former World Series champion says he is still adjusting to life after baseball.

"I'm getting way too good at this retirement thing, man," Hosmer said in an exclusive interview with Fastball on Tuesday. "I'm waking up, not knowing what to do on a day-to-day basis."

But that doesn't mean Hosmer isn't staying busy.

Hosmer joined forces with Anthony Seratelli, an old teammate of his from the Kansas City Royals' minor league system, to co-found MoonBall Media. One of the company's flagship projects is the Diggin' Deep Podcast, which is produced by Seratelli and hosted by Hosmer, longtime MLB reliever Peter Moylan and process & development coach Justin Su'a.

A few months into the podcast, Hosmer said his experiences as a player have set him up perfectly to roll right into his second career.

"I've really enjoyed being able to sit down with these guys, digging into their stories, digging into a time where they faced some adversity in their life, how they responded to it," Hosmer said. "Towards the back end of my career, I really took a liking to looking out for the younger guys and really trying to school them on everything that comes with the game and outside the game and all that. So now that the playing career's over, I wanted to expand that in a way."

Seratelli, who has been in the media business since injuries forced him into retirement in 2016, said he's impressed with how Hosmer has made the transition so smoothly.

"Getting back together to do this has been amazing," Seratelli said. "I think that he's taking it on full-fledge and really, he's crushing it. You can hear it if you watch the show. His personality, him getting out there and chirping things on X, people are enjoying hearing from him, so that's amazing to see."

Both former ballplayers agreed that losing the camaraderie of the clubhouse environment has been one of the toughest adjustments, but that they have managed to build out a team to recreate that kind of vibe at MoonBall Media.

Among Diggin' Deep's first few guests have been former St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay, San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado and Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington. Hosmer also got a chance to have a conversation with Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who has gotten off to the hottest of starts in 2024.

Given how he played seven seasons for the Royals, Hosmer is particularly invested in how the franchise has committed to building a true contender around Witt and the rest of their young talent.

"It's certainly exciting," Hosmer said. "Being a fan of the team, what I enjoy and appreciate the most is they are trying to build within and create young talent that can be good at the big league level for them. But at the same time, they're trying to acquire major league talent and make their team competitive and give their team an opportunity to win the division out there."

Hosmer won four Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger and a World Series with the Royals between 2011 and 2017. He was a .284 hitter with 127 home runs, 566 RBI and 1,132 hits during his time in Kansas City, ranking top 10 in franchise history in runs, total bases, homers and RBI.

Seratelli, too, spent seven years in Kansas City's farm system. He, more than most, has an appreciation for that club building from within and creating a young core of homegrown players, this time with Witt, first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, third baseman Maikel Garcia, outfielder MJ Melendez and others.

And from Seratelli's point of view, the roster construction is taking shape in a promising and familiar way.

"I think I know that minor league system just about as good as anybody," Seratelli said. "It's cool to see them doing it, I want to say, again. When we were there, that's exactly what happened. (Mike Moustakas) signed, (Hosmer) signed, (Aaron) Crow signed, (Alcides Escobar) signed. Like, you can go back, (Alex) Gordon, (Billy) Butler, the years before. So you can look at that team, it was almost fully homegrown, it was so close to that. So it's really cool to see them going down that path again."

The Royals are currently off to their best start in years, sitting 1.0 game back of first place in the AL Central at 11-6.

Hosmer still has strong ties to other teams as well, having played four-and-a-half seasons with the Padres and a handful of games with the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs in 2022 and 2023. The 34-year-old said he still flips through channels at night to keep a close eye on his former teammates, even though his relationship to those clubs has changed over the years.

By diving head-first into the growing athlete-owned media landscape, though, Hosmer has given himself an outlet to stay true to his passion in a whole new way.

"Baseball players have been taught to be extremely guarded on certain things to say, whether it's through the media that can cause a distraction throughout the team or whatnot" Hosmer said. "But I think now, we're moving to a time and place where the fans really enjoy hearing it from the players' perspective and they feel that the player is a little more comfortable talking about it."

You can check out Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation's full interview with Hosmer and Seratelli on YouTube here:

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