Padres’ social-media accounts hinted that Eric Hosmer would join team

Did someone jump the gun? Or was this a prank?

We may never know, but on Wednesday, two of the San Diego Padres’ social-media accounts shared Eric Hosmer items. The Padres have an offer for the free-agent Hosmer, and their owner sang his praises earlier this month. The Royals reportedly also have made an offer.

Perhaps the Padres’ social-media posts were an indication that they had won his services. All of the posts were deleted, but people shared the screenshots on Twitter.

On Instagram, the Padres shared a photo of Hosmer from a game with the Royals.

Here it is:

The Padres also tweeted this and that is Hosmer’s Twitter handle:

Spring training is less than three weeks away, so it seems likely that there will be some resolution in the Eric Hosmer sweepstakes. Maybe it’ll be sooner rather than later.

UPDATE: The Padres said their social-media accounts were hacked.

The team tweeted: “The Padres social media accounts were inappropriately accessed last night, and messages that were inaccurate and unauthorized were posted. MLB Cybersecurity is now investigating the matter, and we apologize for any confusion.”

Despite that assurance from the Padres, fans either didn’t believe them or cracked jokes about the whole thing.

This story was originally published January 25, 2018 at 9:00 AM.