Elevate your hand for those who had the Royals being one of many top-five spenders in free company in your offseason bingo card again in November. Kansas Metropolis is concentrated on enhancing within the right here and now, and their offseason displays that.
Main League Signings
Seth Lugo, RHP: Three years, $45MM (opt-out after yr two of the contract)
Michael Wacha, RHP: Two years, $32MM (opt-out after yr one of many contract)
Hunter Renfroe, OF: Two years, $13MM (opt-out after yr one of many contract)
Chris Stratton, RHP: Two years, $8MM (opt-out after yr one of many contract)
Will Smith, LHP: One yr, $5MM
Adam Frazier, 2B/OF: One yr, $4.5MM
Garrett Hampson, INF/OF: One yr, $2MM
Austin Nola, C: One yr, $1MM
2024 spend: $53MMTotal spend: $110.5MM
Choice Selections
Trades and Claims
Extensions
Notable Minor League Signings
Notable Losses
Zack Greinke, Brad Keller, Matt Duffy, Bubba Thompson (waivers), Tucker Davidson (waivers), Max Castillo (waivers), Collin Snider (waivers), Samad Taylor, Edward Olivares, Dylan Coleman, Taylor Clarke, Jonathan Heasley, Jackson Kowar
The Royals’ second season underneath basic supervisor J.J. Picollo, who changed longtime president of baseball operations Dayton Moore after his firing, took a markedly completely different tone than the primary. Kansas Metropolis spent extra money on one particular person signing, right-hander Seth Lugo, than they’d in the complete 2022-23 offseason. Lugo proved to be one among two notable additions to the rotation, becoming a member of righty Michael Wacha in what needs to be a much more aggressive pitching employees than the Royals ran out in 2023.
Lugo and Wacha will largely change outgoing franchise icon Zack Greinke and non-tendered righty Brad Keller, who mixed for 36 begins final yr (27 from Greinke, 9 from Keller). They’ll be a part of final yr’s deadline prize Cole Ragans and returning right-hander Brady Singer in a Kansas Metropolis rotation that needs to be far, much more steady than the 2023 group. Final yr, solely 4 Royals — Greinke, Singer, Ragans and Jordan Lyles — even began greater than 9 video games.
Whereas Lugo and Wacha aren’t precisely aces, the Royals hope they’ve unearthed one within the 26-year-old Ragans, who starred for them following his acquisition within the Aroldis Chapman swap with Texas. Ragans’ 2.64 ERA, 31.1% strikeout price, 9.4% stroll price and 45.5% grounder price have the look of a top-end starter. Lugo thrived in a transfer to the rotation in San Diego final season, notching a 3.57 ERA in 146 1/3 frames. Former and once-again teammate Wacha delivered a second straight stable season in San Diego and joins up with Lugo once more. If the Royals can get one thing nearer to the 2022 model of Singer (versus the 2023 model), the rotation could possibly be a power. Lyles will eat innings within the fifth spot, however in-house names like Daniel Lynch IV and Alec Marsh may ultimately push him for that spot.
Lugo and Wacha weren’t the one starters the Royals acquired, however they’re the one ones who’ll pitch for Kansas Metropolis in 2024. The Royals purchased low on injured Braves right-hander Kyle Wright, transport change-of-scenery candidate Jackson Kowar to Atlanta so as to choose him up — figuring out full nicely that shoulder surgical procedure will value Wright the upcoming season. He’ll spend the yr on the 60-day IL, however he has two remaining seasons of membership management past the 2024 marketing campaign. Including him at the price of a now twice-traded former first-rounder, Kowar, is a pleasant little bit of long-term enterprise for a group that has been plagued up to now by an absence of pitching depth.
Kansas Metropolis’s bullpen additions may not have generated as a lot consideration however represented an excellent broader-reaching overhaul of the employees. Free brokers Will Smith and Chris Stratton deliver closing and setup expertise — to say nothing of a pair of 2023 World Collection rings — to the 2024 Royals. They value a mixed $13MM in ensures, with Stratton coming aboard on a two-year cope with a shocking participant possibility (extra on that in a bit).
Proper-hander Nick Anderson was a buy-low addition who has been dominant at occasions however hardly ever wholesome. Righty John Schreiber had an enormous 2022 in Boston and took a step again in 2023 thanks largely to a spike in stroll price. However Schreiber misses bats at above-average ranges, retains the ball on the bottom nicely and hadn’t struggled together with his command previous to the 2023 season. Anderson is controllable by way of 2025 and price solely money. Schreiber has three years of management and price the Royals right-hander David Sandlin, a 2022 eleventh-round choose who’s considerably improved his prospect standing since being chosen.
Royals relievers in 2023 ranked twenty ninth within the huge leagues by way of ERA and have been twenty fifth or worse in FIP and SIERA. Solely two groups noticed their bullpens stroll relievers at a better price, and Kansas Metropolis’s 22.8% strikeout price from the ’pen was tied for twenty second in MLB. All of that features a sturdy three months from the aforementioned Chapman along with contributions from Jose Cuas and Scott Barlow, each additionally moved on the deadline.
Usually talking, it was a gaggle that wanted work, and the additions of Smith, Stratton, Anderson and Schreiber ought to go a good distance towards serving to the unit general. The Royals can even hope that they struck gold on righty James McArthur, whom they acquired in a DFA commerce with the Phillies final Might. McArthur posted underwhelming numbers in each Philly and Kansas Metropolis … at the very least till a September call-up during which he fired off an unimaginable 16 1/3 innings of shutout reduction with simply 5 hits and no walks towards 19 strikeouts. McArthur has additionally dominated in a small pattern of 6 1/3 spring innings (one run) and is a transparent identify to observe for this group.
The additions on the position-player aspect of issues have been much more modest. Hunter Renfroe acquired a considerably shocking two-year pact after a pedestrian displaying with the Angels and a really rocky end with the Reds. He’s a transparent 20-homer bat who’ll add some wanted punch to the Okay.C. lineup, however Renfroe’s once-elite defensive scores and his energy output have each dropped off lately. A transfer to Kauffman Stadium in all probability gained’t assist the latter, and his profession .300 OBP (.297 in ’23) is a curious match for a membership that ranked twenty eighth within the majors with a collective .303 OBP final season.
Adam Frazier joins Renfroe as one thing of a buy-low play on a veteran who’s seen higher days. An All-Star with the Pirates, Frazier’s bat hasn’t been the identical since being traded from Pittsburgh to San Diego on the 2021 commerce deadline. He’s taken 1268 plate appearances with the Padres, Mariners and Orioles however mustered solely a .244/.305/.345 slash in that point. Frazier’s $4.5MM assure with the Royals isn’t a lot by at this time’s requirements, and his glorious bat-to-ball abilities mesh with a Royals membership that has tended to prioritize contact over energy. Even throughout his tough stretch since that ’21 commerce, Frazier has fanned at only a 12.9% clip. He gained’t be the starter at second or in left discipline — that’ll be Michael Massey and MJ Melendez, respectively — however he provides the Royals some depth at each spots and a contact-oriented bat off the bench.
Talking of the bench, that’s been overhauled as nicely. Gone are Samad Taylor, Edward Olivares and Matt Duffy, amongst others. Frazier will be a part of superutility man Garrett Hampson as a free-agent pickup for the bench. Hampson posted roughly common offensive numbers in Miami final season — nicely forward of his beforehand middling profession marks — and might play nearly wherever on the sphere. He’s not an elite defender at anybody spot and is a candidate to regress with the bat (.379 BABIP, 26.6% strikeout price), however the Royals love pace and Hampson clocked into the 98th percentile of MLB gamers in dash pace final yr, per Statcast.
Kansas Metropolis additionally picked up Austin Nola on an inexpensive one-year deal late within the offseason after the Padres lower him unfastened. He has a minor league possibility remaining and will thus be ticketed for Triple-A, however Nola has expertise enjoying a number of infield positions along with catcher and the Royals have thought of carrying him together with each Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin on the roster. Perez is best suited as a DH at this level however nonetheless figures to catch his share of video games. If the Royals select to hold all three, Nola provides them a viable backup on days they wish to DH Perez and begin the defensively superior Fermin behind the dish. In the event that they don’t, he’ll give them an skilled backup possibility in Omaha.
The largest piece of enterprise for the Royals, nonetheless, was their franchise-record-shattering extension for shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. The $288.777MM deal greater than tripled Perez’s $82MM pact, which had stood because the earlier high-water mark for the franchise. Witt improved throughout the board as a sophomore in his age-23 season, with good points in batting common, on-base share, slugging share, stroll price, strikeout price, energy output, defensive grades, exit velocity, hard-hit price and barrel price. He completed the season one steal shy of the exceptionally uncommon 30-homer, 50-stolen base marketing campaign.
Royals followers have authentic trigger to have a good time Witt’s extension, although it’s maybe not the career-long dedication to the franchise most would consider at first look. The opt-out provision after the contract’s seventh season has a powerful likelihood to be exercised, at the very least if the 2 events don’t revisit his contract standing nearer to that call level. After the 2030 season, Witt will likely be assured (ahem) “simply” 4 years and a further $140MM as he enters his age-31 season. It’d be a simple name for a participant together with his means to set off that decide out even in 2024, and salaries in MLB will presumably solely have moved ahead additional by that time. The 2 events may all the time look to renegotiate an extended pact at that time — one which decisively retains Witt in Kansas Metropolis for his whole profession.
Even when they don’t achieve this and Witt ultimately takes the opt-out route, there’s nonetheless a lot to be joyful about for the Royals. It’s true that the opt-out and massive assure create extra damage draw back than authentic contractual upside for the Royals, however that was the price of shopping for out at the very least three prime-aged free-agent seasons on a 23-year-old famous person who appears to be like more likely to be a bona fide MVP candidate a number of occasions over the seven seasons during which the Royals have full management over him.
Choose-outs have been a standard theme for the Royals this winter, not solely of their extension with Witt however in almost each free agent contract they doled out. Lugo can decide out after the 2025 season. Every of Wacha, Renfroe and even Stratton good points the power to decide out after the upcoming season. Not way back, opt-out clauses have been typically reserved for the sport’s elite free brokers, however the Royals joined a rising variety of smaller and mid-market groups which have used them as leverage to lure second- and even third-tier free brokers. Stratton securing a 2025 participant possibility as a 33-year-old reliever who averages simply over 93 mph on his heater and has narrowly saved his ERA underneath 4.00 over the previous 4 seasons was significantly shocking.
For the Royals, the opt-out provisions might have been one thing of a mandatory evil, although. Free brokers are inclined to wish to register profitable conditions, and the group misplaced a whopping 106 video games through the 2023 marketing campaign. Even when providing multi-year offers, the Royals’ latest run of futility within the AL Central — one among baseball’s weakest divisions — is a tricky promote to free brokers who’ve a good market. Providing the leverage of a aggressive year-one wage with the attract of a return to the market subsequent winter if issues go nicely is a powerful sweetener — one at which many golf equipment would seemingly balk.
There’s actual draw back to the gambit. If Wacha have been to maintain a serious damage or regress to his 2019-21 kind, for example, a group with the Royals’ sometimes modest payroll could be on the hook for a big sum. The Padres gave Wacha a sequence of opt-outs when signing him final offseason, however that was successfully a mechanism to duck the luxurious tax. Wacha was assured $26MM on his “four-year” deal however was by no means more likely to set off a sequence of $6.5MM participant choices. In essence, the participant choices simply tamped down the contract’s AAV as a result of they’re thought of assured cash.
The Royals’ sequence of opt-outs is way completely different; they’re guaranteeing market-rate salaries and pairing that with quick alternatives to return to the market (or, in Lugo’s case, a chance two years down the road). If any of Wacha, Stratton or Renfroe train that participant possibility, it’ll be as a result of the 2024 outcomes weren’t there, and that’ll be a notable and certain undesirable wage on the books for the 2025 Royals.
It’s a raffle the Royals in all probability favor to not make however one which may have been essential to result in such a change in a single offseason. And, make no mistake about it, that is an unequivocally improved and deepened Royals roster. The query is whether or not they’ve carried out sufficient to earnestly contend. A full season of Ragans may go a good distance towards enhancing the outlook, if he can maintain his post-trade breakout. Ditto McArthur, although his success was in an excellent smaller pattern. The remainder of the Royals’ pickups have been largely targeted on elevating the ground, however few include star-caliber upside.
Any such enhancements might want to come internally. A totally wholesome, breakout season from first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino appears believable. Nelson Velazquez gained’t preserve homering on the tempo he did in ’23 (14 homers in 147 plate appearances), however he makes gobs of onerous contact and regarded like a possible middle-of-the-order bat after coming over from the Cubs. The Royals will want related strides from Melendez, Massey and/or first baseman/DH Nick Pratto in the event that they’re to achieve the mandatory floor to compete for a postseason berth. They completed 31 video games again of the Twins and 33 video games out of a Wild Card spot in 2023, and the AL Central has solely seen the Tigers get higher.
There’s little question the Royals are higher, however even with so many additions, they might face an uphill battle as they search for not solely their first journey to the playoffs since profitable the 2015 World Collection — however their first profitable season since that fateful yr.
