Year Two of the Matt Quatraro tenure. Time to take a step up this year. Active in free agency and trades this offseason. A new look pitching rotation and bullpen. Will the young players take the leap up offensively? Bobby Witt extension? New stadium? Will Vinny recover from injury? Salvy taking aim at the Royals record book? Will Cole Ragans turn into the best Royals starting pitcher since Greinke 1.0?
Free Agents/Trades Acquisitions
Seth Lugo, SP
Michael Wacha, SP
Kyle Wright, SP
Hunter Renfroe, OF/DH
Will Smith, RP
Chris Stratton, RP
Nick Anderson, RP
Adam Frazier, 2B
Garrett Hampson, INF/OF
Matt Sauer, RP [Reply]
I'd give them a B- for the trade deadline, assuming we are done.
Pros: Added three bullpen arms(or a fifth starter and a new arm in Marsh) and we didn't just get a bunch of rentals. Makes us better next year too. We didn't lose much, with the biggest loss being a comp round pick. The one bat we got is at least better than Frazier/Hampson and probably better than Garcia.
Cons: For a team that could trade for nearly any position and get an upgrade on offense, we got the smallest upgrade possible and didn't address the outfield at all. No leadoff guy either. While there weren't a ton of big names out there, even league average would be a huge upgrade and we didn't get anyone. That's a missed opportunity.
Overall we are better, but obviously not tremendously so, and I think the B- seems fair for that. [Reply]
Erceg is a better get than I thought we could grab. That’s a good trade. DeJong doesn’t do much for me but he can’t be worse than Frazier so that’s cool. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry:
He can play third and second as well. Has 18 homers this year.
If he just plays when we face RHP he may be pretty useful but I don’t expect him to be much better in a pitchers park like Kaufmann. Should be an easier lineup for him though. [Reply]
Originally Posted by poolboy:
what outfielder was available that might have been an upgrade and not an overpay?
Almost every outfielder who got traded? The only guy who demanded anything crazy was Jazz, and that was a fringe top 100 prospect. Not saying we should have done that deal specifically but Winker went for basically nothing. Amed Rosario is a utility guy with several seasons of an OPS above 700 and they got him for a guy who is 28 in AAA still. Lane Thomas was acquired for an A ball HS pitcher who is years away if he ever makes it. We have plenty of those guys sitting around not going anywhere. Like I said, it's not like any of these guys are all stars or anything and they have some downsides too, but it's hard to look at any of these deals and say any of them were overpays or that we would bankrupt the minor league system to get one of them. [Reply]
Jazz said he wanted to be traded to a team that would let him play infield..
Thomas is average this year and was an overpay...Winker is up and down, mostly down although he comes together once in a while late season. What playing time is available?
Do you want to DFA Melendez? [Reply]
Originally Posted by poolboy:
Jazz said he wanted to be traded to a team that would let him play infield..
Thomas is average this year and was an overpay...Winker is up and down, mostly down although he comes together once in a while late season. What playing time is available?
Do you want to DFA Melendez?
I mean Jazz at third over Garcia is a massive upgrade I would have taken that but I get why we didn't do it. You say average like it's a bad thing. It's a big upgrade compared to the zeros we have. I wouldn't DFA Melendez but he doesn't play every day so you could do Frazier. Or Hampson. The point is we have 4 guys on the roster who are complete zeros at the plate. Fixing any of those things would improve an offense that struggles sometimes. [Reply]
