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]
Next year's lineup needs to get much deeper, very quickly. Our window is not that wide. Salvy won't produce forever, and pitching staff window is one more year. There is no help coming from the minors. There are like seven wasted 40 man spots on batters with no business being a part of a competitive organization.
Lineup should look like
RHB FA
LHB FA
Witt
LHB FA
Salvy
Pasquantino
Maikel
Massey
Isbel/whatever
Witts career cannot be wasted by this organization, and they must crack open the checkbook next year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Nightfyre:
Next year's lineup needs to get much deeper, very quickly. Our window is not that wide. Salvy won't produce forever, and pitching staff window is one more year. There is no help coming from the minors. There are like seven wasted 40 man spots on batters with no business being a part of a competitive organization.
Lineup should look like
RHB FA
LHB FA
Witt
LHB FA
Salvy
Pasquantino
Maikel
Massey
Isbel/whatever
Witts career cannot be wasted by this organization, and they must crack open the checkbook next year.
Melendez is still 25. He's going to get more rope I imagine and he probably should. Royals have a long history of guys like Moose and Gordon finally getting it around that time. You can't let him walk and become a Moose-like player somewhere else.
There's no guarantees but you could see someone like Gavin Cross next year too. Caglianone would have to tear it up but you'd hope he's a guy you'd see in the next couple years. They do have Witt, Vinnie, Garcia, Massey, Ragans and Erceg for 4-5 more years. That's a pretty good window in today's baseball. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Nightfyre:
Next year's lineup needs to get much deeper, very quickly. Our window is not that wide. Salvy won't produce forever, and pitching staff window is one more year. There is no help coming from the minors. There are like seven wasted 40 man spots on batters with no business being a part of a competitive organization.
Lineup should look like
RHB FA
LHB FA
Witt
LHB FA
Salvy
Pasquantino
Maikel
Massey
Isbel/whatever
Witts career cannot be wasted by this organization, and they must crack open the checkbook next year.
They'll get Lugo, Ragans, Singer and Marsh back next year. Wacha has a player option but I would imagine he'll decline and go for a bigger deal given the season he's had. Lorenzen is a free agent.
All the midseason pickups are free agents, DeJong, Pham, Grossman and Gurriel. Adam Frazier has a club option for $8.5 mil that I would be stunned if the Royals picked up. Renfroe also has a player option that he'll probably decline and hit free agency again.
The Royals were also on the hook for $18.5 mil for Hunter Dozier and Jordan Lyles this year. They'll have money they can spend if they want but they also have a lot of spots to fill. Particularly in the bullpen and corner OF spots. [Reply]