The Royals face four contractual options after the season:
- Right fielder David DeJesus has a $6MM club option with a $500K buyout. DeJesus continues to do his thing, and it'll make sense to exercise.
- Reliever Kyle Farnsworth has a $5.25MM club option with a $500K buyout. Farnsworth can void the option if traded, but it's a moot point since it'll surely be declined.
- Center fielder Rick Ankiel has a $6MM mutual option with a $500K buyout. It seems unlikely that both sides exercise.
- Left fielder Scott Podsednik has a $2MM club option with a $100K buyout. He's cooled down in the last few weeks. It's too early to call the option.
The Royals also have four free agents in Jose Guillen, Willie Bloomquist, John Parrish, and Bruce Chen. They're earning a total of $14.7MM this year. Take another $6.25MM off the books for Farnsworth and Ankiel and $4.85MM for buyouts the Royals won't be paying in '11, and the team has $25.8MM coming off the books.
Increases to players under contract total $11.4MM, assuming DeJesus and Podsednik are retained. Zack Greinke has the biggest raise at $6.25MM. First-time arbitration-eligibles include Luke Hochevar, Josh Rupe, Billy Butler, Alberto Callaspo, Brayan Pena, and Josh Fields. Robinson Tejeda and Alex Gordon would go for a second time, while Brian Bannister, Kyle Davies, and Brad Thompson could go for a third. A good portion of the remaining freed up cash will go to arbitration-eligible players, especially Butler, Callaspo, and Bannister.
If the Royals decline their options on Farnsworth and Ankiel and let their other free agents go while holding payroll steady, they may have a few million left to work with after giving raises. Significant free agent spending would require a payroll increase.
Thanks to Cot's Baseball Contracts for the info.
Definitely exercise the DeJesus option, he’s good trade bait even if he doesn’t fit onto their roster. He’s a really solid player.
I’d decline the other three options and let everybody walk.
Frankly, I almost feel like it’s silly to sit around, talk about, and speculate on what the Royals might do. Because in the end, as long as Dayton Moore is at the helm, they’re probably screwed no matter what.
You can’t succeed just by drafting well for a few years, if pretty much every other part of your organization is broken.
Im glad they are going to finally free up their dead weight in Guillen, Farnsworth and bloomy. However it scares me to think what Dayton is going to do with roughly 10-15 million. At this point the royals just need to ride out their young guys and bank on a couple minor league signees instead of wasting money. Its proven that if you struggle with young guys they will eventaully learn. As bad as it sounds Dayton almost makes me wish for the days of Allard Baird…
We won’t have 10-15 Million. We will probably have about 5-7ish Million, if we are lucky. Frankly, the less money we have to spend, the better off we are. Dayton can’t make dumb signings if he has no money.
You forgot the 3.75 million they won’t be paying Juan Cruz to sit on his couch as well.
Throwing that in, and guessing they non tender Josh Fields, Brian Anderson, and taking Roman Colon off the books, they will have around $8 million leftover. Of course, I am just guesstimating the arbitration figures for the guys they figure to keep.
More money would be freed up if they decide to non-tender Robinson Tejeda and/or Alex Gordon as well. But those are decisions I don’t think they’ll make.
I completely agree with the post above – the less payroll we have to play with, the better, as this will finally allow so many guys to play. And that’s the best way to determine if they are worth anything – by exposing them to mlb pitching, etc. Allowing gmdm to pick up a mid 30s FA will only block someone who should be given a chance.
It seriously cannot be any worse than what we have now. And I’m not even trying to sound pessimistic – it really can’t.
Nope. Like Buddy Bell said, “It can always get worse.”
Let’s assume that Kila Ka’aihue gets traded for a toolsy outfielder in the upcoming months (to place a name, let’s say Greg Halman). Mike Aviles seems on his way to make a good comeback, so the team can non-tender/relase Yuniesky Betancourt. Trading Alex Gordon for pitching help (an Alex Gordon for Glen Perkins deal would get rid of one problem per organization while addressing a need) and extending some of the players they already have, the Royals could come up with a very nice squad for 2011:
SS M. Aviles
RF D. DeJesus
3B A. Callaspo
1B/DH B. Butler
DH/1B Free Agent
CF Free Agent / G. Halman
LF Free Agent
C J. Kendall
2B C. Getz
Rotation:
Greinke
Perkins
Meche or a new Free Agent
Bannister
Hochevar
(Non tendering Kyle Davies and trading Meche if any takers appear)
and the Bullpen totally reconstructed using Soria as the only base.
Yeah, I know, it doesn’t look much better than this year’s team, but it could end up being addition by subtraction in many positions for the Royals.