The Royals and Alex Gordon agreed to a one-year deal for 2011, avoiding arbitration, the team announced. Gordon made $1.15MM last year in his first campaign as an arbitration eligible player.
Gordon, the second overall pick in the 2005 draft, transitioned to the outfield last year after spending his entire career as a corner infielder. The 26-year-old hit .215/.315/.355 with eight homers in 281 plate appearances in 2010, so it seems unlikely that he got more than a token raise from the Royals.
Billy Butler, Kyle Davies and Rob Tejeda are Kansas City's remaining unsigned arbitration-eligible players, as MLBTR's Arbitration Tracker shows.
Now, trade him to the Jays.
What a waste of a #2 pick.
I hope this means that Gordon will get a legitimate shot at starting again. There’s little chance that he’ll be a star, but he deserves better than another trip to Omaha or a seat on the bench.
…especially when the other starting options are Mitch Maier, Frenchy, and Melky Cabrera.
I really thought by this point that someone would have pried him away from the Royals to see how he’d do with a change of scenery.
This guy’s career shows how difficult it is to project or get excited about having 1st round draft picks. He was the second overall pick in first round of the 2005 draft.
KC picked him ahead of Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Braun, Matt Garza, Justin Upton, Clay Buchholz at Jay Bruce and in 2010 he was still in the minor leagues.
Well to be fair, the Royals could not get Justin Upton but the rest is true.
Actually, it shows the Royals penchant for taking “easy to sign” players with their draft picks instead of the best players available. I agree their farm system is great…but, as good as it is, it COULD be even better if they’d just quit doing that.
He was easy to sign? Didn’t negotiations go into September? And if memory serves, he was the consensus No. 2 pick on virtually all draft boards. It’s not like many were predicting Tulo, et al., would be better.
Actually, Gordon was the consensus best player available at the time. There wasn’t anything “easy” about taking him with the pick. He’s just a case study in how there is never such a thing as a ‘sure deal’.
Gordon did make it to the show in 2007 and stuck there in 2008 before injuries derailed his career. He’s been in limbo ever since — his consistent dominance of AAA pitching shows that he has little (if anything) left to learn in the minors, but the Royals haven’t been willing to give him significant playing time in the majors. It doesn’t help that he gets hurt every year.
add ricky romero to that list
real quality lefty in a young jays rotation in the AL Beast for the last 2 years
this kid clearly has the tools to be a superstar and thats why these guys are drafted so high but so of them (starting to look like gordon) turn into busts
While draft picks aren’t a surefire thing, most talent evaluators known what they are doing. It’s not like they spin a roulette wheel to see who they are going to take.
Yes, there are examples like this, but i’d like to see the statistic that shows 1st round pick success rate compared to 2nd round pick success rate. That would be a MUCH better way of seeing exactly how valuable 1st round picks are.
Rob Tejeda? Seriously?
Also, “they picked him ahead of…” arguments are stupid.