The Royals have been in contact with right-hander Ervin Santana, who “is said to be very receptive to a return,” CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman reports. Santana is a fan of Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland, among others in the K.C. organization.
After a tough 2012 season with the Angels, it was a move to Kansas City in 2013 that revived Santana’s career. He posted a 3.24 ERA and 3.16 K/BB rate in 211 innings for the Royals that season, though thanks to a qualifying offer tag and perhaps some unrealistic expectations in free agency, Santana had to settle for a one-year deal with the Braves for 2014.
Santana is seeking a five-year contract this winter, Heyman reports, and the righty has more of an argument for that long a commitment given his strong performance with Atlanta. Since he rejected the Braves’ qualifying offer, the team that signed Santana would have to give up a 2015 draft pick — in the Royals’ case, it would cost them the 24th overall selection. That said, since James Shields also rejected his QO and seems likely to sign elsewhere, the Royals will receive a compensation pick between the first and second rounds.
Essentially, signing Santana would cost the Royals a drop of roughly ten spots or so in the 2015 draft, which the club might decide is worth it to reinforce the rotation. MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes projected Santana for a four-year, $56MM deal, which would normally seem steep for the Royals, yet I suspect they could be willing to spend a bit more freely this winter in the wake of their great postseason performance.
4/$56M would be the largest contract in Royals history… for Ervin Santana
Maybe it’s a chemistry match…maybe it’s half the contract the top end will get…still doesn’t excite me. Looks like the Royals are aiming at emphasizing the bullpen again…
wow!
Would be a nice replacement for Small-Game James.
nothing against santana, but i don’t see how a guy with one good year out of the last three, with a lifetime era+ of 99, and 16.9 WAR in a ten year career, merits a five year 66-70m contract (i’m just adding a year to Tim’s forecast)
I agree but the price of starting pitching is just getting more and more ridiculous every off season, to the point where it seems as though any FA starter with mediocre stats are making at least 10MM per season…I actually think Tim’s 4-year, 56MM is relatively fair for a guy like Santana
How much is Jake Peavy going to get? And how much more valuable to the Royals would Santana be than Peavy.
Stat comparisons are one thing…likelihood they can sign any given pitcher is another. Santana might be interested, where Peavy is not.
I could easily see Peavy getting at least the Tim Hudson contract at 2/23, but a lot of teams are looking for starting pitching depth so I bet he gets closer to 3/34, IMO
He will pitch 85% of Shields innings and do it at a much lower salary. The Royals will miss the leadership, but those guys know how to win now. I felt either he would go back there (that big park and the defense – particularly the OF defense – helped make him a lot more of a consistent pitcher then he was in Anaheim). I figured that he or a year of Bartolo Colon would be the Royals top 2 choices to get a veteran, inning eating starter.
It was a wild ride with santana this year. He started off on fire then cooled off and it went like that all year. Ultimately i think he was a good pick up and a pleasure to watch play and listen to in interviews. I had known of him peripherally, mostly when he was an angel, but he made me a dedicated fan of his going forward.
Seems it would be a perfect scenario for KC (terms of just a small drop in the draft, similar innings eater)
I’d love to have him back I wish we could’ve kept him over Vargas. We’ll be losing Shields and Santana did a damn good job here no reason why he couldn’t return and help us get to the playoffs again! LOL.. Did I just say that being a Royals fan! Damn what a Ride that was!!