As you might expect, Royals GM Dayton Moore doesn’t accept the conventional wisdom that his club is primed to contend only over the next two seasons. “Sure, it’s important that we maximize our current situation,” Moore tells MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan. “People ask me about [the two-year window] and I say, ’Our window is right now.’ But we feel that way every year now. And that will mean trying to keep our internal players.” Such key stars as Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Wade Davis will all hit free agency after the 2017 season, though Moore said it’s wrong to assume there will be a mass exodus. The Royals will make an effort to re-sign as many of those free agents as they can, Moore said, pointing out that the Royals stepped up to re-sign Alex Gordon this offseason. Even if some players do leave, K.C. hopes to replace them via a strong minor league pipeline to keep the team in perpetual contention. Here’s more from around the AL Central…
- The Royals are still interested in re-signing Greg Holland, Moore tells Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star. There hasn’t been much buzz around Holland this offseason, which isn’t surprising given how the former All-Star closer underwent Tommy John surgery in September. The Royals non-tendered Holland in the wake of that surgery but had interest in bringing him back on a multi-year deal so he’d be ready to pitch for them when he’s healthy in 2017.
- Letting catcher Alex Avila go to the White Sox in free agency made sense from a baseball standpoint for Tigers general manager Al Avila, though it was obviously a tougher personal decision for the elder Avila to part ways with his son, Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today writes. “I miss my son. I wish he was here because I’d get to see him every day,” the GM said. “In fact, last spring training we roomed together. This year I’m by myself. You would think my wife would be here with me today, but she’s actually in Arizona with him and the grandkids. And now I have family members wearing Chicago White Sox gear.”
- The Twins have interest in “several” Cuban free agents, 1500ESPN.com’s Darren Wolfson hears from a source (Twitter link), though high asking prices are an obstacle.
- Fernando Abad’s minor league deal with the Twins will pay him $1.25MM if he makes the Major League roster and he has another $100K available in incentives, as per Wolfson and Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter links).
Ya imagine telling your kid your not good enough to play for my team
It came down to him wanting more allowance. Actually, arbitration just took him up to a rate his performance couldn’t justify. Any team would have made the same decision. It was just made harder by the father-son relationship.
Alex Avila was done with arbitration and was a free agent. He dad simply chose not to pursue him in free agency. Why do so many people think he was non-tendered??
It must of been a hard decision to let his son go but it shows how much he cares about the Tigers