1:03pm: The Royals have added Gee to the 40-man, meaning he’ll stay in Kansas City, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com tweets. Roster space was created by moving Mike Minor to the 60-day DL.
10:08am: Righty Dillon Gee has informed the Royals that he will opt out of his minor league deal with the club if he is not added to the 40-man roster, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation reports (Twitter links). By operation of that contract clause, Kansas City will have 48 hours (beginning at midnight tonight) to decide whether to add Gee to its 40-man roster or instead allow him to return to the open market.
The Royals would be committing to a reported $2MM salary if Gee is given a roster spot. His deal also calls for incentives, the value of which depend upon whether he is used as a starter or reliever. The veteran reportedly turned down major league offers from other organizations in hopes of joining the defending World Series champs.
Gee, who’ll soon turn 30, is looking for a bounceback season after a rough 2015. He didn’t appear in the majors with the Mets after allowing 26 earned runs over his first 39 2/3 innings, as the club turned to younger options. Gee went on to throw 105 minor league frames, posting a 4.11 ERA.
Of course, he’s done a good bit more in the past and looks to be a nice back-end rotation or swingman option for the right team. All told, Gee has thrown 679 1/3 innings in the majors, working to a 4.03 ERA with 6.5 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9. And he’s shown well early on this spring, allowing one earned run on five hits and two walks (against three strikeouts) in his five innings of action.
Gee is a nice little pitcher. I’d sign him to an MiLB deal if I were the Red Sox. Not a bad guy to have down in Pawtucket in case we have injuries in our rotation. He’d fit well as out #7/8 starter,
I’m not sure if I would want him on the sox. If he were to take a milb deal, maybe, but I’m certainly not adding him to the 40-man. Who would you dfa to add him?
You’re right, he would fit in with Bostons plan to load up with below average starting pitchers
Looks like another good Braves piece. Rebuild your stock on a team that is not expected to be great.
Alternate headline: Royals inform Dillon Gee they hope he enjoys Changwon (or alternate KBL city of your choice).
March 15 is a brutal time to try and find someone willing to give you a 40 man roster spot, and if he can’t get that, he’s just back in the same situation with another organization that’s not going to give him as much of a guarantee on the big league side of the deal.
Even a team like Colorado, that’s show interest in him in the past won’t be inclined at this point. Not with roster juggling and a healthy crop off 40 man ready prospects of their own. I suppose his gamble is that some teams have pitchers go down and need the vet arm. But KC doesn’t need 2m sitting in Omaha right now.
Halos could use him given the state of Weaver and Wilson. Would be interesting to know whether other teams inform his agent of their interest?
Is that tampering? He’s technically not a free agent.
Yeah, it would be tampering until he is released.
Actual footage of Dayton Moore’s reaction to Gee informing him of this;
youtu.be/txuWGoZF3ew
Doesn’t he have to be put onto the 25 man roster before he gets the 2 million?
I’m not exactly sure how it works, but my sense is that he’d essentially be given a guaranteed contract if added to the 40-man at this point. At a minimum, they’d be giving him a MLB contract of some kind. The Rockies did this last winter with John Axford, actually.
The purpose of the provision, after all, is to give Gee protection since he apparently bypassed MLB offers — it’s an earlier opt out than is usual, and there is no 25-man roster yet. So, for him to get the assurances he’d be after, he’d have to get at least some kind of guarantee by sticking with the club. Otherwise, they could just add him and then cut him loose later, in theory.
The place the Royals find themselves now. In the past they couldn’t attract pitchers of Gees quality to slot in at #2. Now they have them taking turning down other guaranteed deals to try and catch on with them as 5 starters or long relievers. Some team will snap Gee up in a hurry. He’s pretty solid in the back end if that 2m is essentially rolled over in a new contract someplace. Someone mention the Angels, that seems logical. They have the need and not a wealth of prospects jamming the 40 man. I always toss Colorado in the mix, but they do have some interesting prospects.
It’s still KC. Look what they had to pay Ian Kennedy to slot in at #2.
Dayton Moore does have some interesting mlb roster building techniques, that’s for sure. They’d better not scream poverty when the time comes that a few mil needs to be added to close an essential deal…cause he leaks petty cash in overpays. They likely have atleast one solid player in cash value wrapped up in contractual overpays.
As a Mets fan I am not at all pleased with how the Mets handled Dillon at the end of his tenure there. I actually hope he pitches against them and does some damage.
As a Mets fan Dillon was a solid pitcher. They sent him down and I think his poor numbers was morale. I think he will be a solid 4-5 in any rotation.