With Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar all hitting free agency, this offseason will mark the end of an era in Royals history. Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star looks back at those players’ most memorable moments with the team, and as you might expect, those moments line up with the Royals’ postseason runs in 2014 and 2015. It’s unclear how many of the free agents, if any, will be back in K.C. next season; over 39% of respondents in a recent poll of MLBTR readers felt that Hosmer, Cain and Moustakas will all be playing elsewhere in 2018. Still, there’s no question that the Royals and their fans enjoyed some wonderful memories with this core group or stars, highlighted by the 2015 World Series title.
Some more from around the AL Central…
- The rebuilding White Sox face several pros and cons about potentially dealing Jose Abreu, CSN Chicago’s Dan Hayes writes. Abreu’s trade value is high in the wake of an excellent season, and since he turns 31 in January and is only controlled through the 2019 season, it isn’t clear if he’ll be still around or still productive when the Sox are again contenders. On the other hand, Abreu is a respected clubhouse mentor (an important role for such a young team) and he keeps in excellent shape, so he could ward off the usual decline that hits players as they get into their 30s.
- 2017 has been a struggle for ByungHo Park, who spent the entire season in the minors. While Park has yet to deliver on his four-year, $12MM contract, Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey tells Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press that “we have every expectation he’ll remain at this point” rather than explore a return to South Korean baseball. In fact, Park will be spending much of the offseason in North America, working out at the Twins’ facilities. The first baseman posted a .684 OPS over 244 plate appearances for the Twins in 2016, then hit .253/.308/.415 with 14 homers over 455 PA for Triple-A Rochester this season. Despite these struggles and some injuries, Park has dealt with his situation “incredibly professionally,” Falvey said.
If I were Rick Hahn, I wouldn’t try to move Abreu just yet. Now if another GM approached me with some offer I couldn’t refuse I’d have to take it I suppose. I just don’t see many teams looking for first baseman this off-season. He is a good ballplayer but even if someone wants him, I don’t see them offering a huge return.
Konerko wasn’t exactly a ‘spring chicken’ when he led the Sox to our Series win. Whether by design or accident he was our de-facto leader. A power hitting first baseman with league average defensive skills and a tendency to NOT make mistakes. Sound like anyone we know? Abreu is the right fit for right now.. It ain’t broken…don’t ‘fix’ it. (And keep Kenny Williams out of the room…dude would trade his grandmother for a 45 year old lefty specialist)
Konerko was 29. You’re making it sound like he was much older.
Didn’t mean to give that impression. He’s just got more whiskers than the rest… Right now if the team went out for a few beers after a game they’d all get carded. I’m saying Jose’s a stabilizing element and someone with his demeanor is really a huge positive presence just like PK was. It also looks as though he’s grown into that role with class.
… and a lefty specialist does sound more valuable than a grandmother
Isn’t Abreu exactly the kind of “middle of the order” bat St Louis is looking for?
No. He is exactly like several of the bats they currently have in the middle of the order. Good, but nothing exceptional.
So last 4 years he has a .301 batting average, never hit less than 25 home runs, never has had less than 100 rbi, and has a 16.9 WAR over that time. That’s not exceptional?
Uhhh…. no
Not quite…St. Louis has several guys that can hit for power, but those same guys also strike out at a high clip, have pretty low OBP’s, and they also don’t hit for a very high average.
Most people, who aren’t very familiar with Abreu, or those who do not get to see Abreu very often, for whatever reason, they tend to see Abreu as one of those same high power, high K, low average guys…When that couldn’t be further from the truth!!
Too often, Abreu does not get the credit nor recognition he deserves..Relatively quietly, Abreu has developed into one of the games better all-around hitters. Jose deserves much more praise and appreciation from analysts and the media outlets for the hard work and excellent job he’s done to get to this point in his career.
Pretty soon, with his undeniable success, Abreu will just simply force more people to take notice. Honestly, I think he is only going to continue to get better and better as he ages over the next 3-4 years. Although, he will probably begin to plateau and hit a wall around year 5 or 6.
Regardless though, I think the White Sox would be truly foolish to let him go. Abreu is a leader for this team, and he can and will set an excellent example for Moncada and the other top prospects coming up through their system. Under his guidance, he can help the younger players tremendously, and with Jose leading by example, the other young kids should follow suit, helping kick-start their turnaround.
Saint Louis has a bunch of dudes that have 20 HR power. I wouldn’t call that impressive considering the amount of HRs being hit around the league.
The Cardinals would be very interested
Carson Kelly for Jose Abreu.
Currently, Abreu is likely worth more to the White Sox on their roster than the return he would bring. I don’t expect Rick Hahn to make a business decision based on sentiment, so imo the White Sox will not make the investment that will be required for Abreu’s age 33-35 or 36 seasons. Abreu is a fine player and I expect him to be on the roster until he is traded sometime during the 2019 season.
Good take. The last point may not occur, however, if they are an early threat in 2019 for a wildcard spot. High class problem if Abreu is needed in such a scenario, but don’t wish to extend before he reaches FA.
Yeah, if Jose Abreu is worth 4+ WAR this year, and predicted to be worth maybe ~6-7 WAR over the next 2 years, then his surplus value is probably ~3.5 WAR. If that’s worth ~30M to teams, then that’s probably about an MLB prospect in the top 33-66 range. That’s generally the top prospect in a bad system, or the 2nd-3rd best prospect in a good system
Would the White Sox trade Jose Abreu for that kind of return? Maybe, if it met the team needs (Catcher, left handed pitcher, etc.) If not, why bother?
So, basically using your method, you’re saying you would trade Jose Abreu to the Braves for Ian Anderson and Kade Scivicque??
No, if they planned on contending in 2019 (Abreu’s last year under contract) they would have kept Chris Sale.
Dummy they plan on contending in 2019 due to the haul received for Sale. That was the first domino to fall in regards to players that were traded, resulting in a blueprint for contention in 2019 and well beyond
Correct, first was Sale, with Eaton coming shortly there afterwards…Both trades combined to set the White Sox up, for a relatively quick turn around, considering they received such a solid group of prospects that were already fairly close to being big-league ready…
2019 should be a very intriguing and especially important year for the White Sox, it’ll be fun to watch and see how everything develops with their rebuild.
It’ll also be fun to see how the other three primary rebuilds are going come 2019. It’ll definitely be a season highlighted and circled twice by the White Sox, Phillies, Padres, and the Braves.
2019 should really be the years these 4 team’s top talents collectively merge together to form each franchises next, hopeful contending team…All 4 teams look like they are on track to meet their projected 2019 deadlines, so it’ll be fun to watch and see which franchise makes the leap to contention first!!
Well “dummy” losing Sale greatly hampers their chances of contending in 2018 and 2019. The idea is that the guys they got for Sale are all controlled well beyond that.
Hindsight being 20/20 the Royals made a big mistake not trading players at the deadline. This will hurt them for many years to come.
I thought that when they believed they were still in contention. It’s unlikely they would have gotten huge hauls for any of their players besides Kelvin Herrera with the lack of market for hitters.
They had the second Wild Card spot at the deadline so you can’t really fault them for not selling. But I probably would have sold anyway if I were them because even if they had held onto that Wild Card spot they probably wouldn’t have made it past the Yankees in the Wild Card game.
Really?? It’s one game, and you don’t know at the deadline who will be pitching, or even healthy for the other team in a one game playoff, nor can you plan on only holding a wild card spot. Cleveland got hot late. First was possible then.