For the Royals, replacing Eric Hosmer likely won’t mean paying another veteran significant dollars to line up at first base. As Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star writes, the current expectation is that Logan Morrison is an “unlikely” target. GM Dayton Moore tells Dodd that while the organization has long “admired” Morrison’s ability, the “economic part of it … is very real to us.”
It also does not seem that the Royals will pivot from Hosmer to fellow former K.C. star Mike Moustakas. Dodd runs down some of the team’s internal options at the infield corners and the organization’s current thinking as it bids adieu to Hosmer. While it’s largely of historical interest at this point, it’s also worth noting a recent report from Robert Murray of Fan Rag suggesting that Kansas City never dangled more than five years and around $100MM to Hosmer. While multiple prior reports had pegged the organization’s interest in the seven-year range, that lesser price point would certainly have left Hosmer with an easier decision.
More from the AL Central…
- Notably, too, the Royals seem inclined to give an opportunity at third base to Cheslor Cuthbert, as MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan writes. GM Dayton Moore says the organization values Cuthbert “a great deal,” though the 25-year-old will need to turn things around after a tepid 2017 season. To be fair, he did miss quite a lot of time due to injuries and hit at close to a league-average rate over 128 MLB games in 2016, when he carried a .274/.318/.413 slash line. Moore also cited Hunter Dozier as a candidate to see action at the corner spots.
- The Twins are still considering additions, it seems, with Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweeting that the organization has “flexibility” remaining despite bringing in a variety of veteran hurlers. Because the team did not end up landing Yu Darvish, there’s still some payroll space left to work with. Certainly, the market still includes some notable pitchers that would no doubt like to see the Minnesota organization make a run at their services. Whether or not the team is willing to extend itself for one of the remaining free-agent starters, though, remains largely unclear at the moment. Jake Arrieta, Alex Cobb and Lance Lynn are the top names left, though each rejected a qualifying offer and is there for attached to draft forfeitures.
- One area of uncertainty entering camp for the Twins is young star Miguel Sano, who is coming off of surgery and was accused recently of assaulting a photographer. MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger has the latest, via Twitter. On the health front, the 24-year-old is said to be “doing baseball activities,” though he will surely be handled with care as things ramp up. In regards to the investigation of the troubling claims leveled against Sano, the league has yet to speak with him. It remains unclear just how that investigation is proceeding and when it will be concluded.
- White Sox slugger Jose Abreu seems comfortable with remaining on hand as the organization continues to bring along its young talent. And he’s even hoping to expand his repertoire as he ages, as James Fegan of The Athletic writes (subscription link). While the post focuses on Abreu’s self-declared intention to begin swiping more bags and a goal of improving defensively, it ultimately delves into the notion that he’s more than a lumbering slugger — and suggests his broader importance to the organization. Fegan notes that manager Rick Renteria routinely effuses praise for Abreu when chatting with the front office about the future of the organization, who has another two years of team control remaining before free agency.
Why does Lynn remain unsigned??? His numbers are consistently good. Id rather have him than yu darvish and a year younger lol
bcuz his peripherals are trending negatively, and he likely wants a lot more than hes worth
he’s asking for a lot for a starter that’s bound to regress, same story with Arieta.
maybe because of soviet meddling
I’m guessing so
Yep, that’s the answer to everything anymore.
I’m also thinking that they’re behind Jeter’s gold gloves too.
Nailed it. They must have put memes on Facebook or something super dubious…
I’m going to assume, based off your avatar, that you don’t want Darvish because of two games.
Would you also prefer Lynn over Kershaw (because of similar reasons)?
Wait, we have avatars?
On the web you do. Not on the app.
Oh yes we do….oh yes we do :)
It’s about the draft pick compensation. The new MLB trend is to get younger with less salary. Signing Lynn gives his original organization a draft pick because technically he had a job he turned down. He wasn’t displaced except by his own agent.
Matt Garza of the market. Has the potential but could easily regress.
The royals were willing to bid for Eric Hosmer, but because of economic problems, won’t offer a contract to LoMo. seems legit.
and Lomo is a local guy, he’d totally take like $5M to play there for a year.
Right? Maybe Moore is playing hard ball.
Absolutely inexcusable MLB has not yet even interviewed Sano yet. He should be in the midst of a lengthy suspension by now. A pox upon Manfried for his utter failure to take timely action.
That easy to say when you’re a Twins fan. I always thought in this country that you’re innocent until proven guilty. Do you have the proof?
Nobody will have “proof” when MLB sits on the case for 3+ months.
Maybe Manfred is waiting to see how it plays out in the criminal justice system first. If this reporter drops it for whatever reason then maybe Sano doesn’t need to get talked to by MLB
Then he should issue a statement saying as much. Absent that, he’s making a very clear non-verbal statement that MLB does not consider this matter any sort of priority.
At this point, it is an unsubstantiated allegation. How much of a priority should it be?
Nobody will have proof 3+ months later so they need to get on it…? Did you happen to notice when the incident supposedly took place?
Nobody will have “proof” if this happened in 2015, and don’t say anything until late 2017.
Yes, they need to get on it. MLB owes it to potential victims and the accused to conduct a timely investigation, and either punish or clear the player. No excuse for it having gone on this long without even interviewing the accused to get their side of it.
If you think there wouldn’t be much proof left after 3 months, what do you think would be left after 2 and a half years? Anyway, maybe what Cubguy said is right. Maybe Manfred is waiting to see if how it goes in court first, or if the person drops the case, before dealing out any punishment.
With something like this, if the investigation starts more than a couple hours after the incident happened it isn’t timely anymore. And honestly probably three quarters of your useful eyewitness testimony has withered away within 15 minutes if you don’t put concerted effort into getting your story down. Human beings are good at a lot of things but being an accurate eyewitness is not one of them. It’s quite likely that just because of the way the brain remembers things, Sano barely remembers what happened and the accuser has greatly exaggerated what happened.
How in the hell does being a twins fan make that easy to say? That makes zero sense. Why the hell would a twins fan want one of their best players to be off the field more than say an Indians fan?
Cuz the twins fan is assuming that Sano is suspended no matter what I think so in his head, Sano should be serving his inevitable suspension currently instead of it coming after the season starts
Interesting… you’re assuming what I’m assuming? Obviously any suspension would apply to MLB games. It doesn’t matter if it starts now or a month ago, it’d be an X game suspension either way.
Really? Cuz you said he would be in the midst of a suspension right now so tell me exactly how he would be in the middle of a suspension if the suspension doesn’t actually start until the season does? Yeah I was assuming you weren’t as dumb as your comment made you seem. Sorry, I was wrong. I won’t assume that again
Class act, all the way. Bravo.
I admitted I was wrong, what more do you want
What if he didn’t do it?
We’ll never know when MLB drags their feet on investigating, will we.
If its an ongoing police investigation, MLB should stay out of the way and let it play out. It is not their place to interfere.
There is no police investigation.
I guess we don’t know because MLB won’t investigate the matter
Why should he be suspended? Nothing has been confirmed. You can’t just suspend someone because they’re accused. Can’t suspend someone when there hasn’t even been an investigation yet. Yes there should be one and it should have happened already but you can’t suspend him just for being accused
What’s lacking in most investigations these days is advice from internet commenters
Is Borass that stubborn with arietta? Cub gave them opportunity to match Yu D before he finally agreed. If that contract doesn’t set the market for SP? I’d be very worried if I was Arieta
Yes, because Boras makes the final decision on what offer is accepted, not his client…
Well Boras certainly has a lot of influence on his players accepting or not. That is what they are paying him for. Sure Arrieta can just say take it but its not like Boras said hey Jake here is the offer what do you want to do
You gotta hate Borass but if it was my dough that’s another opinion. Too many huge market FA bidding type teams, yanks tigers rangers angels dodgers etc were not bidding against each other so bad offseason for FA contracts. Not saying Hahn and White Sox started trend of trading vets for prospects last year but they are certainly way out ahead of others that may be trying to start to do same thing.
Jake’s an outcast overachiever; anybody who signs him will regret it. Abreu should get an extension & Avi needs to stay, dude plays the game the way it supposed to be played those 2 need to be around to tutor. Hahn needs to scoop up Corey Dickerson off waivers now. $6 mil for a potential allstar OF is a steal, we have one mlb starter IN OF Avi. You can keep my baby but i know that you cant keep her long cuz I got a new way o’ lovin that a nobody else can catch on
Agree on Dickerson . I believe sat is deadline if he goes unclaimed he’s a free agent . If claimed before then you need to agree on compensation and who pays his salary?
If the Royals cant pay LoMo $5M MLB should find them new owners. He’s from there, of course he’ll take a tiny deal to play at home.
My take on lomo is he is a huge bargain from what rsox paid Martinez and his value production wise can be close to what Martinez offers since lomo can play defense where JDM is a glorified DH