The Royals have inked veteran first baseman Lucas Duda to a minor-league deal, per a club announcement. He had been cut loose recently by the Twins.
Duda, 33, played with Kansas City last year. Though he failed to return to his prior levels of output, he turned in a nearly league-average slash line (.241/.313/.418) and obviously left a good impression before he was traded late in the year to the Braves.
In 3,462 plate appearances with the Mets, the left-handed-hitting slugger put up a strong .246/.343/.457 output and knocked 125 home runs. He was a substantially above-average bat as recently as the middle of the 2017 campaign.
While things have turned south since, Duda still seems a reasonable candidate to reemerge as a quality option against right-handed pitching. That said, it’s tough to see where he fits on a Kansas City roster that features another left-handed-hitting first baseman in Ryan O’Hearn.
Veteran low cost. Good deal for the Royals.
Either someone is hurt, or Dayton is just trying to give a nice guy a job.
He did help them win the WS.
ouch.
Frank Schwindel’s latest substandard roadblock.
Every body sing that song… duda, duda.
Duda duda day.
Makes little sense. If your young 1b was rh, then sure. These are wasted at bats. No one is trading for Duda at the deadline. Hard to believe he played 140 games only once his whole career.
We traded Duda mid season last year. Not sure why we couldn’t do it again.
But the move doesn’t make much sense unless someone is hurt.
I’m kind of surprised they didn’t do this with Gattis about three weeks ago. I think they might be the only team in the league where he makes sense.
Adding to the scrap pile
Why in the world would KC sign Duda?
Good luck Dude!
I imagine he can help sell tickets in KC.
Good luck to him in any event.
De camptown lady??
A good sign that his career is over
It’s a minor league deal, he’s not blocking Ohearn or Schwindel, he’s just insurance in case someone gets hurt.
He’ll be in AAA alongside, and I promise I’m not lying, Andy LaRoche. Who apparently they signed last year after he hadn’t been playing since 2015. Two days after signing he was on the DL for the season, without having appeared in a game.
This was a procedural move. He was there in a coaching capacity.
Sell tickets in KC? They could care less about another former Mets has been. That is LAUGHABLE.
The Duda abides.
Why WHY WHY???? OHearn and Swindle are so much better.why waste any money on a washed up has been or never was????
Minor league signing.