The Royals have signed hard-throwing right-hander Trevor Rosenthal to a minor league deal, per Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star. The deal will pay the 29-year-old $2MM if he makes the team with an additional $2.25MM in performance bonuses, per Worthy. Additionally, Rosenthal will be a non-roster invite to MLB spring training.
Rosenthal famously endured one of the more disappointing 2019 seasons league-wide after signing for $8MM guaranteed with the eventual World Champion Washington Nationals. That the Nats had to come from so far behind in the standings was at least partially attributable to the complete backfiring of their offseason bullpen makeover, which was largely dependent on Rosenthal and Kyle Barraclough soaking up the 7th and 8th innings. Neither pitcher finished the season with the Nats.
Rosenthal finished in DC with a 22.74 ERA across 12 appearances before signing a minor league deal with the Tigers. The Tigers released him after 10 ML appearances with a 7.00 ERA, after which he signed another minor league deal with the Yankees to finish out the year.
That said, his stuff remains electric, and if the Royals can help him find the strike zone again, he could once again become a valuable piece of a bullpen. If you’re looking for signs of positive regression, this will be Rosenthal’s second full season since elbow issues cost him all of 2018, he still averaged a clean 98.0 mph on his fastball, and in Kansas City, he will be reunited with manager Mike Matheny, under whom he’d played his whole career prior to 2019. Last year’s atrocity included, Rosenthal boasts a career 3.46 ERA/2.79 FIP in 350 big league games with 12.0 K/9 and 121 career saves.
Surprised that a contending team didn’t offer him a minor league deal. Good decision KC.
OMG. This is great. He is gonna go right back to the manager that destroyed his arm in the first place. Maybe Matheny felt responsible and wanted to throw Rosenthal a bone because he knows it’s his fault Trevor’s career is ruined.
Maybe he likes pain
It’s not Matheny fault that he blew out his arm. When you throw that hard, you’re bound to blow out your arm. So I’m guessing Shildt is the reason Jordan Hicks blew out his arm huh? Gtfoh
It’s partially his fault.
1st 3 seasons in the mlb he pitched in 75 72 68 games. He was overworked early on in his young career. A kid coming up throwing heat at 23 and being heavily used it was inevitable his arm would get hurt. Same thing happened to hicks. Last year appeared in 75 games at 21.
Yeah it’s partially a coaches fault for calling on them too much.
What? 75 games? That is a lot for a reliever.
So yeah, 73 appearances but 77.2 innings for 3.59 ERA. I don’t get use of someone so young and not super effective for so many innings.
You also have to consider that Matheny would overuse him in games where it didn’t even matter. I can’t even remember how many times Matheny put Rosenthal out there to pitch for the third day in a row when the game was already basically over. The real sad thing was that there were always several guys in the pen that hadn’t pitched in days. He could have easily reduced Ronesthals innings total by at least 10+ innings every single year without effecting the Cardinals record one bit. There’s no reason to bring your young powers pitching closer out for the third day in a row late in a 5 run game. That’s exactly when you should be giving the question mark bullpen guys a chance.
The Cardinals as a whole blew out Hicks arm. 21 year old with no experience above A ball and you rush him up to make him the closer before he can fully gain innings and work in lower stress games.
The idea that Matheny ruined Rosenthal’s arm is a tired one.
It’s not just that he pitched in a lot of games, but there were too many times he pitched on three consecutive nights. I realize a manager feels caught between a rock and a hard place when you don’t have confidence in your other options and every game is important, but he was over-extended. Power pitchers just don’t seem to have that rubber arm that is conducive to back-to-back-to-back appearances..
Matheny is a “tired” manager as well. Tired above the shoulders.
It’s actually a smart move to prioritize going to a team that is more likely to call him up and give him a shot (and pay him a major league salary) rather than signing with a contending team. If he does well then they’ll trade him to a contending team, benefitting both him and the Royals
This move is clearly in hopes he turns things around for a deadline trade.
So long as he throws as hard as he does, some pitching coach will think he can get him to throw strikes. Not likely to succeed.
Mauricio Cabrera was another guy who threw upper 90’s but couldn’t get it in the strike zone.
Chicks dig guys who get it in there.
Royals sign Matt Adams and Michael Wacha and trade for Matt Carpenter tomarow
And also sign Shelby Miller to be their ace, as they believe in his potential when he was with St. Louis despite struggling mightily after getting traded to Arizona.
Wouldn’t surprise me at all.
Please take matt carpenter take back Danny Duffy to even out money.
Duffy is younger and would be much more valuable being a capable starter at worst compared to Carpenter which presently looks like a sunk cost
Carp is a sunk cost hope I’m wrong
Carpenter’s swing is such a finicky thing. Even when he had great years, there would be a month or two where he’s horrible, then finds his groove. He just never found it at all last year, but I think it’s less about age and more about his finicky swing.
I hope he finds whatever caused the issue last year.
Love this move. Flops and nobody cares, hits and we flip him for assets in July. Keep’em coming.
Just take Carpenter
Nice move by KC. I’d be willing to bet he ends up being their closer by May 1st and their lone All-star representative. With that velocity and a tweak or two to his mechanics, I think he can rebound nicely. This reminds me of the Boxberger signing from last off-season. Obviously that failed, but I’m a little more bullish on Rosenthal.
Kennedy was pretty acceptable as a closer for us last year and I think the Royals would value being able to flip his contract at the deadline.
So I think May 1st is unlikely. But I think mid July is much more a possibility.
You’d bet on him being an All-Star over Merrifield or Soler? I’d happily take that bet.
If Jorge Soler, Whit Merrifield, or Mondesi arent the Royals rep at the ASG then something went really wrong. Besides…wheres all the Royals fans now stuffing the ballot box?
I would not call it a “nice move”. After signing with the Yankees he pitched one game for their AAA club. He recorded 1 out, gave up 4 runs and walked 3 while striking out no one. He might be done.
There’s really no harm in a team like the Royals signing anyone to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. Especially someone with a history of success. I remember there being speculation that he rushed back to the tryout too soon. Maybe a normal offseason will be a benefit. I’ve bashed Moore for his dumpster dives the last few years but I’m actually glad to see this one.
2 million seems like a lot. He might show some promise in spring training and then completely be a bust for 2 million. I believe that’s what happened last season with Nats. It is not like he was amazing with Tigers. I am not a Royals fan but I don’t approve this move.
I hear Matheny is pushing for a Fowler reunion!
I’ve hoped they would sign him since Washington cut him loose. But…I agree that $2M for making the team sounds a little steep. Moore comes up with some weird contracts (that usually come back to bite him) but it’s possible Rosenthal had more than one offer and that’s what it took. Will be interesting to watch.
Whit Merrifields contract is a steal
Name five contracts that have “come back to bite him.” I’ll spot you Ian Kennedy and Alex Gordon.
I’m rooting for Trevor. It was painful watching him last year. Hope he gets it together.
He was also terrible with 3 different teams in the minors last year – over 1 hit, run, walk and k per nine. I’m sure there is a player we’ve never heard of who could do better
Did he get a partial World Series share?
Don’t know about that but he should get it and a ring for helping Nationals write the narrative that they wrote. Without him, Nationals aren’t 19-31 on May 23rd. Haha!
I really don’t feel too bad for him. Last year he made $8 million and got a ring. Not to shabby
26 walks in 15 innings. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ERA that high with that many innings. And no HR allowed. He was so bad in DC that her actually had to pay into the playoff money.
Would’ve liked Texas to take a shot here
This dude is washed up already. Minor league deal to see if he has anything left is fine but he won’t make it.