The Royals announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Trevor Rosenthal and designated lefty Eric Skoglund for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
As noted here at MLBTR earlier this morning, the Royals organization has been weighing how to handle the March 26 opt-out dates that were negotiated into the minor league contracts of Rosenthal and fellow righty Greg Holland. Several other clubs have agreed to push opt-out dates back until exhibition play resumes, although in Rosenthal’s case, it seems his strong spring showing was impressive enough that Kansas City opted to add him to the roster right now rather than risk him triggering the preexisting clause.
By having his contract selected, Rosenthal will lock in a reported $2MM base salary. The Scott Boras client’s deal was also reported to come with an additional $2.25MM via performance bonuses.
Rosenthal was lights out prior to the spring shutdown, hurling five shutout innings with just three hits allowed. Most importantly, he didn’t issue a walk and punched out nine hitters. For a once-elite reliever who missed 2018 due to Tommy John surgery and saw his control completely evaporate in 2019 — 42 walks, nine hit batters in 30 1/3 innings between the big leagues and the minors — that lack of free passes was a particularly heartening development. Of course, incoming Royals skipper Mike Matheny is plenty familiar with what Rosenthal brings to the table when at his best; Matheny was Rosenthal’s skipper for the hard-throwing righty’s peak seasons in St. Louis.
Skoglund, 27, has appeared in 27 games for the Royals across the past three seasons but hasn’t found much success in the Majors. In 109 innings at the big league level, Skoglund has a 6.61 ERA with 5.5 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and 1.6 HR/9 along the way. The southpaw was solid in his first run through the Triple-A level back in 2017 — 4.11 ERA, 9.1 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 in 100 1/3 frames — but he’s struggled in his past two seasons with the Royals’ top affiliate in Omaha as well. Overall, Skoglund has a 4.87 ERA and a 151-to-46 K/BB ratio in 172 Triple-A innings.
The Royals still have a decision to make on Holland — who starred in the Kansas City bullpen during the club’s renaissance several years back. Like Rosenthal, Holland has seen his career take a turn for the worse following Tommy John surgery and that procedure’s arduous rehab process, but he’s looked solid in his own right during Cactus League play; in six innings he’s surrendered three runs but just five hits and a walk while racking up eight strikeouts.
Matheny broke him once…
He’s damaged goods, much like Matheny.
You guys are correct!!! I hope Mathaney has changed!!! He over used Rosenthal so much, down the stretch, Rosenthal blew out his arm and couldn’t throw strikes.
I highly doubt Matheny has changed. Good luck with your new manager.
impeccable timing
I hate Coronavirus for making my life boring.
oh please…
Yep thats the big catastrophe in all of this. You’re a little bored
Wish I could backhand you
Skogs always has decent potential , let a team like the pirates or orioles look at him . He just never looked comfortable at Kauffman
I’ve never heard of a pitcher who didn’t look comfortable at Kaufman stadium looking good in the ALE pitching at Oriole Park
Nope, he’s a foreign player fill in for any of the KBO, NPB or CPBL. Most likely for the CPBL or KBO as he’s probably not good enough for the NPB.
To be fair his sample size is pretty small , I bet one ML team takes a look at him
Rosenthal? Sounds like a Doctor who preforms TJ surgery.
Skoglund? Wasn’t he suspended 80 games last year?
Yes, for testing positive for a performance enhancing drug. He probably could have avoided the suspension if he had requested a hearing and simply leaned into the microphone and said, in his best Al Pacino voice, “But gentlemen, that’s rather impossible. I challenge any of you to point out anything about my performance that was even remotely enhanced!” There would be some murmuring and a couple gavels would strike down and Mr. Manfred would walk across the table to the mic and say, “I just looked and it appears you took performance dehancers! My god, you’re terrible. No suspension, you have proven your case!” The crowd would cheer and Skogs would yell “Hoo-Ah!” and somewhere Ned Yost would have said, “Sh*t, they didn’t suspend him!”
I’m going crazy on day 7 of my quarantine. My apologies if that overly long joke wasn’t even close to funny, and I’m pretty sure that’s the case lol.
You are correct. Maybe take a walk and get some sunshine – while maintaining social distancing.
You ain’t real familiar with the word “quarantine,” are you?
But good use of the term “social distancing,” which you’ve likely been experiencing since long before it had a name. Because everyone knows how important social distancing is in quarantine! Almost as important as taking walks while enjoying the sunshine!
Some real pearls of advice there, Dr. Phil…
Rosenthal was very good at one time. I think part of his problem was his lack of pitches: fastball and change up. Then he lost practically all the movement he had on his fastball. Right down the middle with no movement and got lit up like a Christmas tree. He still had good velocity (95-100mph) but good hitters had no problem catching up with it.