The Royals have signed right-hander Taylor Clarke to a major league contract, reports Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (Twitter link). It’s a $975K deal, per Heyman. Clarke was non-tendered last night by the D-Backs.
The 28-year-old Clarke spent the bulk of last season pitching out of the Arizona bullpen to mostly pedestrian results. Through 43 innings the right-hander sported a 4.98 ERA with below average strikeout and groundball rates. Some of Clarke’s underlying stats may portend a turnaround at the Major League level, however. Among them, a .350 BABIP was well above the league average, indicating some poor batted ball luck. Clarke’s FIP too stood at just 3.54, indicating his bottom-line results may slide closer to respectability with more reps.
For just a 6-digit investment the Royals have little to lose by taking a chance on Clarke. In fact, if the right-hander proves to be anything close to a league average arm this deal stands a strong chance of looking quite shrewd. After all, Clarke is controllable through the 2025 season via arbitration and can be a long-term option for a Royals club that’s angling to hop back into contention.
Royals biggest signing of the offseason fellas!!
Ughhhhhhhhh kool
so, um, nice job there by the D-Backs letting him go for nothing then.
MISSED IT BY THAT [ = ] MUCH !!
According to informed sources, The Marlins were in on Taylor Clarke right up until he signed the deal to join the Royals.. The Marlins made a “strong” offer, but not one that matched the Royals’ financial commitment. The Marlins weren’t the only team to be outbid.
The Minnesota Twins had also been linked to Clarke.
Dayton Moore Is just as bad as it gets
For real. I really hated Moore back in 2013-15 when the Royals were mediocre under his watch. The A’s and the Rays are much better teams working with limited budgets as the Royals do. You can tell this by all the championships they’ve won since say 2010.
Im with you. Who gets away with 2 playoff in almost 20 years? And multiple 90 and 100 loss seasons. The guy is just horrific.
No one else wouldn’t have fired him long ago.