5:44pm: To make room for Greinke on the 40-man roster, the club has placed Tyler Zuber on the 60-day IL, per various reports, including Anne Rogers of MLB.com. Zuber has right shoulder impingement syndrome and will miss the start of the season.
4:42pm: The Royals have formally announced the signing.
2:48pm: Zack Greinke is going back to his roots. The free-agent righty has agreed to a one-year deal with the Royals, pending the completion of a physical, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). Greinke, a client of Excel Sports Management, will be guaranteed $13MM and can earn another $2MM via innings-based incentives, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
The 38-year-old Greinke isn’t the fireballing ace that he was toward the end of his first run with the Royals, but he remains an effective innings eater. He’ll return to his old stomping ground as the elder statesman on what figures to be an extremely young staff who’ll no doubt want to soak up as much pitching knowledge as possible from the 18-yeasr big league veteran.
Greinke spent the past two-plus seasons with the Astros after being traded from Arizona to Houston in a buzzer-beating deal at the 2019 trade deadline. Greinke’s once blazing fastball averaged just 89 mph in 2021 and his strikeout rate dipped, but he’s maintained pristine command of the strike zone (5.2% walk rate). Since 2020, Greinke has a 4.12 ERA in 238 innings for Houston, although his 2021 season would’ve looked considerably better were it not for a late September swoon.
Through his first 26 starts in 2021, Greinke pitched to a strong 3.41 ERA. Fielding-independent metrics were still a bit down on him because of the lack of punchouts (17.5% in that stretch), but Greinke yielded a paltry 87.7 mph average exit velocity in that time and had a 33% opponents’ hard-hit rate. Greinke tested positive for Covid-19 at the end of August and went back on the IL in late September due to neck soreness. It’s not clear that either had a direct impact on his results, although it’s certainly possible that he wasn’t pitching at 100% down the stretch. The results seem to suggest as much, as Greinke was tattooed for 21 runs in his final 15 1/3 innings of work.
Even if Greinke should be projected for more of a low-4.00s ERA than the mid-3.00 range he sat for much of the 2021 season, he’ll still be a valuable and reliable source of innings for the Royals. He’s made at least 28 appearances in 11 of the past 14 seasons, with the exceptions being the shortened 2020 season (when he made all 12 of his starts) and the 2016 season (when he missed a month with an oblique injury but still started 26 games).
For a Royals club that expects to give the bulk of its innings to young and/or unproven starters — Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar, Kris Bubic, Carlos Hernandez, Jonathan Heasley — the ability to confidently pencil Greinke in for around 30 starts and 170-plus frames is especially important. Brad Keller is currently the only starter on the staff with more than two years of Major League service time, but he’s in search of a rebound from a career-worst performance this past season.
The deal for Greinke ostensibly came together in fairly quick fashion. Kansas City traded Mike Minor to the Royals just this afternoon, and reports immediately following the deal suggested that they were in the hunt for rotation upgrades. Although they’re said to have checked in with the A’s about a potential Frankie Montas deal, it’ll be Greinke who joins the staff to help stabilize the group and, ideally, help guide the Royals back to a winning record
Subtracting Minor and adding Greinke’s larger salary brings the Royals up to a projected payroll of a bit more than $93MM, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. That’s nowhere near the franchise record $143MM from 2017, but that payroll was buoyed by a pair of consecutive World Series appearances achieved by the Royals’ former core. The fact that they felt compelled to move Minor and save some money on his salary before adding Greinke suggests that new owner John Sherman, who purchased the team in 2019, isn’t comfortable pushing payroll back to those 2017 levels at this time.
It’s possible that further additions will follow for the Royals. They’ve reportedly sought ways to trade Carlos Santana, both as a means of clearing playing time for top prospect Nick Pratto and also in order to shed the veteran’s $10.5MM salary. If president of baseball operations Dayton Moore manages to find a Santana deal similar to this afternoon’s Minor trade, additional veteran reinforcements could be on the way to help supplement a young Royals team that’ll see the debuts of Pratto and top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. early in the 2022 season.
Insert my team should have signed him
I was hoping ATL didn’t honestly lol.
I am in fact growing increasingly concerned that the Cardinals’ rotation is effed.
Mozeliak: Thats okay. We’re good.
Mo is even cheaper than the Royals, A new low https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2022/03/dear-mo-sign-zack-greinke.html
I thought he would have been a good fit on the Giants.
YES… the Angels couldn’t use this guy to provide innings and mentor their young pitchers? Seems like a no-brainer.
Zero = exactly how much I saw this coming.
Cool for him, and the Royals.
Love this homecoming
Me too
A happy reunion.
yeah, class act on both ends
Grienke is BOO RADLEY!!! Great pitcher, but a strange Kat!
This makes about as much sense as the reds trading for Mike Minor
It makes perfect sense. Royals cut payroll by trading Minor. While doing that they get a power reliever with upside in the back end. Then they go out and get a Veteran that’s even better than Minor. Grenkie is going to be a great addition to a young Royals rotation looking to compete.
@josh , the royals aren’t a Zack Greinke away from winning the division.
12 team playoff means they don’t need to win a division. they only need to finish with a next 3 best record
Which their not. Lol
They have tons of young talent. Several under the radar guys. This year will be similar to 2013 when they won 86 games. Don’t be surprised if they sneak into a wildcard.
I don’t think they are a Zack Greinke away from a .500 record. I also don’t think that was the intention.
Bring back an old fan favorite, soak up some innings, be an example of the profession for their kids, & hopefully yield some prospects at the deadline is what they are buying. Viewed through that lens, it’s a good signing.
MLB Fans: “we need more parity”
Also MLB fans: “why would the Royals sign a good player? They aren’t gonna be good!”
They could’ve just slashed payroll down to like $30M like the Pirates but they’re actually trying to put a decent team on the field which is what this sport desperately needs.
The Royals are getting really close. Their top prospects are about ready.
Sorry, I don’t go around yelling “mlb needs more parity!!!” Most teams who aren’t going to be good don’t sign 13 million dollar starters
Sport would be better off if more teams like the Royals would spend to get better even during less than competitive years.
AL east has 4 strong teams. 2 in the west. Central teams are going to have to have a lot of things go right for a wild card.
Cujo: Thank You.
Besides the Astros are you staying at the Oakland Athletics are the other strong team in the West? Because haven’t the A’s blown it in the playoffs?
There was a “members only” article on all of their young prospects. It’s certainly an impressive collection, @conin.
Yet they are still prospects. Ya know?
& to be competitive, the Royals need for them to breakout en masse. That’s tough to do.
I am no expert on their club. But they strike me as a 70-80 win team for ’22. Perhaps Moore has another move or two up his sleeve yet.
Sadly, the Cardinals might have been a Zack Greinke away, but Mo is cheaper than the Royals. . https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2022/03/dear-mo-sign-zack-greinke.html
…but they don’t cut ticket prices either.
Mariners.
Most Cardinal fans don’t like Greinke because of his “Carpenter seems kinda phony” (Chris, not Matt) remark from a few years back. I’m guessing a lot of players felt the same way but Zack doesn’t have much of a filter and it sometimes bites him. His comments never seem mean or hateful…just a little goofy.
As a Royals fan, the season just got a whole lot more interesting…even though no one is expecting vintage Zack from a performance perspective.
Grienke is still a lot better than Minor.
Greinke is the veteran hired to oversee the transition to better times. The Royals are just as likely to have a good year in that division as anybody not from Chicago. His experience should play well in that environment
This is the same as the Tigers bringing in veterans Jonathan Schoop and Robbie Grossman to work with Miguel Cabrera in helping their young players to adjust to playing at the major league level.
Dayton Moore understands MLB baseball, not so much rotisserie league. He values the human element in adapting to both the physical and mental adjustments a young team has to go through to succeed. Greike will join with team leaders Salvador Perez and Whit Merrifield in setting the tone for the youngsters. THIS is how a MLB team comes out of a rebuild.
Gotta love it
I love this.
Trade him to the brewers and make this full circle
I concur
Lorenzo Cain would be so confused…”Do I stay in MIL or do I go back to KC???? What’s going on here?”
Good, a bit surprising on the money, but the right fit. He probably has one final season in him, he has a strong chance to make the Hall of Fame, and why not have his swan song in KC?
Zach is all about the paycheck.
I highly doubt this was the best financial deal he was offered.
I don’t know. His hard hit rate last year was really bad. He was getting hammered at the end of the year.
Perhaps he took a bit less to play in a pitchers park and in a division he can look good to hopefully set up a future deal.
But I also doubt GMs in HR friendly ballparks were looking to add him.
Halo, the article says otherwise on how hard he was being hit.
He also had Covid and shoulder soreness late in the season..
I think from a PR standpoint, it’s money well spent
yea I was actually hoping he’d get a two year deal with KC. Love this feel-good move for them.
I’m guessing it was one year in case the season goes south in a hurry for KC. One year deal would make it easier to trade him to a contender if he’s doing well. I really believe both parties would love for him to end his career in KC and if the season goes well for both I’m betting he does just that at some point.
He can end his career where it began.
I’m hoping he’s able to stick around another year or few
One of the few acquisitions that intrigued me and now make me quite excited. His 2009 Cy Young campaign truly gave the Royals a chance to win each time he towed the slab. And made the team worth watching every fifth game…
I’ve towed the slab
I’ve toad the slab.
He’s a has-been and is one of the rudest people in MLB. He thumbed his nose at KC so he could get traded. If you’re ‘excited’ by this then you’ve forgotten what happened and I actually pity you.
Your pity isn’t necessary because it appears you’re the one who has forgotten the context of his trade “demand” at the time. Zack is brutally honest and some people can’t handle it. What he said at the time was…”this team needs a lot more than just me so they probably should trade me for some more players”.
And he was absolutely right…painful as it was to lose him.
They say you can’t go home again, but desperation can always lead to a reunion.
Dust off those old jerseys
I agree. I miss the vest jerseys and black alternates.
Farewell season?
LEEEEEEEETS GOOOOO
Eeeeephus!
This is awesome. Happy for him & the Royals. We live in KC and I look forward to watching him pitch this season at the K.
Minor swapped for Amir and Greinke and a few million. Smart moves for small market royals. If they can harness Garretts stuff he’s still under wraps for 2023 as well so could be very good trade chip
Is it towed, toad, or could it be toed the slab?
Either or but looking forward to seeing Zach succeed in KC. One of my all time favorites.
Toed
Or is it Zack?
Royals want to be on his HOF plaque
Being that he spent 7 years in KC then 4 in AZ(next highest time) KC would already be.
I wish he was still an Astro, but the Royals are a fitting match. Good luck Zack, and thanks for everything you did for the Stros!
Would have been PERFECT for cardinals. High upside in stl and durable for a rotation lacking durability.
But I forgot cardinals don’t sign anyone
Would have been PERFECT for cardinals. Durable and potential for high upside but always an above average floor. For a fragile rotation.
Do cardinals want to win?
Their history sort of suggests yes.
I kind of thought the Rangers were a good fit but i like the homecoming of sorts for Grienke back to KC
I do think Zack will make the HOF one day. Question is…a Royals cap? Or blue cap of a different type?
Love it! The circle is complete.
Wait- I thought Greinke signed with the Padres before the lock out….. talk about the Mandela Effect… or was that just popular speculation?
Full circle. I bet he retires after this season. An illustrious career I must say.
That’s reasonable speculation for most players, but Zack is a different bird. I could see him just walking away randomly (again), or I could see him holding workouts trying to get a contract into his 40s. He’s unpredictable.
Royals win. Grienke sells jerseys, ups the team cred, and come trade deadline time when he’s only owed around $4m easy to flip to a contender for a prospect or two.
Unless by some miracle the Royals are actually in the race?
He’d probably never go for it, but I love Greinke as an opener to piggyback with our kids in the rotation. Greinke for 2-3 innings and then Singer for 4, then three days later Greinke for 2-3 innings and Lynch for 4 etc etc. Will be a test to see what wins out, his ego or his love for analytics.
Some royals fans: grumbling about Dayton moore not signing big name free agents.
Royals reportedly sign Zach Greinke
Those Same royals fans: silence
I really despise Greinke. He literally acted like a child in order to be traded from KC. The good news if he hadn’t, the Royals wouldn’t have gotten Cain and Escobar out of Milwaukee. But he left on bad terms with intelligent fans. The masses will love to have him back, but anyone who actually followed the team closely back then really can’t stand him.
Maybe he secretly wants to have a more than once a year glance at the World Series trophy from 2015 that we only got because he wanted to be traded.
Wrong. I’ve been a Royals fan since skipping school to listen to their first game in 1969. I’ve rooted for Zack at every stop of his career and he’s in my top 5 all time favorite Royals. He is unfailingly honest and sometimes it bites him. He said at the time the team was bad and needed a whole lot more than just him so they really should trade him. I hated to see him go but have to admit that I agreed with him.
He’s definitely a tough personality to like, but he seems to be well liked by players everywhere. He makes us better and Dayton and team have known him for more than a decade. I doubt there’s a GM in baseball more concerned with “makeup” and “chemistry” than GMDM. If he thinks ZG makes us better, who am I to argue.
Honestly, I read comments from Merrifield today that shared the similar sentiment Zack had. “No more talk of prospects coming and competing soon. Let’s actually do it.” It’s an accountability check, which all businesses could use more of.
For some reason, I saw this one coming. Back to we’re he started !
cool to see him come full circle.
I just read Montas was traded to the White Sox
Grienke has made over $300M over the span of his career. Highest paid pitcher ever??
Maybe for now. Cole, Scherzer, Keyshawn, Verlander all probably end up passing him.
Wow. I didn’t think this would happen considering that he supposedly left on bad terms last time. It seems like he’s finally matured a bit as a person, he’s made his money, and now he wants to help the team that he spurned previously win. He could also be quite a help to KC’s many talented-yet-struggling young pitchers.
Full circle
Royals will make him available come july
And that closes the book on (top) free agent starting pitching. Thanks for playing, Arte and Perry. I’m sure you’ll “try again” next off-season.
I personally think that the Angels are amongst the worst run teams in baseball.
They had a nice run in the 2000s, but at some point Arte stopped caring about winning. He’d rather throw money at a position player that isn’t needed, if it equals more ticket and merchandise sales.
We didn’t need a 3B?
Thanks Zack. You were supposed to go to the Angels so I could still have hope in the Free Agent prediction contest. Can’t catch the leaders now …I only have 8 correct
The Angels were on his no trade list last season. Why would he sign with them?
Putting a team on your NTC doesn’t mean you hate that team and never want to play for them. It’s about leverage and control, not a list of cities the player never wants to step foot in.
Cosmo-Okay what does it mean when you put a team on you NTL???
It’s about leverage and control. Sometimes, but not always, it’s about specific places a player doesn’t want to be located, but not usually. You really think that every city in the list is a city that the player literally dreads the thought of living in? The clauses are often waived… it’s about leverage… if a player puts Chicago on their list, it doesn’t mean they hate Chicago. It just means they want the CONTROL of if and when they get sent there.
Definitely going to be traded later in year
this deal makes no sense, why go to a horrible team that will finish last? just retire… was he stupid enough to say at his press conference’ we can win the world series’?
Cuz he loves playing. Cuz money. Cuz he wants to add to his successful career. Pretty easy to make sense of actually.
Cuz he has over $300M already Cuz
What’s your point? 300 million mandates early retirement? No millionaire has ever wanted more? Plus, again, maybe he loves playing. What’s so tough about this?
The Royals will not finish last. Baltimore will likely finish last in the American League and the American League East.
Greinke doesn’t care about money. He’s made $300 million. It seems to me that he wants to repay his former team for helping him to become what he did. Greinke is the last player in baseball that anyone would presume is sentimental, but maybe he wants to make it up to KC for spurning them in the past. Greinke could easily retire at any second… clearly he wanted to help KC become competitive again. Good on him.
I just think he wants to play again. He enjoys it. Maybe he cares about the money maybe he doesn’t. But he’s not playing cuz he feels bad about KC or any other outlandish theory. He’s been offered a deal to be paid doing what he loves. He took the deal. Why does it need be more complicated than that?
It doesn’t necessarily, and you may very well be right. But why KC of all teams? I’m sure he could have gotten a similar contract from plenty of teams. And he also could have just retired. You honestly don’t think that there’s any history here that influenced his decision? I do, personally.
Could be. But I don’t necessarily think Greinke did have that many offers. I could be wrong.
“But why KC of all teams?”
Likely because Dayton Moore – ever the Sentimentalist – outbid everyone else (not necessarily that I’m saying that sentimentality is a bad thing…I have returned to being a Royals fan because ownership and management has a reflex now of rewarding rather than trading productive players).
It would be a great question for Greinke’s agent….who else other than sentimental Dayton Moore would give 13 million dollars guaranteed for velocity that cannot break 88 MPH?
He brought James Shields in
It sounds as though the deal was close to done before the lockout and that KC was first on his list of places he wanted to go and that he was the first guy KC contacted when free agency began. It also sounds like he plans to play beyond 2022.
The idea that Greinke is somehow hated in KC couldn’t be more wrong. He is not. True fans understand what the situation was at the time he was traded and most have rooted for him at all of his other stops.
My favorite Greinke moment is when he refused to sign a card for that autograph hoarding jabroni Pat Neshek (who acted like a crybaby about it and threw a massive online hissy-fit).
Greinke signed my KC hat while at Kaufman stadium about 15 years ago. He spent about an hour signing autographs and was very polite to me. For what thats worth.
Oh I’m not doubting it, I’m merely pointing out how I enjoyed him putting Neshek in his place after he basically hounded Greinke. Zack did nothing wrong.
It honestly sounds like a very Greinke thing to do haha.
“Kansas City traded Mike Minor to the Royals just this afternoon..”
Great career and over 300M earned I guess this is his farewell tour.
Greinke is too smart and methodical to make this contract look bad. As long as he’s healthy, he’ll perform and hopefully serve as a good (but also eccentric) mentor to the young pitchers.
There went my Asa Lacy to my A’s for Montas
$15 million for a 38 year old guy with an ERA over 4 the last 2 years? Makes sense
Have you ever heard of intangibles “Baseball dude” maybe you should consider changing your screen name sir.
That’s cute.. you learn about that stuff from the MLB network analysts? Because I knew about that long before MLB network. Sometimes you just need to use common sense my man. So you think that paying $15 million for an aging pitcher that doesn’t pitch good anymore is a good move?
Still a strong pitcher. I’d been happy if the Braves signed him. I’m a bit surprised he only found a 1 year deal. Yes, he’s aging, yes he’s throwing slow these days… but he’s been getting the job done better than most guys are capable of. Is 13-15 mil a bit of an over pay?? Sorta … feel like he’s worth a 2 year 16-20 mil deal.
They couldn’t find similar production for less money? Much rather sign Tyler Anderson or a couple of bounce back candidates.
Good for Greinke, next stop HoF. Cheers from LA and best of luck.
I’m not sure he’s going to provide the veteran presence the Royals are looking for.
On another note, can’t we do a little better in the proofreading? “Kansas City traded Mike Minor to the Royals”. Really?
Has Greinke been in the bigs for 18 years? Yeasr!
Greinke is a great addition to this young and upcoming Royals’ team. Greinke can easily mentor Singer. As a White Sox fan, the Royals seem to be more of competition for the White Sox than the Tigers in the American League Central.
Only $13 million for a gold glove CYA pitcher to mentor to a young staff before Mike M. burns them out? Sounds like a good deal. WOuld’ve been nice to see Waino and Zack pitch into the sunset this season for the Cardinals.
Fun. This seems like a great deal for the Royals. If they somehow are decent they added rotation stability. Worst case they can trade him or let him retire with the team he came up with. This is exactly the kind of deals teams like the Royals should be looking for. Great jog for making this work.
“Kansas City traded Mike Minor to the Royals just this afternoon”… whaaa?
” Kansas City traded Mike Minor to the Royals”
Hello @ Steve Adams, you might want to edit that.
aw I love this so much
Didn’t think he’d return to KC. Thought Danny Duffy would probably return for that amount and Greinke would play for a contender like Houston, LA, SF or maybe sign with Texas.