Right-hander Zack Greinke signed with the Royals in 2022, returning to the club that drafted him in 2002 and for whom he pitched from 2004 through 2010. The club has reportedly been interested in bringing him back for 2023 since before the offseason even officially began. There’s now less than three weeks until Spring Training and Greinke is still unsigned but Anne Rogers of MLB.com reports that the club still wants to re-sign him and is confident about their chances of doing so.
Greinke, 39, was once one of the most dominant pitchers in the league, especially in that earlier stint in Kansas City. The highlight of that tenure was a 2009 season where Greinke tossed 229 1/3 innings over 33 starts with a 2.16 ERA. That showing was strong enough for him to win the American League Cy Young award that year. Since then, he’s gone on to pitch for the Brewers, Angels, Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Astros before returning to the Royals last season. He’s now tossed over 3,000 innings with a 3.42 ERA over his career.
Though he averaged just under 95 mph on his fastball when he first debuted, he’s gradually transitioned into a soft-tossing control artist. He averaged just over 89 mph on his heater last year, which ranked him 541st out of the 602 pitchers to throw at least 250 pitches, according to Statcast. Despite that diminished velocity, he still found ways to be quite effective on the mound. He made 26 starts and logged 137 frames in 2022, finishing the year with a 3.68 ERA. The pitching-friendly nature of Kauffman Stadium surely helped somewhat, but he also kept his walks down to a tiny 4.6% rate and was in the 60th percentile in terms of missing barrels.
Despite the ongoing interest from the club, a deal has yet to come together, perhaps for financial reasons. Reporting from a couple of weeks ago indicated the Royals were hoping to get Greinke back via some kind of incentive-laden deal, perhaps with a lower guarantee than in 2022, which was for $13MM plus $2MM of incentives. However, it’s possible that the club’s perspective on the financial situation has changed recently. Since that report, the club has agreed to terms with Aroldis Chapman on a deal with a $3.75MM guarantee, but also traded Michael A. Taylor to the Twins for minor leaguers and Adalberto Mondesi to the Red Sox for Josh Taylor. Michael A. Taylor is going to make $4.5MM this year while Mondesi will make $3.045MM and Josh Taylor $1.025MM. Those moves combined saved the club about $3MM in salary commitments, which they could perhaps then use to help get Greinke to put pen to paper. Roster Resource pegs their 2023 payroll at $103MM, a jump from last year’s Opening Day figure of $95MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
If Greinke comes back to Kansas City for another year, he’ll hopefully provide some stability to a rotation that doesn’t currently have much of it. The club signed 32-year-old Jordan Lyles earlier in the offseason to give them one reliable veteran. Brady Singer should have another rotation spot spoken for after a breakout campaign last year. It seems like Ryan Yarbrough will be given a shot to grab a starting job after signing for a $3MM guarantee, though he spent a decent amount of time as a long reliever with the Rays and could be bumped back to that kind of role again. Brad Keller has lots of starting experience but got bumped to the bullpen in the second half of last year and finished with a 5.09 ERA for the season. Daniel Lynch was a 34th overall selection in the 2018 draft but has a 5.32 ERA for his career so far. It’s a similar story for other high draft picks like Kris Bubic and Jackson Kowar, who have career ERAs of 4.89 and 10.76, respectively.
No other clubs have been previously connected to Greinke this offseason besides the Royals, though Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports today that the Orioles spoke with him at one point. The O’s have been on the hunt for starting pitching all winter and are reportedly still looking for upgrades, though Rosenthal says they’re not confident about landing Greinke.
Get it done, let the man retire a Royal. It would be great for Kansas City and baseball as a whole.
The article starts with: “Royals Optimistic About Re-Signing Zack Greinke”
The article ends with: “they’re not confident about landing Greinke.”
I guess it makes sense because optimistic and confident don’t mean the exact same thing. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an article that starts and ends with two statements that are almost polar opposites in terms of what they mean. Not just a comment in the article itself but the actual first and last things said in the article were almost opposites. I started reading the article thinking it was explaining Greinke would stay a Royal but then at the end I felt like the article was about him leaving the Royals. I’m not saying anything is wrong with the article. I would think that teams who aren’t confident about something wouldn’t be optimistic about it either but I guess it could make sense. Did anyone else catch that and think it’s kind of funny though?
“The O’s have been on the hunt for starting pitching all winter and are reportedly still looking for upgrades, though Rosenthal says they’re not confident about landing Greinke.”
That part is about the Orioles…
Apparently the article was written sandwiched between two conflicting points of view. Ann Rogers says they “are confident” while Ken Rosenthal say they “are not confident”. Where’s Jon Heyman to chime in with ever present “mystery team”…
The story started by talking about the Royals, and finished by talking about the Orioles.
Hey, how’s the Trevor Bauer market shaping up?
Pirates need to get on that. Yes it would be bad PR but they signed Cutch so maybe it evens out?
@Kermit any PR is good for the Pirates. He’d draw much needed interest to the team.
I wonder how many GMs are man enough to sign him.
If you equate signing Bauer with being a man, I suggest you talk to someone about the gender issues you’re having
I’m not commenting any further on Bauer on this site unless it’s 100% necessary.
When is commenting on said player ever compulsory?
In moments of being threatened?
Well, it will never be “100% necessary,” so… 🙂
Its less about being “man enough” and more about being “which GM’s want to bring a media circus distraction to training camp that probably costs them their job if things go south”
Would be cool to see him hit 3k k’s, but with 108 to go, the magic 8 ball says, “outlook not so good” Maybe 7w for 330?
Milestones are fun to follow….
If he pitches a full season as a starter, it is certainly doable.
He had 103 Ks in 2021, so it’s not impossible. Maybe he can log 208 innings like he did in 2019 and he can hit 3k by repeating last year’s 4.8K/9.
He should be very easy to sign. Nobody else is stepping up so he’ll have to take whatever the Royals give him.
He has made over 330 MM in his career, though.
Not to shabby.
I’m still waiting for him to receive his 2015 CY Young award.
I’m still waiting for you to live up to that unbelievable contract you signed.
Sign Zack so he can pad some more stats.
Big goggle sunglasses = not serious any more
He’s still somewhat effective, not to mention entertaining
Jeez he’s not going to break the bank here, plus he’s still a decent starter. Plus Kansas City could give him the farewell tour when he retires, that’ll get fans excited.
I’d even consider signing the man for two years if that’s what he wanted.
If the clevinger allegations are true he is officially the worst of all players involved in DV that are still currently employed. Throwing used chewing tobacco on a child? IF (the big word is if because so far these are just allegations and he’s innocent until proven guilty.) He is found guilty he should be beaten into bloody pulp for involving the poor kid. You don’t involve kids in that type of BS. Ever.
I’d bet some of the teams that could utilize him but employ facile analytics departments will not consider him because of K/9 and FIP. But he has been durable, has guile and can maybe share some of his knowledge with the rest of the staff. His EV and LA have inched up a little though his Hard% has come down a little the past two years. Maybe if he swaps out some of his slow 4 seamers for some cutters, he could induce more soft contact. His 2022 xBA/xSLG/xwOBA for his cutter (14%) was .280/.455/.360 compared to .332/.581/.412 for his 4 seamer thrown 38% of the time, with a 50% Hard Hit percentage (only 34% vs. cutter). He could probably provide value to up to ten teams.
Greinke should return to KC for one more year.
The deal with the Royals is about happen otherwise KC wouldn’t be dumping salary at this point.
I have no problem with the Royals dishing out 15-20 million to sign the guy. The question is whether this team is close enough to contention to justify the expense. If we had 3 dependable starters & certainty on who should start at each position it would be one thing.The team needs to have 1 or 2 starters make the leap Singer madelast year each year if they are to contend by 2025 or 2026. How can anyone think signing Greinke to a 1 year deal will help them get any closer to contending in 2 or 3 years? It hurts but they have to give these kids they drafted a chance to learn from their mistakes & improve. Right now we have given 3 rotation spots to Veterans on the rebound who are a sure bet to fly as soon as they have a good year. They may not even have that. In the field the Royals have a lot of good position players on the verge. But if we give half our starts to rebound projects how do we develop our own pitching core?