Six-time All-Star Zack Greinke is still mulling whether he’ll continue his career in 2024, Royals general manager J.J. Picollo told Jon Morosi of MLB.com at this week’s GM Meetings. The former Cy Young winner and likely Hall of Famer turned 40 in October.
Greinke has spent the past two seasons pitching with Kansas City — the same team that drafted and developed him. It’s been a full-circle homecoming and feel-good story for a lot of Royals fans, though the 2023 season didn’t go nearly as well as the 2022 campaign. In Greinke’s return to K.C. back in ’22, he tossed 137 innings of 3.68 ERA ball. That earned run average spiked to 5.06 over the life of 142 1/3 innings in 2023 — a season that saw Greinke post a 2-15 record. That mark has as much to do with a dismal Royals roster as it does with Greinke’s overall performance, but it surely wasn’t what Greinke envisioned heading into the year.
A return for his age-40 season afford Greinke the chance to reach at least one major milestone. He’s currently sitting at 2979 strikeouts in his career, and while he’s not the prolific strikeout artist he once was, he’d have no issue getting to 3000 if he returned for another full season. He’d become just the 20th pitcher in Major League history to reach that esteemed mark.
At this stage of his career, it’s not clear whether Greinke would have an appetite for pitching anywhere other than in Kansas City. He reportedly turned down similar, if not larger offers from the Twins and Tigers in the 2021-22 offseason, preferring to go back home to where his career began. He wasn’t connected to any other teams last offseason before returning to the Royals on another one-year deal. Greinke earned a $13MM base salary with the Royals in 2022 and an $8.5MM base last year — though he picked up another $4.5MM of incentives based on his innings total. Presumably, he’d be in line for a lesser base salary if he opts to return, though an agreement could have a similar incentives package based on starts and/or innings pitched.
From a team vantage point, bringing Greinke back to soak up some innings and give fans a few more memories could make sense. The Royals have struggled immensely to develop pitchers. Their vaunted crop of college arms from the 2018-20 draft classes simply hasn’t panned out to date, with only Brady Singer finding a full season’s worth of above-average production at any point. That came in 2022, but Singer took a pronounced step back in 2023. Fellow highly touted college picks like Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic and Asa Lacy have yet to emerge as viable big league starters.
Kansas City does look to have unearthed a gem in plucking Cole Ragans from the Rangers in this past summer’s Aroldis Chapman trade. The former first-rounder turned in a 2.64 ERA and 31.1% strikeout rate in 12 starts following the trade. In doing so, he locked up a 2024 rotation spot. Singer and Lynch also figure to get looks, and Kansas City still has Jordan Lyles under contract through the ’24 season as well. Greinke could eat up some innings beyond that quartet while taking pressure off some still-developing starters — if he chooses to continue his career, of course.
He might as well pitch a few more games at least… he only needs 21 Ks for 3000
Greinke never struck me as a guy who cared much about personal stats? However as a fan would love to see him get 230w and more imp, yes 3k k’s….
Getting to 230 wins will be tough with the Royals but 3k is definitely obtainable.
if he stayed with KC he would need at least 2 more seasons to get to 230 wins, although he could get to 180 losses rather quickly
wanna manage the brewers?
One more year!
His kwERA sits at 3.90 and he had a 1.0 WAR this season so I think there is still value in him returning.
Back to the Dodgers
As a piggy back starter with Rich Hill
They can also sign Ryu and Maeda to piggy back
And Alex Wood to team up with Walker Buehler
That’s what the Dodgers need to reach the World Series again, a bunch of has beens!!! Zach should sign a deal that once he reaches 21Ks he retires with 3000Ks and wears that uniform into the Hall of Fame!!!!
drprof
Blah. Blah
It’s almost vertical these “has beens” are currently more successful in their careers than yiumever have or will be in yours
If you can get that money Zach take it we love you.
Come back to the Angels? Heck, no! Arte will have a fit!
Most likely a hofer and Jake Arrieta got a Cy Young, that should have gone to Grienke, making him a multiple time winner.
As a Cubs fan, if Greinke had gotten the Cy Young over Arrieta that year, I would have been okay with it.
Remembering when the Dodgers failed to meet the Diamondbacks offer hearing Rick Honeycutt say Greinke was the type of pitcher who could pitch effectively into his late thirties. He knew his stuff. A couple years after that he retired and as far as I know has never been seen in Dodger Stadium again.
That’s because Greinke is an actual pitcher, not just throwing heat to get swing and misses. The sport could use more cerebral pitchers like Greinke.
Yep, he’s a pitcher, not a thrower, like so many in the game today. I inferred from Honeycutt’s remarks that he thought the Dodgers made a mistake letting him sign elsewhere.
He’ll get in the Hall of Fame… probably 20-25 years after his career ends…. Numbers aren’t bad but aren’t great either. Cy-young in his back pocket with 200 wins 3k k’s
77 WAR. Dude is a lock for the Hall. Probably 1st or 2nd ballot depending on who else is eligible at the time. He’s not going to have to wait long, certainly not 20 years. He’s a top 4 pitcher in his generation along with Scherzer, Verlander, and Kershaw.
Quit. You stunk this past season. Like Pee-YEW! stunk. Modern day players are too obsessed with stats. Besides, strikeouts are meaningless these days. Anyone commenting here could probably strike out 150 batters in a season.
I’m flattered that you think I can strikeout 150 MLB batters, thank you!
Future Hall of Famer? We’ll see about that.
Yeah, we’ll see about five years after he retires when he’s elected in a landslide.
He’ll make the HOF, but it may take a couple or three ballots.
Agreed. Another future member of the baseball Hall of Very Good, irregardless of what his “WAR” is. Marginal HOFer in the real world.
You mean regardless
Fourth best pitcher of the last 20 years. Cy Young, two era titles, 3,000 Ks, 3,400 innings of 121 ERA+, six gold gloves. That’s a Hall of Famer in the ‘real world’. If you’re assembling a list of the best starters of this generation, he’s only behind Kershaw, Verlander, and Scherzer, all of whom are first ballot Hall of Famers.
Higher WAR than Halladay (by far) and Smoltz. Similar WAR to Glavine, Mussina, Pedro.
If he’s a ‘marginal’ HOFer in your book, your Hall of Fame must be a very small one.
Thank you for the correct use of verbiage. It’s not that my HOF book is very small,it seems that over the last 10-15 years the voting committees have elected slightly above average players to the pantheon. Those players are better suited for merit as a specific team’s HOF, not the overall penultimate HOF.
I think he pitches again. Just not for KC.
Keep pitching, Zack, but the Royals is not a good choice.
Even Bob Gibson was 3-10, 5.04 in his final season at age 39. But others have had success in their 40’s. He’s been good for baseball. I hope he does what is best for him and baseball.
If this guy gets into the Hall of Fame but Sabathia doesn’t, then it goes to show how biased the voters are. We already know this because that one genius that voted against Jeter
I have zero doubt Sabathia gets in with like 95% of the votes. There will always be 2 or 3 writers that won’t it’s just the stupid Hall of Fame process at this point.
Sabathia is literally in the center between HOF and Hall of Very Good. Hard to say if he’ll get in but the Cy Young, ROY, and a WS ring definitely strengthens his case
CC was a workhorse, he was an innings eater and a guy that you could count on as a staff ace. Even without a world series ring, he’s getting in. 251 wins, 3000 strikeouts are the counting stats writers love.
Lower career war, worse peak, 0 Gold Gloves (6 for Greinke), 0 ERA titles (2). Cry more.
Muted. Be gone, troll
Greinke is a strange guy. I’m not knocking him, at all, he’s just definitively an odd duck. Meaning to say- who knows if he cares about getting to 3,000 strike outs. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t.
He was worth 1.0 WAR, so if he wants to keep making money playing baseball, he could absolutely still command around $8.5M on a 1 year deal with another $4.5M in incentives, like in 2023.
I always find it fascinating when some guys get to free agency, have 1 or 2 or even 3 Big Money Mega Contracts, get to that point when a lot of guys might hang it up or be burned out and then they just keep going for many years after just to keep playing. Kind of like Jason Giambi or like Ricky Henderson or many others who conclude deals for like $80M or $200M or somewhere in between and then play another 5 or 10 years on seven figure contracts, just because they’re driven by something to keep playing, to keep proving something as they age.
Greinke seems like a guy who will keep playing until he physically can’t or just randomly walks off the mound in the middle of a game in the middle of the season and retires right then and there. Something like that.
When Greinke was with the Dodgers he and Kershaw developed a close relationship even though their personalities could hardly be more different. When they hung out on the dugout rail deep in conversation it was like watching Spock and Kirk.
I wonder if there’s such thing as signing you until you reach 3000 strikeouts ? Then he can declare his retirement, and become an assistant pitching coach on the royals staff.
It can be done if both sides agree. Becoming a pitching coach may not be in his personal plans and not necessary for the first part. He may simply decide he wants to pitch one more year.
RFAW
He should sign with LA
He can piggy back with Rich Hill
30 starts st 4 innings a start. 120 innings should get him to 3000 K’s without too much stress.
I said the same but decided I liked a paycheck more!
Well why not Zach? Enjoy your final games in MLB, get to 3k and then say that’s it.
Greinke would be best served in a PITCHERS park and a team that has some scoring capabilities. his IP to K ratio is rather low now.
Zack, I know you’re bored and you would like to spend more time with your boys and wife, but I think they’ll all grief you to no end twenty years from now if you skip out on your age 40 season and 3000 K’s. One more season to round out a twenty year career, and your boys will relish those cherished memories of playing catch with Dad in the Kaufman Stadium outfield. General Sherm and JJ will be hard-pressed not to meet your terms, with the abysmal Royals record of ‘23 and needing to extend the goodwill of the fan base for their subsidized ask on a new stadium, in order to keep interest and seats filled. I don’t think they can say no. On another note, are you still playing World of Warcraft?
I saw somewhere, someone always thought Grienke would become a knuckleballer, and that thought has stuck with me since. If anyone can figure out the spin-less dancer, it’s Grienke. And I would love to see it
Ironically the Royals need him as much as he needs them. Aside from Ragans that rotation is a hot mess. KC doesn’t have any better options than Grienke right now.
Angels should make Greinke their pitching coach.