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Mets, Royals Discussed Starling Marte Earlier This Offseason

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The Royals showed interest in Starling Marte earlier in the offseason, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Those talks obviously didn’t produce a deal, but Sherman adds that Kansas City hasn’t completely closed the door on the possibility. There’s no indication talks are active, but it’s nevertheless notable that the Royals are still interested to an extent. It shows that Kansas City is still weighing options to bring in an outfield bat and that they perhaps have some financial flexibility even with a player payroll that’s nearly $20MM north of last year’s spending levels.

Of course, the Royals wouldn’t be taking on the entirety of Marte’s salary in a trade. The 36-year-old is entering the final season of a four-year, $78MM contract and is owed $19.5MM in 2025. Coming off a pedestrian .269/.327/.388 batting line (104 wRC+), Marte is no longer productive enough for another team to have interest in taking on the full freight of his salary. The Mets have reportedly been willing to pay down a portion of that $19.5MM.

Health is another factor to consider. Marte missed the final seven weeks of the 2023 season with a groin strain and was out for nearly two months last summer due to a bone bruise in his right knee. He’s been hobbled by ongoing discomfort in that same knee this spring and has yet to appear in a game. Manager Carlos Mendoza did suggest yesterday that Marte could get into a game within the next few days (link via Newsday’s Tim Healey), but presumably any team looking into the possibility of acquiring him would want to see the veteran outfielder get into a few games to demonstrate that he’s healthy enough to be considered likely for Opening Day.

The Royals’ interest in Marte makes some sense on paper. They’ve been looking for an outfield bat for much of the offseason and have come up empty. The Royals have looked into various trade targets and reportedly made offers to free agents Anthony Santander and Jurickson Profar, who instead signed with the Blue Jays and Braves, respectively. Last year’s primary outfield of MJ Melendez, Kyle Isbel and Hunter Renfroe was among the least-productive outfield groups in all of MLB. The Royals plan to give trade acquisition Jonathan India and infielder Michael Massey some work in left field this season, but the broad outfield outlook remains bleak if they can’t get a long-awaited Melendez breakout and/or a return to form for the veteran Renfroe.

When the two sides talked earlier in the offseason, per Sherman, the Mets expressed interest in Royals relievers Hunter Harvey and Angel Zerpa. Kansas City understandably didn’t have interest in moving a quality reliever to buy low on an expensive veteran in his mid-30s.

Unless the Mets are willing to take on the second season of a two-year deal for Chris Stratton, who hasn’t panned out as hoped in K.C., it’s hard to envision them prying a member of the Royals’ bullpen away in a Marte swap. Harvey was excellent for much of the 2024 season but struggled in July before landing on the injured list with what proved to be a season-ending back issue in August. He’s being paid $3.7MM this year in his final season of club control. Zerpa isn’t even arb-eligible yet and is controllable through 2028. He posted a 3.86 ERA with a 20.5% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and massive 58.4% grounder rate in 2024. Both are in line to play notable roles for manager Matt Quatraro.

Royals Receiving Trade Interest In Angel Zerpa

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After a solid season in the Royals’ bullpen, left-hander Angel Zerpa is drawing trade attention from rival teams, MLB.com’s Anne Rogers writes.  There is no sense a deal is close or even if Kansas City is open to moving Zerpa, but Rogers notes that the Royals could deal from what seems to be a surplus of left-handed pitching.

Cole Ragans sits atop the K.C. rotation and obviously isn’t going anywhere, and Kris Bubic probably won’t be dealt since the Royals want to see how he fares in a return to starting pitching.  Zerpa, Daniel Lynch IV, Sam Long, and prospects Noah Cameron and Evan Sisk are the other left-handers on the Royals’ 40-man roster, with Rogers noting that Lynch and Cameron will also be competing for a rotation job in Spring Training.

Kansas City might wish to see how the rotation competition plays out before making any decisions on trades, in order to gauge Bubic’s health now that he is a bit further removed from an April 2023 Tommy John surgery, and to monitor Kyle Wright’s return after he missed all of 2024 recovering from shoulder surgery.  There’s also the fact that Zerpa is not just one of several lefties, but he is currently the top left-handed option in the Royals bullpen.  Given how the relief corps was middling on the whole in 2024, the Royals might prefer to add to the pen rather than subtract, especially since the team’s pitching depth already took a hit when Brady Singer was dealt to the Reds.

Still, there’s no harm in hearing what teams might have to offer for the 25-year-old Zerpa, who is team-controlled through the 2028 season.  An amateur signing out of Venezuela in 2016, Zerpa has spent his whole career in the K.C. organization, and made it to the majors for a single appearance during the 2021 season.  The Royals shuttled him back and forth from Triple-A several times in 2022-23, but Zerpa also dealt with two notable injuries — a patellar tendon tear in his right knee cut short Zerpa’s 2022 season, and a shoulder problem kept him from making his 2023 debut until August.

With a 3.84 ERA in his first 58 2/3 innings (starting six of 19 games), Zerpa broke camp in 2024 in a full-fledged relief role.  He just about matched his previous career ERA with a 3.86 ERA in 53 2/3 relief frames last year, along with an outstanding 58.2% grounder rate.  Zerpa’s ability to keep the ball on the ground helped him paper over below-average strikeout (20.4) and walk (8.3) rates, and notwithstanding his .325 BABIP, a lot of the hard contact he allowed ended up staying on the ground.

It isn’t your standard recipe for bullpen success, and so it seems plausible the Royals might consider selling high on Zerpa if another club has enough interest.  Rogers suggests that rival teams might even be looking at returning Zerpa to a starting role, which might also bump up his value in trade talks to some extent.

Royals Place Chris Stratton On 15-Day Injured List

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The Royals placed right-hander Chris Stratton on the 15-day injured list due to a right forearm flexor strain.  Left-hander Angel Zerpa was called up from Triple-A Omaha in the corresponding move.

Only 16 days remain in the regular season, so between the calendar and the usually serious nature nature of forearm and flexor-related injuries, it seems likely that Stratton’s 2024 campaign is over.  If the strain is mild, Stratton could conceivably return to action if the Royals make a deep playoff run, but the larger concern at this point could be whether or not the 34-year-old could be facing a surgical procedure that could threaten some (or all) of his 2025 season.

Stratton has allowed five runs over his last two appearances and two innings of work, but even if his injury factored into these rough outings, the righty has already been struggling in his first season in Kansas City.  Stratton has a 5.55 ERA over 58 1/3 innings, along with a 17.1% strikeout rate and 12.8% walk rate that are both far below the league average.  The K% and BB% rates are both career lows for Stratton over a full MLB season, while his ERA is only a touch better than the 5.57 ERA he posted with the Angels and Pirates in 2019.

The right-hander bounced back from that tough 2019 campaign with solid results and a full-time move to relief pitching over the next four years, posting a 3.91 ERA in 255 1/3 frames with the Pirates, Cardinals, and Rangers.  That includes a 3.92 ERA and a career-best 7.4% walk rate in 82 2/3 innings with St. Louis and Texas last year, and four more innings in the playoffs as Stratton won a World Series ring on the Rangers’ championship squad.

That performance provided a platform for Stratton to land a two-year, $8MM free agent deal with the Royals this past winter.  The deal is technically a one-year contract with a player option for 2025, as Stratton can choose to take either a $500K buyout or remain in the last year of the deal for a $4.5MM salary next season.  Between his subpar performance and now this injury, Stratton seems like a lock to pass on his opt-out clause.

While Stratton wasn’t delivering much in the way of results, his absence will leave K.C. short of an innings-eating bullpen arm.  Zerpa’s 4.40 ERA over 47 innings could provide a bit of a boost, but Stratton joins Will Smith (back spasms) and Hunter Harvey (mid-back tightness) on the list of injured Royals relievers.  In Harvey’s case, MLB.com’s Anne Rogers writes that Harvey has started throwing but the team isn’t yet sure when or if the right-hander might able to return to action.

Royals Name Alec Marsh Fifth Starter; Jordan Lyles To Open Season In Bullpen

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The Royals have settled on a fifth starter, with manager Matt Quatraro announcing Thursday that right-hander Alec Marsh will begin the season in the rotation (X link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com). The 25-year-old former second-round pick beat a group of Jordan Lyles, Angel Zerpa, Daniel Lynch IV and Anthony Veneziano for that spot. Lyles and Zerpa will both begin the season in relief roles, per Quatraro. (The Zerpa decision was announced last night.) Lynch and Veneziano, meanwhile, were optioned to Triple-A Omaha last night and will presumably work as starters there.

Kansas City entered camp with four of their five rotation spots set. Lefty Cole Ragans, acquired for Aroldis Chapman last summer, enjoyed a huge breakout showing following that swap and will be the team’s Opening Day starter. He’ll be followed in some order by offseason signees Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, as well as returning right-hander Brady Singer.

[Related: Offseason in Review: Kansas City Royals]

Per Quatraro, Marsh simply outperformed the rest of the field this spring in what the team considered a genuine competition (X link via Rogers). The right-hander has indeed been sharp, pitching 14 innings with a 1.93 ERA, 17-to-4 K/BB ratio and massive 68.8% ground-ball rate. That performance, per Quatraro, “exceeded what we could have hoped for.” Lyles, perhaps his primary competition, didn’t make things particularly competitive. In two official appearances, the veteran pitched five innings and was tagged for five runs on eight hits (four homers) and a walk with four strikeouts.

The 6’2″, 220-pound Marsh ranked as the Royals’ No. 14 prospect entering the 2023 season, per Baseball America. His big league debut included 74 1/3 innings of 5.69 ERA ball. Marsh made eight starts and another nine relief appearances. He fanned a quarter of his opponents but also issued walks at an 11.4% clip. Marsh was exceptionally homer-prone, yielding an average of 1.94 homers per nine frames thanks to a paltry 34.6% ground-ball rate.

Marsh debuted a new-look sinker late in the 2023 season, throwing the pitch for the first time on Aug. 27. He used it only 10-15% of the time for his first few outings with the new offering, but tossed it at a 27.4% clip in his final two outings of the season. The work on the new two-seamer has paid off in a small sample of spring appearances — at least if Marsh’s eye-popping grounder rate is any indication. He can’t be expected to maintain that level, which would make him one of the game’s premier ground-ball pitchers, but it’s an encouraging trend for a pitcher who sported just a 30.8% grounder rate prior to unleashing that new pitch last season.

If Marsh can step up and solidify himself as a rotation cog, he’ll be a long-term option. The Royals still control him for a full six seasons. Marsh only picked up 94 days of service time last year, meaning he’s not even on track for Super Two eligibility. He won’t be arbitration-eligible until the conclusion of the 2026 season and can’t become a free agent until the 2029-30 offseason. Future optional assignments could impact either trajectory, but the organizational hope is surely that Marsh will hit the ground running and won’t need further seasoning in Triple-A.

As for Lyles, the move to the ’pen isn’t how he or the baseball operations staff envisioned things going. The veteran righty inked a two-year, $17MM contract last offseason in hopes that he’d fill the same innings eater role in which he’d found success with the 2022 Orioles. Instead, Lyles was rocked for 6.28 ERA. He took the ball 31 times and soaked up 177 2/3 frames, but his starts were too often non-competitive for a 56-win Royals club. Lyles’ 16% strikeout rate was one of the lowest of his career, and while he maintained a very strong 6% walk rate, he also allowed an average of 1.98 long balls per nine frames — third-highest in MLB among qualified pitchers.

Lyles is earning $8.5MM this season, and the Royals still have some inexperience in their rotation in the form of Marsh and Ragans. Sophomore struggles from either pitcher and/or injuries elsewhere in the rotation could lead to Lyles starting some games even if he begins the year in a long relief role.

Royals’ Josh Staumont To Undergo Thoracic Outlet Syndrome Surgery

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TODAY: Staumont will undergo thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, according to Anne Rogers (Twitter link).  It’s a big setback for Staumont, who will miss the rest of the season and face something of an uncertain recovery timeline, given the still-new nature of TOS procedures.  Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post recently wrote about the two different kinds (vascular and neurogenic) of TOS, and how vascular cases are by far the less-serious of the two, while neurogenic TOS surgery could be career-threatening.

JULY 14: The Royals announced today that left-hander Ángel Zerpa was reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Omaha. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, right-hander Josh Staumont was sent the other way, transferred to the 60-day IL.

Staumont, 29, has been on the injured list since June 6 due to a neck strain. A couple of weeks ago, Anne Rogers of MLB.com reported that he suffered a setback and would require further testing. His current timeline isn’t known, but he’ll now be officially ineligible to return until 60 days from his initial IL placement, which rules him out until early August. He’s yet to begin a rehab assignment, so it doesn’t seem like he’s especially close to returning anyhow. The righty has an ERA of 4.01 in his career, striking out 26.2% of batters faced but walking 13%.

Zerpa, 23, suffered a shoulder injury during Spring Training and has been on the injured list for the entire season until this point. He was able to collect major league pay and service time for the past few months, crossing over the one-year mark in the process, but that will stop for the time being. He has 16 innings of major league experience from the previous two seasons with a 1.13 ERA in that small sample.

He was stretched out as a starter during his recent rehab assignment and will provide the club with some rotation depth. He has just one option year remaining and will burn that last option as soon as he spends 20 days on optional assignment here in 2023. If he’s not quickly recalled in the next few weeks, he’ll be out of options in 2024.

Royals Place Ángel Zerpa On 60-Day IL With Shoulder Injury

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The Royals announced that left-hander Ángel Zerpa has been placed on the 60-day injured list due to left shoulder tendinopathy. No corresponding move was announced so the club’s 40-man roster count is down to 39.

Zerpa, 23, was added to the club’s roster in November of 2020 to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. Since then, he has seen some brief major league action, appearing in four games over the past two seasons, posting a 1.13 ERA in 16 innings.

The southpaw spent most of his time in the minors last year, making 19 starts between Double-A and Triple-A. He tossed 71 2/3 innings between the two levels with a 4.02 ERA. He struck out 22.5% of batters faced while walking 8.2% of them and getting grounders on roughly half the balls in play he allowed. Based on his strong work in the minors of late, Baseball America ranked him the club’s #9 prospect going into this season.

The club hasn’t provided a timeline on how long they expect Zerpa to be out, but he won’t be an option for the first couple of months. The 60-day clock doesn’t start until Opening Day, meaning he won’t be eligible to be reinstated until late May. The lefty wasn’t likely to crack the club’s Opening Day rotation even if he were healthy, as it’s likely to feature Brady Singer, Zack Greinke, Jordan Lyles, Ryan Yarbrough and Brad Keller. But with Zerpa out of action for at least a couple of months, the club will have one less depth option on hand.

Now that the Royals have an open roster spot, it could potentially create an opportunity for someone not currently on the 40-man. Perhaps the club makes a waiver claim in the coming weeks or uses that spot on a player already in camp. Some of their notable non-roster invitees include Franmil Reyes, Matt Duffy, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Nick Wittgren.

Each MLB Team’s Players On WBC Rosters

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The World Baseball Classic is returning this year, the first time since 2017. The quadrennial event was supposed to take place in 2021 but was scuttled by the pandemic, now returning after a six-year absence. Rosters for the tournament were announced today and those can be found at this link. Here is a breakdown of which players from each MLB team are set to take participate. Quick caveat that this list is fluid and might be changed as more information becomes available.

Without further ado…

Angels

Astros

Athletics

Blue Jays

Braves

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Diamondbacks

Dodgers

Giants

Guardians

Marlins

Mariners

Mets

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Phillies

Pirates

Rangers

Rays

Red Sox

Reds

Rockies

Royals

Tigers

Twins

White Sox

Yankees

Royals Select Richard Lovelady, Samad Taylor; Designate Sebastian Rivero

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The Royals announced several roster moves, reinstating infielder Adalberto Mondesi, as well as lefties Jake Brentz and Angel Zerpa from the 60-day injured list. They also selected southpaw Richard Lovelady and infielder/outfielder Samad Taylor to the 40-man roster. Catcher Sebastian Rivero was designated for assignment.

Lovelady, 27, seemed to be having a nice breakout in 2021, posting a 3.48 ERA over 20 2/3 innings that year. Unfortunately, he required Tommy John surgery in September of that year and was non-tendered by Kansas City. The club re-signed him on a minor league deal, with Lovelady returning to the mound late in the year, making four appearances in the minor leagues in September. He would have qualified for minor league free agency today but the club has instead adding him back onto the 40-man roster.

Taylor, 24, was drafted by Cleveland but went to the Blue Jays as part of the Joe Smith trade. The Jays then flipped him to the Royals this summer as part of the Whit Merrifield deal. He got into 70 games for Triple-A Buffalo before the deal but didn’t play after it. In those 70 contests, he hit .258/.337/.426 for a wRC+ of 101 along with 23 steals. He’ll provide some versatility, spending most of 2022 at second base and left field, with a brief showing at shortstop as well. Like Lovelady, he would have qualified for minor league free agency if not selected to the roster today.

Rivero, 24 next week, has been on the 40-man roster for two years now, serving as an optionable depth catcher in that time. He got into 34 MLB games over the past two years but 84 games in the minors. Though he hasn’t hit much, this still creates a bit of a hole on the club’s depth chart. Salvador Perez and MJ Melendez are now the only two backstops on the roster. Since they are both likely to get regular playing time, either by the designated hitter spot or Melendez spending time in the outfield, the club will likely look to add a backup catcher at some point this offseason.

The moves for Mondesi, Brentz and Zerpa are formalities since the injured list ends today and doesn’t return until Spring Training. That means all players currently on the IL will need to be reinstated or else cut from the roster in some way.

Royals Select Michael Massey

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1:00pm: The Royals announced to reporters, including Alec Lewis of The Athletic, that Zerpa has a small tear in the patellar tendon of his right knee.

11:42am: The Royals announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of second baseman Michael Massey and recalled catcher Sebastian Rivero from Triple-A Omaha. Massey will take Whit Merrifield’s spot on the active roster, while Rivero is up in place of backup Cam Gallagher. Both Merrifield and Gallagher were traded prior to yesterday’s deadline. Lefty Angel Zerpa was moved to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Massey.

Massey, the Royals’ fourth-round pick in 2019, is in enjoying an outstanding season in the minors, posting a combined .312/.371/.532 with 16 home runs, 28 doubles and 13 steals through 391 plate appearances. That includes a massive .325/.392/.595 batting line (158 wRC+) in 143 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level. Baseball America tabbed him eighth among Kansas City prospects on their midseason ranking of the system, giving him above-average grades for his hit tool, power and glove at second base.

With Merrifield traded, there’s a clear opening for the 24-year-old Massey to join Bobby Witt Jr. as a staple in the Kansas City infield. He’s certainly not as ballyhooed a prospect as Witt was prior to his debut, but Massey was selected with the 109th overall draft pick not long ago and has done nothing but hit since making his professional debut. For a 41-63 Royals club that is clearly playing for the future for the remainder of the current season, Massey is just the type of promising youngster who ought to command everyday at-bats in hopes of seizing a spot on next year’s roster.

As for the 23-year-old Rivero, he’ll give Kansas City a third catching option behind Salvador Perez and MJ Melendez. With that duo on the roster for the foreseeable future, it’ll be tough for Rivero to carve out much of a role, but he has a minor league option remaining beyond the current season. Rivero hasn’t hit in a tiny sample of 58 big league plate appearances, but he has a .266/.322/.380 line in 171 Triple-A plate appearances that’s at least passable for a catcher, particularly an organization’s No. 3 catcher on the 40-man roster.

Zerpa, 22, is one of the organization’s more promising pitching prospects, but a move to the 60-day injured list could very well mean the end of his season. The Royals placed him on the 15-day injured list due to a right knee injury last week but have yet to provide more details surrounding today’s shift to the 60-day IL.

IL Transactions: Matz, VerHagen, Lynch, De Jong

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The Cardinals activated left-hander Steven Matz off the 15-day injured list today, as Matz was slated to start the Cardinals’ game against the Reds before the contest was rained out.  Matz will now have to wait until after the All-Star break to make his official return to the field, as he has been sidelined since May 22 due to a shoulder impingement.  With the Cards in need of rotation help, a healthy and effective Matz would be a major boost to the team, as both sides must hope that this two-month absence can essentially be a restart on Matz’s season.  After signing a four-year, $44MM free agent deal with St. Louis in November, Matz stumbled out of the gate with a 6.03 ERA over his first 37 1/3 innings in a Cardinals uniform.

To create room on the active roster, St. Louis placed right-hander Drew VerHagen on the 15-day IL with a right hip impingement.  A similar injury sent VerHagen to the injured list for a little over three weeks earlier this season, and the righty was just activated from another IL stint (due to shoulder problems) earlier this week.  With all of these health issues, it perhaps isn’t surprising that VerHagen has only a 6.65 ERA over 21 2/3 innings, with walks and home runs being particular issues for the 31-year-old.  VerHagen is another offseason signing for the Cards, joining the team on a two-year, $5.5MM deal after spending the previous two seasons pitching in Japan.

More comings and goings off the injured list from around the league…

  • The Royals placed left-hander Daniel Lynch on the 15-day IL, as Lynch is again dealing with a blister problem.  Lynch had already been sent to the IL with that same blister issue on June 24, and he was activated earlier this week and made two abbreviated starts before returning to the sidelines.  It has been a difficult season for Lynch, who has a 5.05 ERA and a wealth of troubling Statcast metrics over 15 starts and 71 1/3 innings.  Lynch’s IL placement was part of a busy day of roster moves for the Royals, who sent 10 players (Angel Zerpa, Nick Pratto, Gabe Speier, Collin Snider, Brewer Hicklen, Michael Massey, Freddy Fermin, Nate Eaton to Triple-A; Sebastian Rivero and Maikel Garcia to Double-A) to the minors in the aftermath of their series in Toronto.  This clears the way for the return of 10 Kansas City players, who were placed on the restricted list due to their non-vaccinated status.
  • The Pirates placed righty Chase De Jong on the 15-day IL due to tendinitis in his left knee, and Bryse Wilson (today’s starting pitcher against the Rockies) was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.  Another knee injury is perhaps a red flag for De Jong, who underwent surgery on that same left knee last year.  The surgery cut short De Jong’s first season in Pittsburgh, but after signing another minor league deal with the Bucs this past winter, De Jong has rebounded to post a 2.06 ERA over 35 relief innings in 2022.
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