Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Royals Rumors

Offseason In Review: Kansas City Royals

By | at

Raise your hand if you had the Royals being one of the top-five spenders in free agency on your offseason bingo card back in November. Kansas City is focused on improving in the here and now, and their offseason reflects that.

Major League Signings

2024 spend: $53MM
Total spend: $110.5MM

Option Decisions

  • None

Trades and Claims

Extensions

Notable Minor League Signings

Notable Losses

The Royals’ second season under general manager J.J. Picollo, who replaced longtime president of baseball operations Dayton Moore after his firing, took a markedly different tone than the first. Kansas City spent more money on one individual signing, right-hander Seth Lugo, than they had in the entire 2022-23 offseason. Lugo proved to be one of two notable additions to the rotation, joining righty Michael Wacha in what should be a far more competitive pitching staff than the Royals ran out in 2023.

Lugo and Wacha will largely replace outgoing franchise icon Zack Greinke and non-tendered righty Brad Keller, who combined for 36 starts last year (27 from Greinke, nine from Keller). They’ll join last year’s deadline prize Cole Ragans and returning right-hander Brady Singer in a Kansas City rotation that should be far, far more stable than the 2023 group. Last year, only four Royals — Greinke, Singer, Ragans and Jordan Lyles — even started more than nine games.

While Lugo and Wacha aren’t exactly aces, the Royals hope they’ve unearthed one in the 26-year-old Ragans, who starred for them following his acquisition in the Aroldis Chapman swap with Texas. Ragans’ 2.64 ERA, 31.1% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 45.5% grounder rate have the look of a top-end starter. Lugo thrived in a move to the rotation in San Diego last season, notching a 3.57 ERA in 146 1/3 frames. Former and once-again teammate Wacha delivered a second straight solid season in San Diego and joins up with Lugo again. If the Royals can get something closer to the 2022 version of Singer (as opposed to the 2023 version), the rotation could be a strength. Lyles will eat innings in the fifth spot, but in-house names like Daniel Lynch IV and Alec Marsh could eventually push him for that spot.

Lugo and Wacha weren’t the only starters the Royals acquired, but they’re the only ones who’ll pitch for Kansas City in 2024. The Royals bought low on injured Braves right-hander Kyle Wright, shipping change-of-scenery candidate Jackson Kowar to Atlanta in order to pick him up — knowing full well that shoulder surgery will cost Wright the upcoming season. He will spend the year on the 60-day IL, but he has two remaining seasons of club control beyond the 2024 campaign. Adding him at the cost of a now twice-traded former first-rounder, Kowar, is a nice bit of long-term business for a team that has been plagued in the past by a lack of pitching depth.

Kansas City’s bullpen additions might not have generated as much attention but represented an even broader-reaching overhaul of the staff. Free agents Will Smith and Chris Stratton bring closing and setup experience — to say nothing of a pair of 2023 World Series rings — to the 2024 Royals. They cost a combined $13MM in guarantees, with Stratton coming aboard on a two-year deal with a surprising player option (more on that in a bit).

Right-hander Nick Anderson was a buy-low addition who has been dominant at times but rarely healthy. Righty John Schreiber had a big 2022 in Boston and took a step back in 2023 thanks largely to a spike in walk rate. But Schreiber misses bats at above-average levels, keeps the ball on the ground well and hadn’t struggled with his command prior to the 2023 season. Anderson is controllable through 2025 and cost only cash. Schreiber has three years of control and cost the Royals right-hander David Sandlin, a 2022 eleventh-round pick who’s significantly improved his prospect status since being selected.

Royals relievers in 2023 ranked 29th in the big leagues in terms of ERA and were 25th or worse in FIP and SIERA. Only two teams saw their bullpens walk relievers at a higher rate, and Kansas City’s 22.8% strikeout rate from the ’pen was tied for 22nd in MLB. All of that includes a strong three months from the aforementioned Chapman in addition to contributions from Jose Cuas and Scott Barlow, both also moved at the deadline.

Generally speaking, it was a group that needed work, and the additions of Smith, Stratton, Anderson and Schreiber should go a long way toward helping the unit overall. The Royals will also hope that they struck gold on righty James McArthur, whom they acquired in a DFA trade with the Phillies last May. McArthur posted underwhelming numbers in both Philly and Kansas City … at least until a September call-up in which he fired off an incredible 16 1/3 innings of shutout relief with just five hits and no walks against 19 strikeouts. McArthur has also dominated in a small sample of 6 1/3 spring innings (one run) and is a clear name to watch for this team.

The additions on the position-player side of things were far more modest. Hunter Renfroe received a somewhat surprising two-year pact after a pedestrian showing with the Angels and a very rocky finish with the Reds. He’s a clear 20-homer bat who’ll add some needed punch to the K.C. lineup, but Renfroe’s once-elite defensive ratings and his power output have both dropped off recently. A move to Kauffman Stadium probably won’t help the latter, and his career .300 OBP (.297 in ’23) is a curious fit for a club that ranked 28th in the majors with a collective .303 OBP last season.

Adam Frazier joins Renfroe as something of a buy-low play on a veteran who’s seen better days. An All-Star with the Pirates, Frazier’s bat hasn’t been the same since being traded from Pittsburgh to San Diego at the 2021 trade deadline. He’s taken 1268 plate appearances with the Padres, Mariners and Orioles but mustered only a .244/.305/.345 slash in that time. Frazier’s $4.5MM guarantee with the Royals isn’t much by today’s standards, and his excellent bat-to-ball skills mesh with a Royals club that has tended to prioritize contact over power. Even during his rough stretch since that ’21 trade, Frazier has fanned at just a 12.9% clip. He won’t be the starter at second or in left field — that’ll be Michael Massey and MJ Melendez, respectively — but he gives the Royals some depth at both spots and a contact-oriented bat off the bench.

Speaking of the bench, that’s been overhauled as well. Gone are Samad Taylor, Edward Olivares and Matt Duffy, among others. Frazier will join superutility man Garrett Hampson as a free-agent pickup for the bench. Hampson posted roughly average offensive numbers in Miami last season — well ahead of his previously middling career marks — and can play just about anywhere on the field. He’s not an elite defender at any one spot and is a candidate to regress with the bat (.379 BABIP, 26.6% strikeout rate), but the Royals love speed and Hampson clocked into the 98th percentile of MLB players in sprint speed last year, per Statcast.

Kansas City also picked up Austin Nola on a cheap one-year deal late in the offseason after the Padres cut him loose. He has a minor league option remaining and could thus be ticketed for Triple-A, but Nola has experience playing multiple infield positions in addition to catcher and the Royals have considered carrying him along with both Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin on the roster. Perez is better suited as a DH at this point but still figures to catch his share of games. If the Royals choose to carry all three, Nola gives them a viable backup on days they want to DH Perez and start the defensively superior Fermin behind the dish. If they don’t, he’ll give them an experienced backup option in Omaha.

The biggest piece of business for the Royals, however, was their franchise-record-shattering extension for shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. The $288.777MM deal more than tripled Perez’s $82MM pact, which had stood as the previous high-water mark for the franchise. Witt improved across the board as a sophomore in his age-23 season, with gains in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, walk rate, strikeout rate, power output, defensive grades, exit velocity, hard-hit rate and barrel rate. He finished the season one steal shy of the exceptionally rare 30-homer, 50-stolen base campaign.

Royals fans have legitimate cause to celebrate Witt’s extension, though it’s perhaps not the career-long commitment to the franchise most would believe at first glance. The opt-out provision after the contract’s seventh season has a strong chance to be exercised, at least if the two parties don’t revisit his contract status closer to that decision point. After the 2030 season, Witt will be guaranteed (ahem) “just” four years and an additional $140MM as he enters his age-31 season. It’d be an easy call for a player with his ability to trigger that opt out even in 2024, and salaries in MLB will presumably only have moved forward further by that point. The two parties could always look to renegotiate a longer pact at that point — one that decisively keeps Witt in Kansas City for his entire career.

Even if they don’t do so and Witt eventually takes the opt-out route, there’s still plenty to be happy about for the Royals. It’s true that the opt-out and enormous guarantee create more injury downside than legitimate contractual upside for the Royals, but that was the cost of buying out at least three prime-aged free-agent seasons on a 23-year-old superstar who looks likely to be a bona fide MVP candidate multiple times over the seven seasons in which the Royals have complete control over him.

Opt-outs were a common theme for the Royals this winter, not only in their extension with Witt but in nearly every free agent contract they doled out. Lugo can opt out after the 2025 season. Each of Wacha, Renfroe and even Stratton gains the ability to opt out after the upcoming season. Not long ago, opt-out clauses were generally reserved for the game’s elite free agents, but the Royals joined a growing number of smaller and mid-market teams that have used them as leverage to lure second- or even third-tier free agents. Stratton securing a 2025 player option as a 33-year-old reliever who averages just over 93 mph on his heater and has narrowly kept his ERA under 4.00 over the past four seasons was particularly surprising.

For the Royals, the opt-out provisions may have been something of a necessary evil, though. Free agents tend to want to sign in winning situations, and the team lost a whopping 106 games during the 2023 campaign. Even when offering multi-year deals, the Royals’ recent run of futility in the AL Central — one of baseball’s weakest divisions — is a tough sell to free agents who have a decent market. Offering the leverage of a competitive year-one salary with the allure of a return to the market next winter if things go well is a strong sweetener — one at which many clubs would likely balk.

There’s real downside to the gambit. If Wacha were to sustain a major injury or regress to his 2019-21 form, for instance, a team with the Royals’ typically modest payroll would be on the hook for a significant sum. The Padres gave Wacha a series of opt-outs when signing him last offseason, but that was effectively a mechanism to duck the luxury tax. Wacha was guaranteed $26MM on his “four-year” deal but was never likely to trigger a series of $6.5MM player options. In essence, the player options just tamped down the contract’s AAV because they’re considered guaranteed money.

The Royals’ series of opt-outs is far different; they’re guaranteeing market-rate salaries and pairing that with immediate opportunities to return to the market (or, in Lugo’s case, an opportunity two years down the line). If any of Wacha, Stratton or Renfroe exercise that player option, it’ll be because the 2024 results weren’t there, and that’ll be a notable and likely unwanted salary on the books for the 2025 Royals.

It’s a gamble the Royals probably prefer not to make but one that might have been necessary to bring about this type of change in a single offseason. And, make no mistake about it, this is an unequivocally improved and deepened Royals roster. The question is whether they’ve done enough to earnestly contend. A full season of Ragans could go a long way toward improving the outlook, if he can sustain his post-trade breakout. Ditto McArthur, though his success was in an even smaller sample. The rest of the Royals’ pickups were largely focused on raising the floor, but few come with star-caliber upside.

Any such improvements will need to come internally. A fully healthy, breakout season from first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino seems plausible. Nelson Velazquez won’t keep homering at the pace he did in ’23 (14 homers in 147 plate appearances), but he makes gobs of hard contact and looked like a potential middle-of-the-order bat after coming over from the Cubs. The Royals will need similar strides from Melendez, Massey and/or first baseman/DH Nick Pratto if they’re to gain the necessary ground to compete for a postseason berth. They finished 31 games back of the Twins and 33 games out of a Wild Card spot in 2023, and the AL Central has only seen the Tigers get better.

There’s no doubt the Royals are better, but even with so many additions, they could face an uphill battle as they look for not only their first trip to the playoffs since winning the 2015 World Series — but their first winning season since that fateful year.

Dairon Blanco To Undergo Calf MRI

By | at

Royals manager Matt Quatraro provided some updates today about players on the roster, with Anne Rogers of MLB.com relaying them on X. Outfielder Dairon Blanco, who departed Saturday’s game with some cramping, will get an MRI on his calf today. Quatraro framed it as precautionary, saying the MRI was “just in case.” Meanwhile, right-hander Carlos Hernández is playing catch as he ramps up after being shut down with shoulder soreness a couple of weeks ago.

Though Quatraro downplayed the issue with Blanco, an MRI always implies some level of concern. If healthy, Blanco would likely be in line for a part-time bench role for the club, similar to the job he had last year. He got into 69 games in 2023 but only garnered 138 plate appearances, often entering games as a pinch runner or defensive replacement. He hit a solid .258/.324/.452 in that time for a wRC+ of 108 while also stealing 24 bases in 29 tries.

He was even more impressive at Triple-A, as he stole 47 bases in just 49 games at that level. His huge .347/.444/.451 slash line translated to a wRC+ of 136. He played all three outfield spots, both at Triple-A and in the majors, with his big league glovework getting positive reviews from advanced defensive metrics.

The Royals are likely to give regular playing time to Hunter Renfroe, MJ Melendez, Nelson Velázquez and Kyle Isbel between their three outfield positions and the designated hitter slot. Blanco will be backing up that group and coming off the bench as long as he doesn’t require a trip to the injured list. If he does need to miss some time, it could perhaps open a roster spot for Nick Pratto, Drew Waters or Tyler Gentry.

As for Hernández, as mentioned, he was shut down with shoulder soreness a couple of weeks ago. He played catch over the weekend and will do so again today as he starts to ramp back up. Whether he can be an option for the club early in the season will depend on how he progresses in the next little bit, with Opening Day now just over two weeks away.

Last year, he looked to be breaking out as a key reliever for the Royals. After an outing on August 4, he was sitting on an earned run average of 3.60 through 55 innings on the year. He had a 29.7% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and had earned 11 holds and a save. But he stumbled down the stretch, allowing 19 earned run in his final 15 innings and boosting his season ERA to 5.27.

Hernández will be looking to get back to that excellent form in 2024, though obviously with a strong finish. The year is off to a bit of a shaky start with the shoulder issue but it’s an encouraging sign that he has resumed throwing.

Royals’ Tyler Duffey Recently Underwent Procedure To Treat Melanoma

By | at

Veteran reliever Tyler Duffey revealed today that he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous mole from his left shoulder last week (link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com). Duffey fortunately said that testing after the surgery has come back negative, although he’ll continue to undergo periodic check-ups over the next few months. Bally Sports Kansas City provides video of his media session on X.

Duffey noted the skin spot to doctors when he reported for his intake physical as a non-roster invitee with the Royals. He underwent a biopsy that revealed it to be melanoma last Monday. Duffey nevertheless pitched a scoreless inning against the Cubs before going in for surgery to remove what remained of the cancerous tissue the following day. He hasn’t pitched since then but was cleared to begin light baseball activities today, Rogers writes. Duffey is hopeful of getting back into games before the conclusion of Spring Training.

An understandably emotional Duffey revealed that both his parents had had cancer. He told reporters that his decision to publicize his diagnosis is to encourage others to be vigilant. “We’re in the sun a lot. We’re outside always, often not even thinking about it, sitting in a bullpen. … It takes nothing to get checked, I guess that’s the biggest thing I’ve taken from it. It’s no effort other than showing up.”

A longtime division rival of the Royals, Duffey has spent the majority of his career with the Twins. He worked in a high-leverage role for Minnesota between 2019-21, combining for a 2.69 ERA in 144 appearances over that stretch. Duffey stumbled to a 4.91 mark in 2022. He spent most of last season in the minors, although he returned to the big leagues for a two-inning appearance with the Cubs in the final weekend of the year. Duffey inked a non-roster pact with Kansas City in December and is battling for a job in the relief corps this spring. MLBTR sends our best wishes.

U. L. Washington Passes Away

By | at

Former big league shortstop U. L. Washington passed away on Sunday at the age of 70 after a battle with cancer.

“We mourn the loss of Royals Baseball Academy graduate and 1980 American League Champion U. L. Washington and send our condolences to his family and friends,” the Royals said in a statement earlier today.

“So sorry to hear my friend my teammate UL Washington has died of cancer,” Hall of Famer George Brett said in his own statement on X last night. “He was a great player. I will always be thankful of our time together with the Royals.”

Born in Stringtown, Oklahoma, Washington played collegiate baseball at Murray State College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma for one year before being admitted into the Royals Baseball Academy in 1973, which he attended alongside the likes of Frank White and Ron Washington. After spending several years in the Kansas City system, Washington made his big league debut at the age of 23 in 1977, though he was limited to a 10-game cup of coffee in the majors that season as the Royals went on to win 102 games before falling to the Yankees in the ALCS. Washington grew into a larger utility role with the club over the next two seasons, batting a combined .257/.304/.338 while playing solid defense at both second base and shortstop.

By 1980, Washington had developed into the club’s everyday shortstop and enjoyed the best season of his career to that point, slashing .276/.336/.375 in 153 games in conjunction with slick fielding. Washington’s first season as a regular saw the club reach the World Series, though they ultimately fell to the Phillies in a six-game set. Washington was a key contributor during the club’s postseason run not only in the field but also at the plate, where he went 10-for-33. After struggling somewhat during the strike-shortened 1981 season, the then-28-year-old returned to form in 1982 with a career year that saw him slash an above-average .286/.337/.412 despite missing a month due to injury. Washington came back down to Earth over his final two seasons with the Royals, batting just .233/.294/.310 in a combined 207 games despite recording a 40-steal season in 1983.

The switch-hitter’s tenure in Kansas City came to an end upon being dealt to the Expos in January 1985 in exchange for a package featuring southpaw Mike Kinnunen. Washington played in a utility capacity for the Expos, spending time at shortstop as well as second and third base while slashing .249/.301/.352 in 209 trips to the plate with the club. Washington hit free agency following the 1985 season, but did not sign with a club until partway through the 1986 campaign when he latched on with the Pirates. The then-32-year-old shortstop would finish his career in Pittsburgh, appearing in 82 games over two seasons with the club.

Washington finished his major league career with 907 games under his belt across eleven seasons, 757 of which came as a member of the Royals. A career .251/.313/.343 hitter, he stole 132 bases and clubbed 166 extra-base hits throughout his career while recording 5,864 1/3 innings at shortstop. Though Washington’s playing career in the majors came to a close in 1987, his time in the game was far from over. He began his coaching career as a manager in the Pirates’ system in 1989 before moving on the act as a hitting coach in the Royals, Dodgers, Twins, and Red Sox organizations. During his time as a coach, he worked with future stars such as Tim Wakefield and Mookie Betts.

MLBTR joins the rest of the baseball world in sending our condolences to Washington’s family, friends, loved ones, and former teammates.

AL Notes: Royals, Astros, McKay

By | at

The Royals are entering the 2024 season with elevated expectations after the club spent more than $100MM in free agency this winter on top of a massive 11-year extension for franchise shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. With that influx of free agent talent comes increased competition for spots on the club’s Opening Day roster. That excess of talent is particularly clear in the outfield, where manager Matt Quatraro recently indicated to reporters (including MLB.com’s Anne Rogers) that the club’s logjam is likely to result in the club carrying five outfielders on its roster to open the 2024 campaign.

Kansas City signed veteran outfield Hunter Renfroe to be the club’s regular right fielder, and Rogers suggests that glove-first center fielder and former top catching prospect MJ Melendez are the favorites to receive regular playing time on the grass alongside him. That leaves two spots on the bench available for a group that includes Drew Waters, Nelson Velazquez, and Dairon Blanco. A former top prospect in the Braves farm system, Waters was shipped to the Royals midseason back in 2022 and has since slashed a decent .231/.306/.402 in 130 games with the club. Velazquez, meanwhile, joined the club at last year’s trade deadline in a deal with the Cubs and displayed prodigious power down the stretch with 14 home runs in just 40 games. Blanco, 31 next month, is by far the oldest of the trio but performed well in a part-time role last season, going 24-for-29 on the basepaths while slashing .258/.324/.452 in 69 games that saw him spend time in all three outfield spots.

With the club expecting to carry five outfielders on the roster to open the season, that significantly limits the paths to an Opening Day roster spot for other bench options. Veterans Adam Frazier and Garrett Hampson both signed major league deals this past winter and appear locked into utility roles on the bench, and with Melendez now a full-time outfielder the Royals will have to enter the season with Freddy Fermin on the roster as the backup to veteran backstop Salvador Perez. That would seemingly leave little room on the club’s roster for Nick Pratto, the club’s first-round pick in the 2017 draft and a former top prospect. The first baseman has 144 big league games under his belt but has yet to establish himself in the majors, slashing just .216/.295/.364 in a combined 527 trips to the plate during that time.

More from around the American League…

  • Astros manager Joe Espada announced to reporters (including MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart) that right-handers Justin Verlander and J.P. France will throw bullpen sessions tomorrow. Espada indicated last week that Verlander’s next bullpen would determine not only whether or not he would then progress to live hitting but also his readiness for Opening Day. If Verlander begins the season on the shelf, it’s possible his spot in the rotation could go to France, assuming that the 28-year-old avoids an injured list stint of his own. The righty impressed with a 3.83 ERA in 136 1/3 innings of work with the big league club last year, almost entirely out of the starting rotation. Should Verlander be healthy enough to make his Opening Day start, France would likely be left to compete for the fifth spot in the club’s rotation with the likes of Ronel Blanco and Brandon Bielak.
  • Rays southpaw Brendan McKay made his first professional appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery late in the 2022 season today, and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times spoke to the lefty following the appearance. Per Topkin, McKay expressed satisfaction with his progress, indicating that his curveball is “getting better” while his fastball, which Topkin adds sat at 90 while touching 91, is “in a good spot” to gain more velocity going forward. McKay typically sat at 94 with his heater when he last pitched in the majors in 2019, though the former top prospect and fourth-overall pick of the 2017 draft has dealt with both Tommy John surgery and Thoracic Outlet Syndrome since then. Once a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport, it’s easy to imagine McKay impacting the club’s pitching staff at some point this season if he can remain healthy.

Carlos Hernández Shut Down Due To Shoulder Soreness

By | at

Royals manager Matt Quatraro provided some updates about the club’s players to Anne Rogers of MLB.com (X links). Right-hander Carlos Hernández will be shut down for a while due to shoulder soreness while left-handed pitching prospect Christian Chamberlain has a torn ulnar collateral ligament.

Last week, it was reported that Hernández had been slowed by the shoulder issue but that the club was still hopeful of him getting six or seven Spring Training appearances before being ready for Opening Day. But per today’s updates, he did not respond well to his recent bullpen and required a cortisone injection. He’ll now be shut down for an undetermined amount of time that the Royals are hoping will be short.

Hernández, 27 next month, seemed to be in the middle of a breakout last year but faded down the stretch. Steve Adams of MLBTR profiled him in mid-July when Hernandez had a 3.86 earned run average, 28.5% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate for the year. But Hernández also had significantly dropped his curveball usage after a couple of rough outings to start the year and saw noticeable improvements. From mid-April to mid-July, he had a 3.12 ERA, 31% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to finish strong. From the start of August through the end of the season, he allowed 20 earned runs in 17 innings pitched, walking more batters than he struck out. That caused his season-long ERA to finish at an unimpressive 5.27. But his triple-digit fastball velocity and that strong stretch in the middle of last year made him an intriguing breakout candidate heading into 2024.

The shoulder issue could potentially put a damper on that, depending on how Hernández responds to treatment and ramping back up in a few weeks. The Royals have made a number of moves to alter their bullpen this winter, signing free agents Will Smith and Chris Stratton while also trading for Nick Anderson and John Schreiber. Those new guys, as well as incumbents like James McArthur and John McMillon, should give the Royals some cover if Hernández needs to miss some time.

As for Chamberlain, he’s likely looking at a long absence. Based on the reporting from Rogers, it seems like Tommy John surgery isn’t yet guaranteed but is certainly on the table. Now 24, Chamberlain was drafted by the Royals in 2020. Over the past three years, he has climbed through High-A, Double-A and Triple-A, logging a combined 109 1/3 innings over 81 appearances. He has struck out 31% of batters faced but also given out walks at a 19% clip, leading to a 5.60 ERA.

Last summer, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs listed Chamberlain as the club’s #19 prospect. The lefty would have been in the mix for a 2024 debut since he had already reached Triple-A but that seems unlikely now. If he does require Tommy John surgery, he would miss the entire 2024 season and likely the early portions of 2025 as well.

Royals Sign Austin Nola To Major League Deal

By | at

February 23: Nola inked a split deal that pays him at a $975K rate in the majors and $175K for time spent in Triple-A, reports The Associated Press. He could tack on another $250K in incentives for games played in MLB: $50K apiece at 25, 50, 75, 100 and 125 contests.

February 22: The Royals announced the signing of catcher Austin Nola to a major league contract. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (X links) first reported the deal. Kansas City placed Kris Bubic on the 60-day injured list to clear an opening on the 40-man roster.

Nola, a client of Paragon Sports International, had been in camp with the Brewers on a non-roster pact. GM Matt Arnold told reporters this evening that Milwaukee was granting him a release to pursue other opportunities (relayed on X by Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Milwaukee indeed has a fairly crowded catching depth chart. Nola was never going to supplant William Contreras as the starter. At the time he agreed to his deal on January 5, the backup role was going to be held by Eric Haase. Milwaukee added a clearer #2 catcher this week when they signed Gary Sánchez. Haase remains on the roster and is out of options. There was little chance of Nola securing an MLB job in camp unless one or two of the players above him suffered an injury.

It’s the second straight year in which Sánchez has blocked Nola’s path to big league playing time. That’s largely on account of the latter’s recent struggles, particularly last season. He’d been the Opening Day catcher for the Padres in each of the last two years. He got off to a very poor start in 2023, hitting .146/.260/.192 over 52 games. San Diego optioned him to Triple-A in mid-July, relying on the tandem of Sánchez (whom they’d claimed off waivers a few weeks earlier) and Luis Campusano for the stretch run.

Nola only appeared in eight Triple-A contests. He spent some time on the minor league injured list. In September, he revealed that he’d been diagnosed with oculomotor dysfunction, a vision disorder. While that could’ve played a role in his dismal production, it was nevertheless an easy call for San Diego to non-tender him. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected him for a $2.35MM salary if he were offered an arbitration contract.

That ended an overall disappointing tenure in Southern California. The Padres acquired Nola at the 2020 trade deadline from the Mariners. While the LSU product had hit .280/.351/.476 in a limited sample with Seattle, he managed a .234/.314/.320 slash over 819 plate appearances as a Padre.

His formerly strong defensive marks also dropped precipitously. Nola had rated as an above-average framer and blocker early in his career. Over the past two seasons, he has received very poor grades in both departments. Nola has roughly average arm strength.

Despite the recent struggles, he gets a 40-man roster spot in Kansas City. The Royals have Salvador Pérez and Freddy Fermín as the two catchers on the 40-man. Fermín played well enough last year to hold the backup job. Nola still has one minor league option remaining, though, so K.C. could keep him at Triple-A Omaha as needed.

Nola has four years and 45 days of MLB service. Players with five years of service can no longer be optioned, so Nola would have the right to refuse additional minor league assignments once he crosses the five-year threshold. That won’t happen until the second half of next season at the earliest. The Royals could keep him around for 2025 via arbitration, so it could be a multi-year pickup if Nola finds his form.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Royals Notes: Catchers, Hernandez, Pasquantino

By | at

The Royals’ recent deal with Austin Nola gives them three catchers on the 40-man roster, and the organization has considered carrying all three to open the season, general manager J.J. Picollo suggested Friday (X link via Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star). Picollo voiced confidence that Freddy Fermin would break camp as the team’s backup to Salvador Perez but noted that “there’s a chance” all three of Perez, Fermin and Nola could be on the Opening Day club. Thompson notes that Kansas City pursued Nola earlier in the offseason before yesterday’s deal as well.

Carrying three catchers could make it easier for the Royals to get Perez some extra time at designated hitter. That’d be a boost to the team’s overall defense, as while Perez graded as a plus defender and won five Gold Gloves earlier in his career, he’s not the same defensive player now as he approaches his 34th birthday. Perez has long been one of the sport’s iron men behind the dish, working one of the largest workloads of any catcher in the game. It’s natural that such heavy usage would take its toll on his 6’3″, 255-pound frame, as would the Tommy John surgery that wiped out his 2019 season. Even with that missed season, Perez has caught more innings (9,071) than anyone other than Yadier Molina since the 2013 season.

Even post-Tommy John surgery, in 2021, Perez led the league with a massive 44% caught-stealing rate behind the dish. That number plummeted over the two subsequent seasons, however, bottoming out at a career-low 14% in 2023. Statcast still credits Perez with solid blocking skills on pitches in the dirt, but he’s also among the league’s least-effective backstops in terms of framing pitches by that same measure. Perez posted a combined 28 Defensive Runs Saved from 2012-16 and was roughly average from 2017-19, but he’s been below average in each of the past three seasons, including -11 DRS in just 738 innings this past season.

Fermin, meanwhile, posted strong defensive grades in 2023 and delivered a surprisingly solid .281/.321/.461 slash as a 28-year-old rookie. There’s an argument to be made that based on defense alone, he deserves a larger share of playing time than a traditional backup. Nola’s defensive grades have waned as he’s entered his mid-30s, but rostering him would make it easier for the Royals to DH Perez, start Fermin behind the dish and still have another catching option. He’s also spent time at first base and second base, with more sparse appearances at third base and in the outfield corners. Nola does have a minor league option remaining, so it’s also possible he heads to Triple-A Omaha as a more conventional depth option.

Turning to the Kansas City bullpen, right-hander Carlos Hernandez has been slowed by injury to this point in camp, Picollo announced (X link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com). The flamethrowing 26-year-old (27 next month) hasn’t thrown off a mound in two weeks due to soreness in his right shoulder, but the team anticipates he’ll have enough time to make six to seven spring appearances. That’s position him to be ready for Opening Day, assuming there are no setbacks with that ailing shoulder.

Hernandez is coming off an unsightly 5.27 ERA in 70 innings last season, although a poor finish to the year torpedoed what had been solid numbers for much of the ’23 campaign. Through the first four months of the year, Hernandez pitched 53 innings with a 3.57 ERA, 30% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate. Everything trended in the wrong direction over the final two months, however; Hernandez’s strikeout rate nearly halved, clocking in at 15.6%, and his walk rate exploded to 17.8%. Six of the ten homers he surrendered last year came over his final 17 innings, and he would up yielding a grisly 20 earned runs in that time.

Whether the shoulder was healthy to close out the season or was quietly bothering him, Hernandez showed for two-thirds of the season that he has the ability to be a key piece in the Kansas City bullpen. His health will be a notable factor for K.C. fans to track throughout spring training.

On the other end of the health spectrum, the Royals welcomed first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino back to the lineup Friday — his first game appearance in more than 250 days since undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. Pasquantino chatted with Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star about the rigors of the rehab process — not only the physical ones but also the mental difficulty of being sidelined.

The 26-year-old called his time away from the field “miserable,” particularly given some added guilt stemming from the fact that he elected to undergo surgery at a time when the Royals were in Baltimore, just a three-hour drive from his native Richmond, Va. Friends and family had flocked to Camden Yards to see Pasquantino play, only for him to instead opt for a season-ending surgical procedure. Pasquantino offered plenty of candid comments on the nature of his rehab and detailed the intense video work he underwent during his down time as he studied all aspects of the game and searched for ways to improve.

Pasquantino came roaring out of the gate in 2023, slashing .298/.383/.539 with seven homers and more walks (11.7%) than strikeouts (11%) in his first 163 trips to the plate. He fell into a deep slump thereafter, hitting just .167/.227/.278 in his next 97 trips to the plate before undergoing surgery.

A healthy Pasquantino would be a boon for a Royals team that has spent aggressively this offseason in an effort to turn the page on a series of losing seasons. Kansas City signed Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Will Smith, Chris Stratton, Hunter Renfroe, Adam Frazier and Garrett Hampson for a combined $109.5MM and traded for relievers John Schreiber and Nick Anderson in an effort to assemble a better club. There’s a massive gap to close after finishing the 2023 season with 106 losses, but there’s little doubting that Kansas City will be an improved club in 2024.

MLBTR Podcast: Finding Fits For The “Boras Four,” Which Teams Could Still Spend? And Rob Manfred In His Last Term

By | at

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Eric Hosmer Retires

By | at

First baseman Eric Hosmer hasn’t been on a major league roster in almost a year and has now decided to hang up his spikes. He tells John Perrotto of Forbes that he has now officially retired and is pivoting into the media sphere.

Hosmer, now 34, was one of many high-profile prospects in the Royals’ system, going back almost a couple of decades. The club leaned into a lengthy period of tanking in the early parts of this century, losing at least 87 games in nine straight seasons from 2004 to 2012. Over that time, they were able to pile up young talent in their farm system thanks to some strong draft picks. The deepest part of the rebuild was 2004 to 2007, with the club losing at least 93 games in each of those campaigns, but also getting a top-three pick in the draft for four straight years.

Those four picks were used on Alex Gordon, Luke Hochevar, Mike Moustakas and Hosmer. Those players combined with other youngsters like Lorenzo Cain, Salvador Pérez and Yordano Ventura to form a promising young core that the club was hoping to use to return to prominence.

Hosmer hit well on his way up the minor league ladder and was considered one of the top 10 prospects in the game going into 2011. He made a strong debut that year and showcased some tendencies that would go on to define his career, namely an ability to avoid strikeouts but also an inability to get under the ball. He didn’t walk much either, so the ball was often in play, with his numbers swaying from year to year depending on whether he was finding holes or not.

He only struck out in 14.6% of his plate appearances in his rookie season, well below that year’s league average of 18.6%. But 49.7% of his balls in play were pounded into the ground, noticeably above the 44.4% league average. Regardless, he still hit 19 home runs and slashed .293/.334/.465 for a wRC+ of 113.

In 2012, he suffered through a sophomore slump, hitting just .232/.304/.359 for a wRC+ of 80. Part of that was batted ball luck, as his BABIP dropped to .255 from .314 the year prior. But his grounder rate also ticked up to 53.6% and he only hit 14 homers. These sorts of oscillations continued into the next few years. In 2013, his batting average was up at .302 and he hit 17 homers, but then those numbers dipped to .270 and just nine long balls in 2014.

Despite the challenges for Hosmer in the latter year, the club’s planned return to contention finally clicked in a big way. The Royals went all the way to the World Series that year, though they ultimate were felled by the Giants in seven games. Hosmer was a big part of that run, as he hit .351/.439/.544 that postseason.

Just about everything went right the next year, despite Hosmer still putting 52% of batted balls into the dirt. He also hit 18 homers and slashed .297/.363/.459 for a wRC+ of 124. The Royals went back to the World Series and finished the job this time, taking down the Mets in five games to hoist their first trophy since 1985.

The club slipped near .500 in the next two seasons as the up-and-down performance continued for Hosmer. His bat dipped closer to league average in 2016, though he rebounded with arguably the best season of his career in 2017. His grounder rate was still very high at 55.6%, but he managed to park the ball over the fence 25 times and slashed .318/.385/.498 for a wRC+ of 135.

That was excellent timing for a career year, as that was his platform season for his first trip into free agency. Despite the inconsistent performance, the Padres took a chance on him, agreeing to an eight-year, $144MM deal. In addition to the offensive questions, his defensive metrics were never strong, in spite of his four Gold Glove awards while with the Royals. But the Padres had been undergoing their own period of insignificance, having just finished the seventh of what would eventually be nine straight losing seasons. The signing of Hosmer, the largest deal in franchise history at the time, was meant to signal an end of the rebuild and a return to relevance.

Unfortunately, the deal quickly went south, as Hosmer’s bat was around league average for most of his time in San Diego. From 2018 through 2021, he hit .264/.323/.415, translating to a wRC+ of 99. He was often the subject of trade rumors in that time, as the Friars looked to get out from under the deal. He was going to be sent to the Nationals as part of the deal that sent Juan Soto to San Diego, but Hosmer had a limited no-trade clause that allowed him to block the deal. That deal went through with Luke Voit taking Hosmer’s place, though Hoz was  flipped to the Red Sox instead, with that club not covered by his clause. The Padres ate the remainder of Hosmer’s contract, apart from the league minimum, and included a couple of prospects in order to get Jay Groome from Boston.

A stint on the injured list due to some back inflammation limited him to just 14 games with the Sox after the deal and they released him in the offseason to clear a path for prospect Triston Casas. The Cubs took a flier on Hosmer, which was essentially a free look since the Padres were still on the hook for his salary. But he hit poorly in 31 games as a Cub last year, producing a batting line of .234/.280/.330, and was released in May. He didn’t latch on elsewhere and has now decided to officially call it a career.

Though there were some ups and downs, Hosmer still has plenty of accolades on his ledger, including four Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger Award, an All-Star appearance and a World Series ring. He also won the World Baseball Classic with Team USA in 2017. He racked up 1,753 hits in his MLB career, including 322 doubles, 20 triples and 198 home runs. He scored 812 runs and drove in 893. Baseball Reference lists his career earnings just under $175MM. We at MLBTR salute Hosmer on a fine career and wish him the best in his next steps.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top