Royals, Taylor Clarke Agree To Minor League Deal
The Royals agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Taylor Clarke last week, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The 31-year-old returns to the organization after spending one season in the Milwaukee system. He’s represented by the Ballengee Group.
Clarke, a former Diamondbacks draftee, pitched with Kansas City in 2022 and ’23. The former was the best season of his career. Clarke turned in a 4.04 earned run average with stellar command across 49 relief innings. He struggled in his follow-up campaign, allowing nearly six earned runs per nine over 59 frames. The Royals dealt him to the Brewers last offseason for a pair of minor leaguers. Clarke suffered a meniscus injury in his right knee during Spring Training.
That required surgery, leading Clarke to begin the season on the minor league injured list. He struggled in Triple-A upon his return and lost his spot on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster in July. Clarke spent the entire season with their top affiliate in Nashville before qualifying for minor league free agency.
The Brewers used Clarke mostly out of the rotation in the minors. He started 15 of 22 outings, tallying 68 frames of 4.90 ERA ball. He’d pitched exclusively as a reliever or opener over his two seasons in Kansas City (and in his final year in Arizona). The Royals have more need for bullpen depth than they do for a starter, so they’re presumably targeting Clarke as a candidate for middle innings work.
Clarke has strong command and posted roughly average strikeout rates over his two seasons in K.C. He sat in the 95-96 MPH range with his heater in short stints. That dropped to around 93-94 in Triple-A this year, which is to be expected since he was working deeper into games. Clarke has struggled with the home run ball throughout his five MLB seasons, the biggest reason his career ERA sits narrowly above 5.00.
Royals, Kyle Wright Avoid Arbitration
The Royals announced that they have avoided arbitration with right-hander Kyle Wright and also signed new deals with lefties Evan Sisk and Noah Cameron. Wright’s deal is for $1.8MM, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. The salaries for Sisk and Cameron haven’t been reported but they are pre-arb players and likely set to make something near the $760K league minimum.
Wright’s $1.8MM salary is the same he made in 2024. He missed the entire season while recovering from a shoulder surgery he underwent in October of 2023, still with Atlanta at that time. It was known that he wasn’t going to be a factor this year but the Royals traded for him anyway in a long-play move.
Under the arbitration system, a player’s salary almost never goes down, so the Royals had likely planned on something like this. Wright can be retained through 2026, so they have effectively committed $3.6MM over a two-year period to get his services in 2025, with a chance at keeping him around another year as well.
There’s risk coming off a notable surgery and lost season but Wright will be a bargain at those price points if he can get back to his 2022 form. That year, he tossed 180 1/3 innings across 30 starts for Atlanta. He allowed 3.19 earned runs per nine with a 23.2% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 55.6% ground ball rate. His shoulder problems limited him to a 6.97 ERA in 31 innings in 2023 before the surgery wiped out the entire 2024 campaign.
The Royals had a strong rotation this year but just traded Brady Singer to the Reds to get Jonathan India and Joey Wiemer. They currently have Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha in three rotation spots. Assuming Wright is healthy and back in form, he’ll be a strong candidate for a back-end spot. His competition will likely come from Kris Bubic and Alec Marsh. Bubic missed most of 2023 due to Tommy John surgery but returned this year and posted strong numbers out of the bullpen. Marsh had a solid 4.53 ERA at the back of the rotation in 2024, logging 129 innings.
2024 Rule 5 Draft Results
The 2024 Rule 5 draft took place this afternoon at the Winter Meetings in Dallas. The results of the draft are below.
As a refresher, the Rule 5 draft is a way for players potentially talented enough for the big leagues but blocked by their current clubs to find opportunities elsewhere. Any players that were 18 and under at the time of their original signing and have played five professional seasons, and any players who signed at 19 years of age or older at signing that now have four professional seasons, who are not on a club’s 40-man roster are eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft.
Though the amateur (Rule 4) draft now has a lottery to determine the selection order, the Rule 5 draft still goes the old-fashioned way of reverse order of standings from the season that just ended. Clubs need to have an open 40-man roster spot in order to make a pick but aren’t obligated to make a selection on their turn. If they do make a pick, they will have to pay $100K to the team they select from. The selected players must stay on the active roster (or injured list) for the entire 2025 season or else be placed on waivers. If they clear waivers, they must be offered back to their original team. They cannot be optioned to the minors.
Last year’s edition saw some key players change clubs. The A’s took Mitch Spence from the Yankees with the top pick and kept him all year. Justin Slaten was plucked from the Rangers by the Mets and then traded to the Red Sox. Players like Anthony Santander and Ryan Pressly have been notable picks in other recent years while guys like George Bell and Roberto Clemente are found deeper in the history books.
Here are this year’s picks…
- White Sox: RHP Shane Smith (Brewers) (Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline relayed the pick on Bluesky prior to the draft)
- Rockies: pass
- Marlins: C Liam Hicks (Tigers)
- Angels: LHP Garrett McDaniels (Dodgers)
- Athletics: RHP Noah Murdock (Royals)
- Nationals: RHP Evan Reifert (Rays)
- Blue Jays: RHP Angel Bastardo (Red Sox)
- Pirates: pass
- Reds: 2B Cooper Bowman (Athletics)
- Rangers: pass
- Giants: pass
- Rays: LHP Nate Lavender (Mets)
- Red Sox: pass
- Twins: RHP Eiberson Castellano (Phillies)
- Cardinals: pass
- Cubs: 3B Gage Workman (Tigers)
- Mariners: pass
- Royals: pass
- Tigers: pass
- Astros: pass
- Mets: pass
- D-backs: pass
- Braves: RHP Anderson Pilar (Marlins)
- Orioles: pass
- Guardians: pass
- Padres: RHP Juan Nunez (Orioles)
- Brewers: LHP Connor Thomas (Cardinals)
- Yankees: pass
- Phillies: RHP Mike Vasil (Mets); Phillies later traded Vasil to Rays for cash considerations, per announcements from both clubs.
- Dodgers: pass
Second round (all but one club passed)
- Braves SS Christian Cairo (Guardians)
The minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft also occurred this afternoon. Those players will not go onto the selecting teams’ 40-man roster. Right-hander Hobie Harris, who pitched for the Nationals in 2023 and signed a minor league deal with the Mets last month, was taken by the Red Sox.
Royals Receiving Trade Interest In Angel Zerpa
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.
Jonathan India, Michael Massey Willing To Play Left Field For Royals
Jonathan India spent the vast majority of his tenure with the Reds playing second base. Michael Massey has also been a primary second baseman throughout his first three seasons with the Royals. Now that India and Massey both play for Kansas City, Royals manager Matt Quatraro will have to be creative to get them both in the lineup. That could involve some platooning (Massey bats left-handed and India bats righty) and each spending some time at DH, but Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic suggest a third possibility: the outfield. According to Rosenthal and Sammon, India and Massey are both willing to try their hands at left field next season.
India has never played a defensive position other than second base in his career. He prepared for a multi-positional role with the Reds in 2024 when it looked like the team would have a logjam in the infield, but Cincinnati’s infield depth quickly diminished, and India ended up playing more second base than he had in any season since his rookie campaign. Massey has a couple of additional positions on his defensive resume, but that’s little more than a technicality. He played one game at third base in his rookie season and one inning in center field earlier this year.
Although second base is the position they both know best, neither has ever graded out as a particularly valuable defender at the keystone. However, both were above-average hitters in 2024. India showed off excellent plate discipline (12.6% walk rate, 108 wRC+), while Massey made tons of contact and hit for above-average power (.190 ISO, 102 wRC+). So, one can see why the Royals would like to get their bats in the lineup, even if it’s not at their natural position. Rotating between India and Massey in the DH spot is one way to accomplish that, but it’s not the ideal solution. For one thing, the Royals presumably want to keep the DH spot open for Salvador Perez on days when Freddy Fermin is catching. Furthermore, general manager J.J. Picollo would surely like to maintain as much flexibility as possible as he continues to look for upgrades to the lineup. Having some DH reps to work with could help him land a more impactful bat.
Anne Rogers of MLB.com reported earlier today that the Royals are looking for another hitter who can play the infield and the outfield. Yet, if India or Massey (or both) could be that guy, perhaps Picollo can focus on landing the best possible bat rather than prioritizing defensive flexibility. This team could certainly use the offensive boost. While the Royals pitching staff led the team to the playoffs in 2024, their hitters ranked 13th in runs scored, 14th in OPS, and 20th in wRC+. Their only notable addition to the lineup so far has been India.
When it comes to further additions, Rosenthal and Sammon suggest the Royals would prefer a left-handed bat. They mention Josh Rojas and Adam Frazier as two possibilities on the free agent market. However, neither Rojas nor Frazier has been an above-average hitter over the last two years. Perhaps, then, the Royals are more likely to turn to the trade block for an upgrade. Previous reports have suggested they’re looking for a middle-of-the-order bat on the trade market, although it’s not clear to whom that might refer. Once again, the more flexibility this team can get from guys like India and Massey, the more potential targets they can pursue in a trade.
Maikel Garcia Undergoes Surgery To Remove Bone Spur From Elbow
Royals infielder Maikel Garcia underwent surgery to remove a bone spur from his right elbow, tweets Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. Kansas City hasn’t announced whether the injury is expected to impact his readiness for Spring Training.
Garcia had been set to play winter ball in his native Venezuela. He revealed in an X post over the weekend that he was instead headed back to Kansas City for x-rays. It’s unclear when he suffered the injury, as he didn’t spend any time on the IL this year.
The 24-year-old appeared in 157 regular season games and all six postseason contests. Matt Quatraro penciled him in at third base and atop the batting order on most nights. The Jonathan India acquisition means Garcia will no longer be slated for leadoff work. Depending on how the Royals intend to use India and incumbent second baseman Michael Massey, Garcia still projects as the starting third baseman.
Garcia didn’t make much of an offensive impact. He hit .231/.281/.332 with seven homers across 626 plate appearances. While he’s best suited in the bottom third of a lineup, he has a strong secondary profile. Garcia stole 37 bases in 39 attempts and graded as one of the league’s best overall baserunners. He’s also a quality defender. Statcast and Defensive Runs Saved each felt he was three runs better than average in a little more than 1000 innings at third base.
Anne Rogers of MLB.com wrote a few weeks ago that the Royals had gotten a few calls about Garcia’s availability. He came up as a shortstop prospect and only moved to third base in deference to Bobby Witt Jr. Kansas City certainly isn’t moving him back to shortstop barring an injury to Witt, but a team like the Braves or Giants could view him as an upgrade at the position. There’s nothing to suggest the Royals were seriously inclined to move Garcia, whom they control for five more seasons. The elbow surgery, even if it’s a minor procedure, makes a deal less likely.
Al Fitzmorris Passes Away
Former big league right-hander Al Fitzmorris has passed away at 78. The Royals announced the news on Wednesday evening.
Fitzmorris was born in Buffalo but attended high school in San Diego. He signed with the White Sox as a 20-year-old. The 6’2″ righty never had an opportunity to get to the big leagues with Chicago. The Royals plucked him away as they built their first team via the expansion draft. Fitzmorris made seven relief appearances for the franchise’s inaugural team in 1969.
While he spent most of the ’69 season in Triple-A, Fitzmorris established himself on the MLB staff the following year. He posted middling numbers in a swing role between 1970-72. He took a step forward with 89 innings of 2.83 ERA ball in 1973 and excelled as a starter for the three seasons thereafter. Fitzmorris turned in a 2.79 ERA across 190 innings in ’74. He won 16 games with a 3.57 mark over a career-best 242 frames the next season. Between 1974-76, he led Kansas City with 652 1/3 innings. He posted a 44-29 record behind a cumulative 3.17 earned run average.
Fitzmorris was arguably the best pitcher on the ’76 team that won 90 games and earned the first playoff berth in franchise history. He ranked second on the club with 220 1/3 innings while turning in a 3.06 ERA that was the best mark among the team’s full-time starters. Nevertheless, skipper Whitey Herzog elected not to use Fitzmorris against the Yankees in that year’s AL Championship Series. New York advanced to the World Series on Chris Chambliss‘ walk-off homer in the decisive fifth game.
That marked the end of Fitzmorris’ tenure in Kansas City. The Royals left him unprotected for the following winter’s expansion draft. He was selected by the Blue Jays, who immediately traded him to the Indians. Fitzmorris struggled to a 5.41 ERA over 29 appearances for Cleveland in ’77. He split the following year between the Indians and Angels. After one more season in Triple-A with San Diego, he retired.
Fitzmorris concluded his playing career with a 3.65 ERA over 1277 innings. He logged parts of 10 seasons in the majors and recorded a 77-59 record. Fitzmorris struck out 458 hitters and tossed 36 complete games, 11 of which were shutouts. The Royals announced that he returned to Kansas City after his playing days and remained involved with the franchise’s community and charity efforts. MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, loved ones, former teammates and friends.
Royals, Jordan Groshans Agree To Minor League Deal
The Royals are adding corner infielder Jordan Groshans on a minor league deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (X link). The CAA client spent this year in the upper minors between the Yankees and A’s.
Groshans, 25, is a former first-round pick of the Blue Jays. He appeared among Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects in each season from 2019-21 but has yet to carve out much of an MLB role. Toronto dealt him to the Marlins before he reached the big leagues. Groshans appeared in the majors with Miami in 2022. He played in 17 games, hitting .262/.308/.312 across 65 plate appearances.
That’s the extent of his major league experience. Groshans’ bat has stalled in the minors over the past couple seasons. He hit .244/.339/.330 with Miami’s Triple-A affiliate in 2023. The Marlins lost him to the Yankees via waivers last offseason. New York successfully ran him through waivers in Spring Training. Groshans didn’t perform well at either of the top two minor league levels in the Yankees’ system. New York traded him to the A’s in June for third baseman J.D. Davis.
That swap turned out to be inconsequential for both teams. Davis hit .105 in seven games as a Yankee before being released. The A’s assigned Groshans to Double-A Midland. He hit .239/.312/.352 in 51 contests and elected minor league free agency at the end of the year. The righty-hitting infielder finished the ’24 campaign with a combined .235/.311/.318 line across 383 plate appearances between the two organizations.
Groshans’ former prospect status continues to generate some level of minor league interest. He’ll need to take a step forward offensively if he’s to earn an extended big league look. Groshans has shown decent plate discipline but minimal power. He’s a .252/.347/.331 hitter in more than 1000 Triple-A plate appearances.
Royals Planning To Move Kris Bubic Back To Rotation
The Royals intend to use Kris Bubic as a starting pitcher in 2025, write Will Sammon, Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. The southpaw pitched out of the bullpen this past season after a 14-month layoff rehabbing Tommy John surgery.
Kansas City presumably always intended for Bubic’s relief role to be a short-term measure to avoid placing too much stress on his arm shortly after surgery. The southpaw’s excellent performance in short stints could’ve at least made it tempting to keep him there. Bubic was dominant over 27 relief outings, turning in a 2.67 earned run average across 30 1/3 innings. He struck out 32.2% of opponents against a minuscule 4.1% walk rate. Bubic got whiffs on nearly 15% of his offerings, well above the 11.6% league average for relievers.
That’s a relatively small sample, but Bubic was arguably K.C.’s best setup option in front of closer Lucas Erceg. The bullpen remains a concern. Chris Stratton struggled in the first season of his two-year free agent deal, while deadline pickup Hunter Harvey barely pitched for K.C. because of back issues. John Schreiber and Sam Long had solid seasons, but neither profiles as a lockdown setup man. Former top prospect Daniel Lynch IV could be well-suited to a bullpen move. He pitched well in 13 relief outings, though he spent the majority of the season as rotation depth at Triple-A Omaha.
Kansas City’s rotation is more established. Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha form an excellent front three. After trading Brady Singer for Jonathan India, Kansas City has some combination of Bubic, Alec Marsh and Kyle Wright (who is returning after losing the ’24 season to shoulder surgery) to fill out the back of the staff. All three still have a minor league option. Bubic should be on the MLB roster in some capacity, seemingly as a starter, but either of Marsh or Wright could begin the year in Omaha if everyone is healthy coming out of camp.
While Bubic was excellent in relief, his track record as a starter is less impressive. The Stanford product has a career 4.99 ERA with a middling 20.1% strikeout rate over 297 2/3 innings out of the rotation. It’s possible he was about to turn a corner before the surgery. Bubic made a trio of starts in April 2023. He struck out 16 batters in as many innings while working to a 3.94 ERA. He had a 14.7% swinging strike rate — essentially matching this past season’s relief work — in those three appearances. If that was the sign of an impending breakout, it was put on hold when Bubic’s elbow blew out.
He’ll get another opportunity to see if he can maintain that newfound swing-and-miss as a starter. The Athletic writes that the Royals could limit his innings count to 140-150 next season to avoid overworking him. That’s not far below the workload expected of most modern starters, especially those who occupy mid-rotation roles, so it doesn’t seem as if he’ll be too restricted. Sammon, Woo and Rosenthal suggest that K.C. could look to add a swingman to strengthen their depth, though that’s not as pressing as their goal of adding an impact hitter on the trade market.
Royals Reach Deal With Diamond Sports Group
The Royals announced today that have signed a new deal with Diamond Sports Group, owner of the FanDuel Sports Network, formerly known as Bally’s. That company will continue to broadcast the club’s games in 2025.
Coming into today, the Royals were one of the few clubs with their broadcast situation still up in the air. Diamond Sports Group was the broadcaster for almost half the league as of a few years ago, but cord cutting put a dent in the regional sports network (RSN) model. They filed for bankruptcy in March of 2023 and their profile has been decreasing since then.
As part of the bankruptcy process, Diamond dropped its deals with the Padres and Diamondbacks, leaving Major League Baseball to take over those broadcasts for the 2024 season. That still left Diamond with 12 clubs in 2024 but they revealed in court two months ago that they were only planning to keep one of those clubs for 2025, which was Atlanta.
Of the other 11, four of them followed the Padres and Diamondbacks in having MLB handle the broadcasts: the Brewers, Twins, Guardians and Reds. Six worked out new deals with Diamond, reportedly or presumedly with lower fees than their previous deals: the Marlins, Cardinals, Angels, Rays, Tigers and now the Royals. That leaves the Rangers as the final team in limbo. They reportedly aren’t going to return to Diamond but are looking into creating their own RSN, though it’s still unknown if they will be able to get that off the ground for the new season.
Diamond emerged from bankruptcy last month but it’s still unclear what the long-term relationship with Major League Baseball will be. It has been reported that none of the new Diamond deals go beyond 2028, with the league considering various plans for future broadcast deals. Per Anne Rogers of MLB.com, the Royals will have the chance to re-evaluate their Diamond deal after 2025, so it seems it’s only a one-year pact or perhaps has some kind of opt-out language.
Like the other clubs who re-upped with Diamond, the Royals are going to be receiving less revenue from this new pact than they did previously. As recently as 2022, they reportedly received $45MM for their annual rights fees but president of business operations Brooks Sherman confirmed today that the revenue will be lower in this new deal without providing specific, per Rogers.
How that impacts the club’s offseason remains to be seen. They were quite aggressive last winter, signing players like Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo, as well as giving a huge extension to Bobby Witt Jr. That aggression paid off, with the Royals going from 56 wins in 2023 to 86 in 2024, good enough for a Wild Card spot. RosterResource currently projects the Royals for a $116MM payroll next year, very close to where they were in 2024. The club recently added Jonathan India via trade and is reportedly looking for another lineup addition with a preference for the trade market over free agency.
For fans, it seems little will change. The games will still be on television as before and those who streamed via the Bally Sports app will just have to switch to the FanDuel Sports Network app. There’s also now the added option of streaming via an add-on to Amazon Prime, which is the case with all clubs who have deals with Diamond.