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Royals Sign Jarrod Dyson

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MARCH 5: The Royals have announced the signing, Alec Lewis of The Athletic tweets. The contract includes $250K in performance bonuses.

MARCH 2: The Royals have reached an agreement with free-agent outfielder Jarrod Dyson, Robert Murray of FanSided reports. It’s a $1.5MM pact for the ACES client, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network. The deal is pending a physical.

Dyson is going back to his first organization, which used a 50th-round pick on him in 2006. He managed to overcome the odds and reach the majors in 2010, and has since appeared in the bigs in 11 straight seasons. During his initial run with the Royals, Dyson turned in a few productive campaigns – including during their AL-winning 2014 effort and their World Series title season in 2015 – owing to a combination of excellent defense and base running. He played a fairly regular role with the Royals from 2012-16 and stole at least 25 bases in each of those years.

Heading into the 2017 season, the Royals traded Dyson to the Mariners for right-hander Nate Karns. Dyson, now 36, has also played for the Diamondbacks, Pirates and White Sox since the Royals parted with him. While Dyson has never been a huge threat with the bat, his production has plummeted over the past few seasons. Dating back to 2017, he has slashed an ugly .226/.305/.309 in 1,145 plate appearances, and his 2020 output – .180/.231/.180 in 66 PA – looks especially poor. However, Dyson did steal 80 bases and continue to offer high-grade defense (33 DRS, 22 UZR) during that four-year period.

Dyson, who has extensive experience at all three outfield positions, looks to be in line to back up Andrew Benintendi, Michael A. Taylor and Whit Merrifield in his return to Kansas City. Like Dyson, both Benintendi and Taylor have joined the Royals since last season ended.

Adalberto Mondesi Hampered By Foot Injury

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  • A foot injury has slowed Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi this spring, but he’s “moving in the right direction” in his recovery, per manager Mike Matheny (via Josh Vernier of 610 Sports Radio). It’s not clear when Mondesi will make his Cactus League debut, though. The 25-year-old batted a below-average .256/.294/.416 with six home runs in 233 plate appearances last season, but he played in 59 of 60 games, easily led the majors in stolen bases (24) and earned good grades at shortstop (plus-2 DRS, plus-0.8 UZR). [UPDATE: Mondesi is in the Royals’ lineup for this afternoon’s spring training matchup with the Dodgers, notes Anne Rogers of MLB.com].

Royals, Hunter Dozier Agree To Four-Year Extension

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TODAY: The Royals have officially announced Dozier’s extension.  The Athletic’s Alec Lewis (Twitter links) has the financial breakdown — Dozier will get a $1MM signing bonus, $2.25MM this season, $4.5MM in 2022, $7.25MM in 2023, $9MM in 2024, and there is a $1MM buyout on the $10MM club option for 2025.  There are multiple escalators involved, including $1MM bonuses for various awards.

FEB. 28, 9:51AM: Dozier and the Royals are in agreement on a four-year, $25MM guarantee with a $10MM option for 2025, per Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). If Dozier reaches all available escalators and bonuses, it could max out at $49MM, Passan reports.

9:35AM: While the deal isn’t yet complete, there’s “optimism” it’ll get over the finish line, per Alec Lewis and Andy McCullough of the Athletic (via Twitter). If finalized, the guarantee is expected to land in the $25MM range, report Lewis and McCullough. The 2025 option would be worth $10MM, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).

8:59AM: The Royals are finalizing a four-year contract extension with Hunter Dozier, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (Twitter link). The proposed deal would also contain a club option for 2025, per Murray. Dozier is a client of The L. Warner Companies, Inc.

As a player with three-plus years of MLB service, the 29-year-old wasn’t set to reach free agency until after the 2023 season. Rather than proceed year-by-year through arbitration, the parties are locking in some cost certainty over the next three seasons while lengthening their relationship by at least one year. The deal will buy out Dozier’s first year of would-be free agency, while the club option adds a second additional season of team control.

Despite being selected eighth overall out of Stephen F. Austin University in 2013, Dozier had something of a slow ascent through the minors. He made his MLB debut as a September call-up in 2016, but it wasn’t until the middle of the 2018 season that he had established himself as a big league regular.

Dozier struggled down the stretch as a rookie but seemed to break out as a middle-of-the-order bat in his sophomore season. The right-handed hitter popped 26 home runs and hit .279/.348/.522 across 586 plate appearances in 2019. Dozier’s batted ball metrics reinforced that power output. His 91.1 MPH average exit velocity placed him in the 83rd percentile league-wide; Dozier’s hard contact and barrel rates were similarly impressive. A higher than average 25.3% strikeout rate and .339 BABIP hinted at some potential regression in future seasons, but Dozier’s power and decent plate discipline positioned him as an above-average offensive performer nonetheless.

The shortened 2020 season, however, proved a difficult one for Dozier. That was the case for plenty of players, but Dozier was one of the players most directly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. He tested positive for the coronavirus last July and was forced to start the season on the injured list. Upon his return, he lacked the same power he’d shown the season before. Whether because of his bout with COVID-19 or merely due to the season’s small sample size (he tallied just 186 plate appearances), the Royals clearly feel Dozier’s .228/.344/.392 line was anomalous.

Regaining his footing at the plate is critical for Dozier, who’s rather limited defensively. He broke in as a third baseman, but defensive metrics panned his work at the hot corner from 2018-19. After signing Maikel Franco last offseason, Kansas City mostly limited Dozier to first base and the corner outfield in 2020. Franco is back in free agency, possibly bumping Dozier back to third this year (and perhaps beyond). At his age, it’s doubtful he transforms into an above-average defender at the position.

Last November, Dozier agreed to a $2.72MM deal to avoid arbitration. It remains to be seen if this extension changes that figure. At the moment, the Royals have around $90MM on the books for the upcoming season, right in line with last year’s payroll. Besides Dozier, only Whit Merrifield and recent free agent signees Carlos Santana and Mike Minor have guaranteed money on the books beyond 2021. That should leave plenty of long-term payroll space for the Royals, who will see Salvador Pérez and Jorge Soler reach free agency (barring extensions of their own) next offseason.

Royals Attempted To Re-Sign Ian Kennedy

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  • Ian Kennedy debated signing with two other teams before settling on the Rangers’ minor league offer, per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (via Twitter).  The Royals, Kennedy’s former team, were one of the two other suitors, though Kennedy seems to have a clearer path to regular bullpen work in Texas.  A starter for all but two of his first 291 MLB games from 2007-18, Kennedy enjoyed a stellar season as the Royals’ closer in 2019, but he is out to re-establish himself after a difficult 2020.  Kennedy posted a 9.00 ERA over 14 innings before a left calf strain brought a premature end to his season.

Royals, Hunter Dozier In “Serious” Extension Negotiations

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The Royals and third baseman Hunter Dozier “are in serious talks” about a multi-year contract extension, according to FanSided’s Robert Murray (Twitter link).  Specific terms aren’t known, though Dozier has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining before reaching free agent status following the 2023 season.  Dozier is already set to earn $2.72MM in 2021 after reaching an arb-avoiding deal with K.C. back in December.

Selected eighth overall in the 2013 draft, Dozier enjoyed a breakout season in 2019, hitting .279/.348/.522 with 26 homers and a league-best 10 triples over 586 plate appearances.  That was followed up by a less-impressive 2020 (.228/.344/.392 over 186 PA) but with some obvious extenuating circumstances — not just the 2020 campaign’s smaller sample size, but Dozier also missed over two weeks at the start of the season due to a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.  Dozier’s hard-contact numbers dropped off considerably from 2019 to 2020, though his walk rate also significantly improved.

It sets the stage for what could be an interesting set of extension talks, considering that 2020 wasn’t exactly a great platform year.  Dozier turned 29 last August, so he might have more incentive to lock in some long-term security now rather than bet on hitting a big payday on the open market entering his age-32 season.  It’s worth noting that L. Warner Companies Inc. (Dozier’s agency) also represents another prominent Royal in Whit Merrifield, who signed an extension with Kansas City just over two years ago, though Merrifield and Dozier aren’t really comps — Merrifield is 31 months older and was still entering his final pre-arb season when he inked his long-term deal.

There aren’t a ton of great recent comps for Dozier overall, in looking at recent extensions of players who had between three and four years of MLB service time.  The odd nature of the 2020 season adds another layer of difficulty in trying to predict what a Dozier extension could look like, since those past players didn’t have such an outlier of a year factoring into the situation.  The list of players who have signed an extension since the pandemic began consists only of unique mega-deals (i.e. Mookie Betts and Fernando Tatis Jr.), players who signed contracts only covering arbitration-eligible years, or Yuli Gurriel’s one-year extension with the Astros at the end of September.

Extensions have been a key plank of Dayton Moore’s team-building strategy since he became Kansas City’s GM in 2006.  After an offseason that saw the Royals make some notable moves in acquiring Andrew Benintendi and signing Carlos Santana and Mike Minor to two-year free agent deals, it’s clear that Moore and his front office are preparing to be competitive after four straight losing seasons.  It’s safe to assume that the Royals will explore long-term deals with multiple young building-block players as Spring Training rolls on, with such names as Adalberto Mondesi and Brad Keller standing out as possible extension candidates.  Kansas City could also look into locking up younger players who are even earlier in their careers (like Brady Singer or Kris Bubic), and veterans like Jorge Soler and franchise stalwart Salvador Perez are each just a year away from free agency.

Kelvin Herrera Announces Retirement

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Two-time All-Star and 2015 World Series champion Kelvin Herrera announced today, via Twitter, that he is retiring after spending parts of 10 seasons in the Major Leagues.

Kelvin Herrera | Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

“I want to thank everyone who has been a part of my career, starting with the Kansas City Royals organization who believed in this kid from Tenares, Dominican Republic and gave him a chance to do something meaningful with his life,” Herrera wrote in his announcement. “From ownership, to the Front Office, the staff, my teammates and last but not least, the fans, I owe you guys everything.”

Herrera goes on to thank both the Nationals and White Sox organizations for welcoming him as well. For the time being, Herrera says he plans to focus on his family and the next chapter of his life.

It’ll no doubt surprise some readers to see that Herrera is still just 31 years old. He’s been around the Majors for a decade due to the Royals calling on him for his Major League debut at just 21 years of age.

Herrera pitched in just two games late in that 2011 season, but the right-hander was an immediate success in 2012 — his first full season at the MLB level. In 84 1/3 innings, he worked to a pristine 2.35 ERA with 19 holds, three saves and a heater that averaged a blistering 98.5 mph. In a normal year, that overwhelming success would’ve no doubt garnered Rookie of the Year consideration, but 2012 happened to also be the rookie season for Mike Trout, Yoenis Cespedes and Yu Darvish, who commanded nearly every top-three vote on the ballot that year.

Even without any Rookie of the Year love, Herrera had established himself as a dominant late-inning arm in short order, and that’s the exact role he’d over the next half decade as a steady presence at the back of some elite Kansas City bullpens. From 2012-16, Herrera pitched 354 1/3 regular-season innings with the Royals and notched a collective 2.57 ERA with 106 holds and 17 saves.

The bullpen was in many ways the backbone of the Royals’ back-to-back World Series runs in 2014-15, and Herrera joined teammates Wade Davis, Greg Holland and (in 2015) Ryan Madson in forming a juggernaut late-inning group that gave opposing lineups absolute fits. Each of Herrera, Davis and Holland posted ERAs south of 1.50 and appeared in at least 65 games during the 2014 season. Herrera was as untouchable during the postseason as he was in the regular season, combining for 28 2/3 innings of 1.26 ERA ball in his playoff career.

With the Royals out of contention during Herrera’s final year of club control in 2018, they made the decision to trade him to the Nationals for a package of young players including Kelvin Gutierrez, Blake Perkins and Yohanse Morel. Herrera was injured for part of his time with the Nats, going down with a Lisfranc tear in his foot, but he gave them 18 1/3 innings of 4.34 ERA ball before reaching free agency and signing a two-year pact with the White Sox. Things didn’t pan out in Chicago, as Herrera was tagged for 39 runs in just 53 2/3 innings across his two seasons there.

Herrera’s peak was brief but absolutely dominant, and he’ll go down in Royals lore as an absolutely vital member of a bullpen that fueled a baseball renaissance in Kansas City and brought home the club’s first title in three decades. He’ll hang up the spikes with a career 3.21 ERA, 119 holds, 61 saves and 510 strikeouts in 513 2/3 innings of regular-season work — plus the aforementioned sterling postseason track record. Best wishes to Herrera and his family in whatever the future holds.

Mike Matheny: Hanser Alberto "Sneaky Good Signing"

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  • The Royals’ Hanser Alberto only received a minor league deal during the winter, though it sounds as if he has a good chance to earn a spot on their season-opening roster. Manager Mike Matheny called the addition of Alberto a “sneaky good signing” earlier this week, Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star writes. Alberto spent the previous two seasons with the Orioles before joining the Royals. Alberto didn’t hit for much power or draw many walks in Baltimore, but he did see quite a bit of time at two infield positions (second and third) and make life difficult on left-handed pitchers, against whom he slashed .394/.411/.532 in 280 trips to the plate.

Royals Sign Brad Brach To Minors Deal

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The Royals have signed Brad Brach to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, the team announced. Brach began the winter by exercising a $2.075MM player option to stay with the Mets, money still owed by New York. Last week the Mets designated Brach for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Jonathan Villar. He was later released after passing through waivers.

Brach struggled through a drop in velocity from 94.1 mph on his four-seamer in 2019 to just 90.3 mph in 2020. The fall in velocity coincided with a decline in four-seamer usage as Brach relied more heavily on an east-west moving cutter/slider, though he never found a groove during his 12 1/3 innings. He walked and stuck out an identical 24.1 percent of hitters, carrying over a command issue that plagued his half a season with the Cubs. He’d seemed to have figured it out over the back end of 2019 with the Mets, a 14 2/3 innings with a 3.68 ERA/2.67 FIP, 24.6 percent strikeout rate and sterling 4.9 percent walk rate. That’s a far better walk rate than Brach has been able to sustain elsewhere in his career, however, with an 8.0 percent walk rate being his absolute best mark over a full season.

Brach may find a bit of overcrowding in the Royals bullpen. Greg Holland, Josh Staumont, Scott Barlow, Jesse Hahn, Kyle Zimmer, and Jake Newberry can reasonable expect to find themselves on the roster given their 2020 performances. Jakob Junis could be bumped to the pen, and Wade Davis is in camp as a non-roster invitee. Tyler Zuber, Gabe Speier, and Richard Lovelady are also looking to secure spots, though they have options remaining

Notes On The Andrew Benintendi Trade: Cordero, Profar, Lee

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The Royals had been in talks with the Red Sox (and as many as six other teams) about potentially acquiring Andrew Benintendi going all the way back to November, said assistant general manager JJ Picollo in an interview with Quinn Riley of Bostonsportswave.com. Another Royals’ assistant GM, Scott Sharp, did a lot of the legwork in terms of keeping Boston on the line, per Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star.

Despite the Royals’ belief in Franchy Cordero’s power potential – Picollo invoked the name of David Ortiz in comparison as a late-blooming power bat – Benintendi better fits the needs of their ball club. To replace the legendary Alex Gordon in left, the Royals had explored a pact with Jurickson Profar, notes Worthy. But the Padres’ three-year commitment to Profar ultimately proved a pricier acquisition than Benintendi by quite a bit in terms of pure dollars, especially since Boston is chipping in cash to help with his $6.6MM salary this season.

The Royals plan to utilize Benintendi near the top of the order, probably in the two-hole. The Royals have a noted need for on-base ability – Kansas City finished tied for 26th in the Majors with a .309 On-Base Percentage – and while Khalil Lee looked like a potential internal candidate to bring those skills to the table, the 26-year-old Benintendi is the more proven commodity. Even considering questions surrounding his recent performance and decline in foot speed, Benintendi has maintained an ability to get on base with a solidly above-average 10.5 percent career walk rate. If anything, Benintendi was over-patient in 2020 as his swing rate fell to 44.5 percent, though he also saw less strikes than ever with just a 44.1 percent zone rate in the extremely small sample season.

Regarding Lee, the Royals never spoke directly with the Mets about their speedy young outfield prospect. That leg of the deal was entirely cooked up by Boston, writes Ken Davidoff and Mike Puma of the New York Post. The Red Sox know Mets GM Zack Scott well considering his 16 years in the Boston organization, and they knew about his longstanding interest in Lee as a prospect. The Royals were aware of another team’s involvement, but didn’t hear about Lee’s ultimate destination until about 90 minutes before the deal was finalized.

Royals Acquire Andrew Benintendi In 3-Team Deal

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The Royals have announced a three-team deal to acquire outfielder Andrew Benintendi from the Red Sox. Outfielder Franchy Cordero is part of the return going to Boston, along with righty Josh Winckowski, who’ll come from the Mets. The Boston org also receives three players to be named later, two from Kansas City and one from New York. On their end, the Mets will add K.C. outfield prospect Khalil Lee.

Benintendi is under team control through the 2022 season. He’ll earn $6.6MM for the upcoming campaign under a two-year arbitration agreement he made previously with the Sox. The Sox will pick up $2.8MM of the tab on Benintendi’s 2021 salary.

There’s no doubting Benintendi’s talent. He has largely produced above-average offensive numbers while delivering well-rated, versatile glovework across the outfield. Benintendi shone in particular in 2018, when he ran a .290/.366/.465 slash line with 16 home runs and 21 stolen bases over 661 plate appearances.

Unfortunately, Benintendi’s output has drooped a bit since that time. He was merely an average offensive performer in 2019, though his batted-ball figures (.330 wOBA vs. .348 xwOBA) suggested some poor fortune. And he struggled mightily in brief action last year, with a forgettable 14-game effort halted by what turned out to be a season-ending rib injury.

The Royals obviously believe a well-rested Benintendi can return to form. To reach his previous levels, the former sixth-overall pick will both need to rediscover his acumen at the plate and rebound from a multi-year decline in foot speed.

For the rights to Benintendi, the Royals will part with a package of potentially interesting but unestablished players. Cordero is 26 years of age, like Benintendi, but has only taken 315 MLB plate appearances over the past four seasons. Despite immense potential, he has been thwarted to this point by injuries and has yet to fully test himself at the game’s highest level.

The Sox will give Cordero a chance to find his footing in the bigs, though even if he’s successful he’ll only come with one more season of control than Benintendi. They’ll otherwise look solely to the future in this deal. Winckowski, whom the Mets acquired earlier in the offseason, has yet to crack the upper minors. He’s considered a potential back-of-the-rotation arm. It remains to be seen what names will be available in the PTBNL selection pool, but the Red Sox will have three chances to choose far-away young talent after getting a fresh look over the coming months.

For the Mets, it’s rather a straightforward situation. The club obviously preferred the future of Lee to that of Winckowski (and whatever PTBNL ends up moving in the deal). In addition to filling a void in the team’s prospect pool, Lee has some serious potential upside. He’s a certified burner, having swiped 53 bags at Double-A in 2019, but still has some developing to do as a hitter.

MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter) first reported a deal was in the works. Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweeted an agreement was in place. Further details were reported by Robert Murray of FanSided (Twitter link), Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (via Twitter), Heyman (Twitter link), Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (in a tweet), MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (on Twitter), Chad Jennings of The Athletic (in a tweet), and Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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