- Back in May, Royals left fielder Alex Gordon considered himself “at about 60-40” to play again in 2020. Four months later, though, Gordon might not be quite as sure. The 35-year-old Kansas City icon told Andy McCullough of The Athletic (subscription) that he wants to distance himself from a trying 2019 campaign before mapping out his future. “Losing 100 games, you’re tired, obviously, there’s going to be days when you’re like, ‘I don’t want to play next year,’” said Gordon, who expressed a desire “to take the grind out of the season before I make that decision.” Gordon has already said he’ll either remain a Royal or retire, while general manager Dayton Moore seems more than willing to bring him back. But sticking around will require Gordon and the team to draw up a new contract, as KC will decline his $23MM mutual option in favor of a $4MM buyout.
Royals Rumors
Jakob Junis Shut Down For Remainder Of 2019
The Royals have decided to shut down right-hander Jakob Junis for the remainder of the season, skipper Ned Yost told reporters including Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star (via Twitter). He’ll be replaced in the rotation by Eric Skoglund.
It seems the club did not want to extend the workload for Junis, who has taken 31 starts and thrown 175 1/3 innings. That’s actually 1 2/3 frames shy of his 2018 tally, but there were some signs that Junis was tiring. His velocity was headed south (though only slightly) and he had allowed four or more earned runs in each of his past five starts.
This decision puts the wraps on a somewhat disappointing season for Junis, who recently turned 27. He owns a 5.24 ERA with 8.4 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9. That’s nearly a run per nine worse than his earned run average over the prior two campaigns.
In some respects, the down year was really just a way for the baseball gods to even things out over a larger sample. Junis now owns a lifetime 4.69 ERA that’s an exact match for his career 4.69 FIP. Metrics such as xFIP (4.47) and SIERA (4.64) generally concur. While his K/BB ratio is decent enough, Junis has consistently given up too many long balls (1.56 per nine, 15.4% HR/FB rate for his career).
Junis will remain shy of arbitration next year, so he’s still an easy and affordable choice to plug back into the rotation. If the Royals can help him solve the long ball issue, there may yet be a path to improved results.
In the meantime, Skoglund will get a brief look. The tall lefty struggled in a half-season showcase last year and has been shelled in 14 innings in the majors in 2019. The former third-rounder was also knocked around this year in the upper minors, so it’s possible he’ll be a roster casualty in the offseason.
Royals Claim Randy Rosario
The Royals have claimed southpaw Randy Rosario off waivers from the Cubs, as per a team announcement. Rosario was designated for assignment by Chicago earlier this week. To create a 40-man roster spot, Kansas City recalled infielder Kelvin Gutierrez and placed him on the 60-day injured list.
Rosario posted a 5.91 ERA over 10 2/3 innings for the Cubs this season, a decided step back from the 3.66 ERA he delivered over 46 2/3 relief frames in his 2018 rookie season. Per ERA predictors, however, Rosario was fortunate (4.68 FIP, 4.60 xFIP, 4.74 SIERA) to escape at least an extra run’s worth of damage in 2018, as the grounder specialist only notched a 5.79 K/9.
This season saw Rosario miss more bats to the tune of an 8.4 K/9 in his brief time in Chicago, though his Triple-A numbers (3.11 ERA, 2.21 K/BB rate, 7.4 K/9) were almost an exact match for his career numbers over 413 minor league innings in the Cubs’ and Twins’ organizations. Rosario has shown some very good splits against left-handed batters, giving him a possible path to regular work as a specialist in Kansas City’s bullpen.
Report: Dayton Moore To Receive Extension Under New Royals Ownership
The impending sale of the Royals from David Glass to John Sherman has created a lot of speculation about the team’s future, though one key face within the organization doesn’t appear to be changing. According to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman in the latest edition of the Big Time Baseball podcast (audio link), current Royals GM Dayton Moore “will receive a long extension and be there for a long time” once Sherman officially takes control of the franchise. As a minority owner of the Indians, Sherman is no stranger to the AL Central, and thus “knows Dayton Moore well” and “is an admirer” of the GM and his work in Kansas City.
A new contract would keep Moore at the helm throughout the Royals’ ongoing rebuild, which would be the second time Moore has overhauled the club since first taking the general manager job in 2006. That first rebuild, lengthy as it was though losing seasons from 2007-12, eventually paid off in major fashion. K.C. won the American League pennant in both 2014 and 2015, and captured the franchise’s second-ever World Series title in 2015.
That success wasn’t sustained, however, and the Royals haven’t since topped the .500 mark. In fact, over Moore’s 13 full seasons as general manager, Kansas City has only three winning seasons. Nonetheless, Moore is a well-respected executive throughout baseball, and he has a proven track record in shepherding a small-market team all the way to championship glory.
It isn’t yet known how Sherman will operate the franchise or whether he’ll authorize a higher payroll, though Moore has already demonstrated that his front office can identify and develop young talent. In fairness to Glass, he was willing to boost spending to try and extend the Royals’ contention window, though many of Moore’s big signings from the 2015-16 offseason (Alex Gordon, Ian Kennedy, Chris Young) didn’t pan out.
Moore’s current deal is believed to run through the 2020 season, though the exact terms of his 2016 extension weren’t officially revealed. Heyman thinks the Royals may have given Moore another extension in the aftermath of the 2017 offseason, when the Braves heavily pursued Moore (who worked in Atlanta’s front office prior to taking Kansas City’s GM job) to run their vacant baseball operations department after John Coppolella’s shocking resignation as general manager.
While Moore may not be going anywhere, the same might not be true of manager Ned Yost, as Heyman said “the likelihood is that [the Royals] will move on.” Though Moore has given his skipper more or less permanent job security, the 65-year-old Yost has indicated in the past that he is taking things on a year-to-year basis, even once citing the end of the 2019 season as a potential endpoint. Yost is nearing the end of his 16th season as a Major League, and his 10th in Kansas City. Yost will soon meet with Royals officials to discuss his future, Heyman said, with these meetings possibly taking place as early as this week.
Royals Activate Jesse Hahn, Add 3 Players To 40-Man Roster
The Royals have announced a series of transactions involving their 40-man roster. Righty Jesse Hahn was reinstated from the 60-day injured list and added to the active roster.
The club has also selected the contracts of three players — first baseman Ryan McBroom, utilityman Erick Mejia, and lefty Gabe Speier — who’ll also be active. Each will make his MLB debut with his first game action.
Hahn is a two-time Tommy John recipient who’ll be making his way back to the majors for the first time since 2017. He carries a 4.19 ERA in 286 lifetime innings at the game’s highest level. Hahn only completed 3 2/3 innings in four appearances before the minor-league season ended, so he’ll presumably be utilized as a reliever down the stretch.
McBroom was just acquired after a strong showing at Triple-A with the Yankees organization. He slashed .315/.402/.574 with 26 homers in 482 plate appearances, a big stat line even in the International League.
The 24-year-old Mejia will presumably be considered as a future utility infield candidate. He carried a .271/.339/.382 batting line through 556 plate appearances this year in the Pacific Coast League.
As for Speier, he has had some home run troubles at Triple-A and carries only a 5.63 ERA there over forty frames. But he was still able to compile a 45:17 K/BB ratio at the highest level of the minors and had been more effective in terms of results (2.42 ERA) earlier in the year at Double-A.
Notable September Callups
We’ll track the flurry of notable callups as roster expand on September 1.
Latest Moves
- The Mets promoted left-hander Daniel Zamora and right-hander Tyler Bashlor from Triple-A, and also selected the contract of second baseman Sam Haggerty. (The club posted a fun video on its Twitter account of the players receiving the news.) A 24th-round pick for Cleveland in the 2015 draft, Haggerty came to the Mets last winter part of the trade that sent Kevin Plawecki to the Indians. Haggerty began the year at low-A ball and worked his way up to the Show after posting a .907 OPS over 49 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.
Earlier Updates
- The Diamondbacks announced a slew of callups today. Most notably, the club has selected the contract of outfielder Abraham Almonte and recalled right-hander Jon Duplantier. Almonte, 30, has logged time as a reserve each of the past six seasons, to the tune of a career .237/.294/.367 slash (79 wRC+). Duplantier, one of the club’s top pitching prospects, has battled injury issues in recent years but offers a high-upside bullpen piece for the stretch run.
- The Rays’ September additions include a number of notable players, with Nate Lowe headlining a group of five call-ups. He’ll be joined by Peter Fairbanks and Daniel Robertson, among others.
- The Braves announced they’ve recalled utilityman Johan Camargo. Camargo was optioned after the club signed Adeiny Hechavarría to replace the injured Dansby Swanson at shortstop. Swanson’s back now, and Hechavarría is still on hand, so it’ll be a tough climb for Camargo, who’s mired in a dreadful season. He’s only a year removed from a productive age-24 campaign, though.
- The Padres will select the contract of right-handed reliever David Bednar, reports Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (via Twitter). The 24 year-old gets a little lost among the Padres’ loaded system, but he boasts a pair of plus offerings in his fastball and curveball, opine Kiley McDaniel and Eric Lognenhagen of Fangraphs. Despite a less-than-stellar reputation for his command, Bednar has dazzled in the Texas League this season, pitching to a 2.95 ERA with elite strikeout (35.8%) and walk (7.5%) numbers.
- The Indians announced today they have selected the contracts of Ryan Flaherty and James Hoyt. They’ve also recalled Eric Haase. Flaherty’s solid Triple-A work this year has earned him his seventh consecutive big league season, where he’ll serve as infield depth for the club down José Ramírez. Hoyt logged 72.2 innings with the Astros from 2016-2018 and offers right-handed bullpen depth, while Haase, 26, is a power-hitting catcher with contact issues.
- The Yankees announced they have selected left-hander Tyler Lyons. The veteran reliever just signed a minor-league contract with the organization a few weeks ago and adds depth to a loaded bullpen. Right-hander David Hale was transferred to the 60-day injured list to clear 40-man space. The Bombers also recalled right-handers Ryan Dull and Chance Adams and outfielder Clint Frazier.
- The Cardinals have selected catcher Joe Hudson, per a team announcement. The 28 year-old got into eight games last year with the Angels. He’s had a tough season offensively with Triple-A Memphis, slashing .223/.293/.411. Outfielder Lane Thomas was transferred to the 60-day injured list with a season-ending wrist injury. Anne Rogers of MLB.com tweets that veteran backstop Matt Wieters is day-to-day with a calf strain, so the club elected to bring Hudson and Andrew Knizner aboard to bolster their catching depth.
- The Brewers announced they have selected the contract of first baseman Tyler Austin. A former Yankee, Twin and Giant, Austin has a strong minor-league track record and brings some right-handed power, but has mustered only a .220/.288/.451 line in 556 career MLB plate appearances thanks to untenable strikeout rates.
- Top Astros prospect Kyle Tucker isn’t up yet, but he will be shortly, tweets Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. Houston’s additional reinforcements will be announced tomorrow, Rome adds. The 22 year-old corner outfielder has again laid waste to the Triple-A Pacific Coast League and has nothing left to prove at the minor-league level, but opportunities have been few and far between in the Astros’ loaded lineup.
- Just-acquired first baseman Ryan McBroom will be selected to the Royals’ active roster shortly, tweets Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. As Flanagan notes, the 27 year-old was likely to be added to the 40-man this offseason to protect him from the Rule V draft regardless, so there’s little harm in giving him his first taste of MLB action in the meantime. The former 15th-rounder has put up strong offensive numbers throughout his minor-league career, culminating in a .315/.402/.574 line in the Triple-A International League this season.
Royals Acquire Ryan McBroom
The Yankees have traded infielder Ryan McBroom to the Royals in exchange for international signing bonus pool money and a player to be named later or cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs.
Owner David Glass Reaches Agreement To Sell Royals
4:17pm: The Royals have issued a press release confirming the agreement.
11:31pm: Royals owner David Glass has agreed to sell the team to Kansas City businessman John Sherman for a sum of one billion dollars, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (via Twitter). Sherman, currently the vice chairman of the division-rival Indians, will divest himself from the Cleveland organization once the agreement is ratified by the other 29 ownership groups in November. Talks of a potential sale were first reported by Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark of The Athletic earlier this week.
Nightengale tweeted yesterday that the sale of the Royals was motivated by health reasons for Glass, 83. The former CEO of Wal-Mart, Glass purchased the Royals for the sum of $96MM back in 2000. He was responsible for appointing Dayton Moore as the club’s general manager — a decision that resulted in a lengthy rebuild but ultimately culminated in consecutive World Series appearances, including the team’s drought-breaking World Series win over the Mets in 2015.
Sherman, 64, purchased a minority stake in the Indians back in 2016 and has since upped his share of the club. As Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer explored last year, Sherman was a Royals season-ticket holder at the time who’d made a fortune in starting natural gas and energy companies (LPG Services Group, Inergy L.P.) and selling them to larger entities. Indians majority owner Paul Dolan referred to Sherman as his “partner” in that interview with Pluto, underscoring his prominence in that ownership group. Suffice it to say, today’s reported agreement has ramifications for both organization — the specifics of which remain to be seen.
The Royals, under Glass and Moore, have been in the midst of a rebuild over the past couple of seasons. The organizational hope has been that by targeting near-MLB-ready players in trades and prioritizing college players (pitchers, specifically) in the past couple of drafts, that retooling can progress at a considerably more rapid pace than Kansas City’s prior rebuilding effort. The Royals have cut payroll by nearly $50MM in that time and figure to see further dollars stripped from the books this season with Alex Gordon’s four-year, $72MM contract coming off the ledger.
As with any ownership change, the effects could be far-reaching. Recent examples of team sales highlight but a fraction of the possibilities. The Padres, for instance, hired new front-office leadership (headed by GM A.J. Preller) and embarked on an aggressive, win-at-all-costs approach in the first season that the group led by Ron Fowler and Peter Seidler took over the club. When that boom or bust approach fell well short, the Friars embarked on a lengthy rebuilding effort that has yet to reach its terminus.
More recently, Jeffrey Loria sold the Marlins to a group led by billionaire Bruce Sherman and future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter. While Sherman and Jeter added some new front office personnel — most notably, longtime Yankees exec Gary Denbo — their group also retained president of baseball operations Michael Hill and manager Don Mattingly. A long-term approach headlined by the trades of Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna was nevertheless put into motion in the Sherman/Jeter group’s first season in place.
What the sale of the club remains for the Royals, of course, can’t be immediately known. Moore is not only among the game’s longest tenured baseball operations leaders, he’s also widely respected by colleagues and peers alike. His contract reportedly runs through the 2020 season. Manager Ned Yost, meanwhile, is signed only through season’s end. There’s been plenty of speculation about the 65-year-old Yost’s future, particularly in the wake of a near-fatal accident last offseason in which he shattered his pelvis upon falling out of a deer stand while hunting. The general belief has been that Yost is in excellent standing with the organization, but the skipper himself has previously hinted that he may not manage beyond his current contractual agreement.
Payroll mandates and the corresponding roster-construction implications for both the Royals and the Indians that stem from the ownership change will play crucial roles in steering both organizations’ immediate futures.
Royals Sign Jake Brentz
- Also per Baseball America, the Royals have signed lefty Jake Brentz after he was released by the Pirates. Brentz, 24, is a former 11th-round pick who had spent the past several seasons in the Pittsburgh organization. Bentz has a history of swings and misses along with struggles with free passes. In 50 1/3 total innings in the upper minors this year, including three with his new team, he owns a 4.47 ERA with 9.8 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9.
Royals’ Owner Discussing Sale Of Team
Aug. 28: MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that “barring something unforeseen,” the sale from Glass to Sherman “will happen.” That certainly moves the ball forward from yesterday’s uncertainty regarding the seriousness of the talks, although it also suggests that no firm agreement is in place. Sherman, notably, would need to be approved by the other 29 ownership groups in the league and by MLB itself, though Heyman adds that Sherman is viewed as a “sure thing” for approval from the league (as one would expect from an executive who is already an established minority owner of another franchise).
Aug. 27, 6:20pm: The Royals have issued the following statement on the matter:
“The Kansas City Royals are not in a position to make any comments on the published speculation regarding any potential sale of the ball club. The Royals will make no further statements at this time.”
5:35pm: Royals owner David Glass is discussing a potential sale of the club with Kansas City businessman John Sherman, Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark of The Athletic report (subscription required). ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets that the two are discussing a price worth north of $1 billion. Glass purchased the Royals in 2000 for a reported sum of $96MM.
Sherman, 64, is currently the vice chairman of the division-rival Indians, having purchased a minority stake in the team back in 2016. As Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer explored last year, Sherman was a Royals season-ticket holder at the time who’d made a fortune in starting natural gas and energy companies (LPG Services Group, Inergy L.P.) and selling them to larger entities. Sherman would, unsurprisingly, divest himself from the Indians organization if a sale is indeed agreed upon (per Passan).
There’s no indication that the two parties are close to an agreement, nor is there any indication that Glass is exploring other sale possibilities in the event that a deal with Sherman cannot be brokered. Asked about the report, general manager Dayton Moore told MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan (Twitter link) that commenting on any potential sale of the club would be “inappropriate.” Glass has not publicly acknowledged the reported negotiations.
Under Glass and Moore, the Royals emerged from irrelevance to appear in consecutive World Series, culminating in a 2015 championship achieved by the core of Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Danny Duffy. But the Royals have faded from contention in the American League Central in recent seasons and acted to cut payroll in each of the past two offseasons. Though the team was reportedly willing to sign Hosmer to a nine-figure deal to lead the club through the current rebuild, he took a more lucrative offer in San Diego while other stalwarts of that 2015 club have signed elsewhere in free agency or been traded.
The Royals’ Opening Day payroll in 2017 reached the unprecedented (for them) peak of $143MM, but since that time the figure has plummeted rapidly. Kansas City opened the 2019 season with a payroll a bit greater than $96MM, and with Alex Gordon set to come off the books, they have just $59MM in guaranteed salary on next year’s payroll. Offseason trades involving veterans such as Duffy, starter-turned-closer Ian Kennedy, quiet superstar Whit Merrifield or breakout slugger Jorge Soler could further reduce that commitment, though it’s not yet clear how motivated the Royals will be to make any such moves.
Moore has been targeting near-MLB-ready assets in trades and college pitchers in the draft in hopes of architecting a quick turnaround, though certainly a sale of the club could impact not only the offseason direction of the team but the very composition of the front office and the field staff. Flanagan reported within the past week that the Royals are nearing a new television contract with Fox Sports Kansas City, which would more than double their annual rights fees (albeit from an average of $20MM per year to $48-52MM per year), and such an agreement would obviously impact the financial evaluation of the franchise and its baseball operations directives as well.
