The Kansas City Royals are currently one of the worst teams in the MLB. This development comes as no surprise, but even the near future does not look very rosy. SPOX takes a look at Missouri and assesses the situation.
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Even before the season it was clear to everyone what the goal for the Kansas City Royals 2018 would be: Damage control, just above the tanking limit.
Why close? Because with the commitment of Mike Moustakas at least a little bit of residual quality has been maintained in an otherwise rather mauen lineup. But the result after a little more than 100 games is still meaningful: The season is sunk!
The Royals have the second worst record in baseball, only undercut by the Orioles, who actually have even more quality in the squad, but can show even less yield.
Looking at the Royals in detail, it quickly becomes clear that a certain standstill has been reached. The franchise, which was still in the World Series in 2014 and 2015 and even won the 2015 Series, has now given way to a hopeless accumulation of numerous fillers.
Only a few stand out positively. Apart from “Moose” only three current starters beat over league cut, the rest partly clearly under it. In the pitching area it becomes even more serious, because only Kelvin Herrera, the former closer of the team, stood out here in the entire staff. He’s already been traded for prospects and is now playing for the Washington Nationals.
The people in Missouri would also like to do the same with many other players, because the topic of prospects is a tricky one in KC. The organization does not currently have a single talent on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 list. The in-house top prospect, Outfielder Khalil Lee, is not expected in the MLB before 2020 or even 2021, depending on the source.
The goal must now be to improve one’s own farm system, after all, this has been the heart of this organization’s success in the last great times. There are three ways to do this: trades, draft and international amateurs. Trades are probably the best solution for quick improvements until the end of July. However, the Royals don’t have many good trade chips.
Moustakas is sure to find another buyer, but he won’t make a big profit either, as he can become a free agent again in winter and is currently not directly part of the elite in his position.
Actually, only the general-purpose weapon Whit Merrifield, which can play almost any position and is still under team control for several years, seems really interesting at the moment – it will only be admitted to arbitration in 2020, so it will only then become reasonably expensive. But because of this fact the question arises whether it is better to hold it yourself. Rebuild or not, he could become the cornerstone of a new team, precisely because he will remain under control for so long.
On the other hand, it could generate a very high return in a trade for several good prospects at the same time. The question is who would offer what now. But the Royals would certainly sound anything.
If you look at pitching, it seems almost impossible to pick something useful here. The complete rotation is pitching under league cut according to ERA+, although Danny Duffy is at least close. The view of the so-called “Fielder Independent Pitching” (FIP) is also frightening, i.e. statistics that calculate the influence of the defense on the pitcher performance – both positive and negative: four out of five starts here are at 4.90 or worse, which is very weak. Only Jason Hammel comes close to the acceptable range with 4.56, but his 69 ERA+ is the second worst.
However, Duffy does not seem tradeable not only because of its current form. A glance at their contract should make any potential interested party lose the desire for an obligation. It was signed for five years in early 2017 and will earn over 45 million dollars between 2019 and 2021. A proud price for a (current) average pitcher.
2021 is also the last year in which the Royals have any guaranteed contracts on their payroll. However, nothing has been tied down for 2022. So if they wanted, they would be able to bring total flexibility to bear. Given that the Royals set a record of 185 million for their 40-player squad at the end of 2017, a lot would be possible in the free agent market of the future.
However, to get free agents to choose KC, they would first have to rebuild the base, which should now be a lengthy process. One that owner David Glass and General Manager Dayton Moore had already initiated and successfully carried through about ten years ago.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.