Leftridge: KC Takes “No Room for Improvement!” Approach at Winter Meetings, Apparently

morales_kendrysHot off of their first World Series appearance in almost three decades (when I stop and think about that, it still freaks me out and doesn’t feel quite “real”), the Kansas City Royals headed into Major League Baseball’s winter meetings with three holes to fill: a starting pitcher capable of replacing the departing James Shields, a right fielder better than Nori Aoki, and a designated hitter with more oomph than Billy Butler.

Here’s what they did:

  • Signed relief pitcher Jason Frasor to a one-year deal worth $1.25MM.
  • Signed woodsman/failed starter/good reliever Luke Hochevar to a two-year deal worth $10MM.
  • Signed recently-terrible DH Kendrys Morales to a two-year deal worth $17MM.
  • Probably had some delicious food.
  • Probably enjoyed being in San Diego in early December.

Here’s what they didn’t do:

  • Sign someone like Ervin Santana, who went to the Minnesota Twins for $58MM over four years.
  • Make a play for someone like Matt Kemp who ended up being traded from the Dodgers to the Padres. (San Diego will essentially be paying him $15MM a year after LA eats some of the salary.)
  • Sign someone like Melky Cabrera. (He’s still floating in the ether.)
  • Trade for someone like Yoenis Cespedes who went from Boston to the Detroit Tigers.
  • Make any cool or interesting or daring moves at all.

Instead, they essentially re-signed two of their own, and picked up a DH who the Star’s Sam Mellinger aptly referred to as an “older, Cuban version of (Billy Butler).”

Don’t get me wrong, I like Frasor and think he’s a perfectly fine deal at $1.25MM. And as much as I disliked the starting pitching model of former-number-one-overall-bust Luke Hochevar, he was really, really good as an 8th inning guy before the Tommy John Goblin got him last year. (To be okay with this deal, I’ll just pretend that I DIDN’T hear mention that they might try him in the rotation again, because JESUSFUCKINGCHRIST are they serious with that shit?)

The Morales thing, though… man.

Kendrys-MoralesLook, one time Kendrys Morales hit 34 HR in a season and he was a perfectly okay designated hitter. Then he broke his leg CELEBRATING A HOMERUN and he really hasn’t been the same since. Last year, he was just as bad as the departing Butler. (If not worse, statistically.) Signing Morales to a two-year deal (with a mutual option for a third of course, because Royals!) feels like a decidedly 2009 Kansas City move. It’s certainly not something you’d hope to see from a team who just lost a world championship because their offense couldn’t get past a single (pretty otherworldly, but still) starting pitcher. It feels like a resignation almost, an “oh well” move from a team who refuses to commit to spending money on an impact player.

You know, Classic Royals.

I’m still holding out hope that there’s more happening behind the scenes, that general manager Dayton Moore is wheeling and dealing, ready to flip a cruddy prospect or two into big league ready gold. Because this isn’t a team who appears ready to repeat; for starters, THEY STILL DON’T HAVE A RIGHT FIELDER.

Don’t let us down, Dayton.

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14 Responses to Leftridge: KC Takes “No Room for Improvement!” Approach at Winter Meetings, Apparently

  1. balbonis moleskine says:

    Morales just flew here. Country Breakfast grew here. And that should have counted for something to the Royals. They let a career .290 hitter who would have gladly stayed in KC go over 4 mil.

  2. Nick says:

    Just as I suspected; Glass ginned up a redux Black Sox series in order to pacify the fans.

    From this point on he’ll continue to starve the Royals of the talent necessary to get to the playoffs on a regular basis, always citing 2013: Hey, he’ll say, See what we did playing small ball? It will work again!” And the team will fall back into mediocrity…

  3. Kyle R says:

    For Royals fans, I hope I’m right in thinking the Royals are saving most of their money for a few things. First, keeping the Herrera/Davis/Holland bullpen together, which is going to cost over $20 million/a year, very high for a bullpen. Then, locking up Duffy and Ventura to 4-5 year, team-friendly extensions and doing the same with Gordon, Hosmer, Cain, and maybe Moustakas for the right price.

    Otherwise, they truly are being the same old Royals, even though they likely took home $50 million+ from the playoff game tickets/parking/concessions alone.

  4. the rotation says:

    I have wondered for many years if there would be a revolutionary new idea in the MLB, much like the West Coast offense did for the NFL. Why not a 2-2-2-1-1-1 pitching set up. Starter pitchs 2 innings then 2 for a reliever then 2 then 1 then 1 then 1. You saw how the 7th 8th and 9th went this year with Herrera, Davis, and Holland. 12 total pitchers on the staff. 8 pitchers on the 2-2-2 “starting staff”. broke into two groups of 4 where 3 pitch 2-2-2 and one is skipped. then next game the other 4 do 2-2-2 with one skipped. then next game back to the first 4 doing 2-2-2 with a different player skipped so as to give another day of rest. Then 4 1-1-1 pitchers rotating every game the 1 that is off.

    does what i am saying make sense? the whole point being look and the increase in Davis’ velocity by moving from a 6 inning starter to 1 inning pitcher. It would need some tweaks, but worth a try since a reliever is much cheaper than an Ace starter.

    • the rotation says:

      Since most damage is done after a team has already seen a pitcher once, it would reduce the number of times a pitcher has to get through the lineup. Theoretically, (and it hardly ever works that way) a pitcher would never see a batter twice in a game

    • Brandon Leftridge says:

      Interesting thought. Tony LaRussa tried something using a 3-3-3 model in Oakland in… ’92? ’93? It didn’t work well. I wanna say Lou Piniella once threatened to start the game in reverese, basically– your closer starts, then you bring in your setup guys and then the starter pitches the last few innings. I love the revolutionary ideas, but I don’t know that anyone has made it work.

    • the quiz says:

      One case with the 3-3-3 was in the 1985 ALCS when Dick Howser kept pulling is RH starters, inserting LH starters after once through the lineup and then brought Quiz, a righty into close.

  5. the rotation says:

    well when i was on the college showcase circuit this is how they did it to get alot of pitchers in a game. and it would almost always shut down the greatest hitting prospects because they never got to get their timing down. an example was Toby Gerhart (vikings running back he was an even better baseball player), at the Stanford camp. but there are smarter minds than i out there. i will have to look into the examples you gave.

  6. Kerouac says:

    Not saying they should necessarily but the Royals could acquire RF/CF/LF Andre Ethier from the Dodgers for one of KC’s bullpen arms… Los Angeles would also likely pay a large portion of his guaranteed contract. A career .285 hitter relegated to the bench last season (because the Dodger had like 500 outfielders on the team), he has some pop and an fresh start elsewhere is what Ethier wants if he can’t start in LA (he can’t)… he might be a good fit for KC.

  7. Rick Nichols says:

    Hey, these are the Royals – budget baseball at its best. What else did you expect from a Walmart man who controls the pursestrings?

  8. Mysterious J says:

    I will give you credit: being wrong on just about every Royals opinion you had last year is now slowing you down one bit.

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