National reaction to report of Mike Moustakas' return to Royals
Naturally, the news of Mike Moustakas' impending return to the Royals was a big story in Kansas City.
But with the report that Moustakas had agreed to a one-year $6.5 million contract, the national media took notice as well.
Moustakas had turned down a one-year, $17.4 million qualifying offer of from the Royals, so the details of this deal certainly raised eyebrows. Here is what people are saying:
Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post wrote:
"The Great Free Agent Stalemate of the winter of 2017-18 now has a human face. It is rugged and bearded and blue-capped. It may be wearing a smile when it next shows up in public, but there’s a good chance that smile will be hiding some deep-seated frustration and bitterness, and with good reason.
"The face of free agency in March 2018 belongs to Mike Moustakas, who signed late Thursday with the Kansas City Royals on a one-year, $6.5 million guaranteed contract. ...
"That Moustakas, a two-time all-star, had to wait until halfway through spring training to find a home, then accept a pay-cut and a one-year deal, signals his own quiet, begrudging acceptance of an unexpected reality — as well as his unquenchable desire to play baseball, and to get to a spring training camp before it’s too late to prepare himself adequately for Opening Day.
"But it also highlights, in human form, the way the free agent system in baseball is broken — or at the very least operating in a manner in which it has never operated before, and was never meant to operate."
Here is what ESPN's Buster Olney tweeted:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Royals are rebuilding, but they've demonstrated beyond any doubt that they're not tanking. Signings of Jon Jay, Moustakas, Escobar, etc. probably don't get the Royals to the playoffs, but they are value signings that do make the '18 Royals better. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/oldschool?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#oldschool</a></p>— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/971970556856754177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, who broke the news of offer for Moustakas wrote:
"While Moustakas’ weakness is clear – never has he walked more than 43 times in a season, and his career on-base percentage is .305 – the notion of him not receiving a multiyear deal at the beginning of the offseason was almost inconceivable. Kansas City, which had balked at bringing Moustakas back, recognized it was not going to reap a draft pick for him and took advantage of the depressed market to fill its third-base slot."
This is what USA Today's Bob Nightengale wrote:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mike Moustakas, who rejected $17.4 million qualifying offer from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a>,now comes back at just $6.5 million. Ugly winter</p>— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) <a href="https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/971945480669224960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This story was originally published March 9, 2018 at 9:35 AM with the headline "National reaction to report of Mike Moustakas' return to Royals."