What to expect from the Royals at MLB’s Winter Meetings, starting Monday in San Diego
Baseball’s annual early Christmas arrives next week as the Kansas City Royals and the rest of Major League Baseball’s 30 clubs set up shop in the winter wonderland of, uh, San Diego, California.
The MLB Winter Meetings begin Monday, which means the so-called “hot stove” will burn nearly around the clock, with free agency and trade scenarios sure to abound. Traditionally, this week has included a flurry of high-profile acquisitions and trades.
The Winter Meetings include officials from every major-league organization as well as many minor-league franchises. It’s part job fair, part trade show, part workshop and of course a venue for major-league front offices to conference with their peers as well as agents. The week wraps up with the Rule 5 Draft Thursday.
In recent years, free agency has moved significantly slower than was commonplace in the past. However, several teams have already made significant roster additions this offseason ahead of the meetings.
Coming off a second consecutive 100-loss season and fresh off the sale of the franchise to a group led by new chairman and CEO John Sherman, the Royals aren’t expected to be big spenders ... though general manager Dayton Moore has made it known pitching will be a primary target this offseason.
“There’s always a strong sense of urgency,” Moore said. “We have lots of work to do, but we’re very encouraged with where we are based on how our players performed individually last year. We know we’ve got to tighten up in some areas.
“We’ve got to clean up the efficiency and the effectiveness of our bullpen and our overall pitching. We’re in the process of working through that. We feel like we have a lot of talented players on our roster that are just continuing to get better, but we’ll look for opportunities to add to this group.”
The Royals believe they’ve got a core group of players at the major-league level they can build around, but they’re unlikely to sign top-tier free agents who’d command long-term deals with big price tags. They’ll instead focus on “value based” signings with low risk and decent potential upside.
The Royals non-tendered four players this week and now have space on their 40-man roster if they want to acquire players via the Rule 5 Draft.
Giving and receiving
The Royals will meet with agents and players they view as potential signings, but they will also visit with other front office executives in San Diego.
“We have a pretty good idea of who we match-up with trade-wise already,” Moore said. “I’m not sure how active we’ll be able to be in the trade markets based on a lot of the discussions we’ve had at this point in time, but that could change as we get closer to spring training or even during spring training.”
While last season’s pitching woes make it a reasonable assumption the Royals would target major-league-ready pitching in any deal, Moore understands every organization is currently chasing pitching and feels his club’s needs aren’t so finite.
“I think we’ve got to upgrade everywhere, really,” Moore said.
Royals all-star infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield figures to be the top trade chip in the club’s arsenal due to his combination of production and a team-friendly contract he signed in January.
The four-year deal guaranteed Merrifield $16.25 million with a maximum of $19.85 million for the first four years. The deal also included a fifth-year club option that would pay Merrifield $10.5 million.
The Chicago Cubs have reportedly expressed continued interest in Merrifield. But as one of the Royals face-of-the-franchise type players and an extremely versatile and productive All-Star, the ask in return would likely be huge.
This year, Merrifield, 30, set career highs in hits (206), runs (105), extra-base hits (67), triples (10), slugging percentage (.463), OPS (.811) and games (162).
He also led the majors in hits and became the first hitter to lead the majors in hits in back-to-back seasons since Ichiro Suzuki did so in 2006-10. Merrifield is also the first right-handed batter to accomplish the feat in consecutive years since Kirby Puckett in 1988-89.
Ghosts of Christmas past
Last season, the Royals’ highest-profile move during the winter meetings came in the form of free-agent center fielder Billy Hamilton. During the month of December, they also signed free agent infielder Chris Owings and outfielder Terrance Gore and re-signed Bubba Starling to a minor-league contract.
In December 2017, they added pitcher Brad Keller via the Rule 5 Draft and signed free-agent pitchers Scott Barlow and Wily Peralta.
December 2016 featured a trade with the Chicago Cubs that brought designated hitter/outfielder Jorge Soler to Kansas City in exchange for pitcher Wade Davis. The Royals also acquired pitcher Glenn Sparkman off waivers that month.
After injury problems hindered Soler’s production in 2017 and 2018, he played in all 162 games last season, set a franchise single-season record in home runs (48) and led the American League in home runs.
The Royals have swung several significant deals in December during Moore’s tenure.
In 2012, they traded pitcher Mike Montgomery, infielder/outfielder Patrick Leonard, highly rated outfield prospect Wil Myers and future All-Star pitcher Jake Odorizzi to the Tampa Bay Rays for pitchers Wade Davis and James Shields as well as outfielder/infielder Elliot Johnson (the player to be named later).
In 2010, they sent former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke and infielder Yuniesky Betancourt to the Milwaukee Brewers for outfielder Lorenzo Cain, infielder Alcides Escobar, pitcher Jeremy Jeffress and pitcher Jake Odorizzi.
The new boss
One of the Royals’ American League Central Division rivals, the Chicago White Sox, have already been extremely active.
They’ve signed power-hitting catcher Yasmani Grandal and re-signed first baseman Jose Abreu to multi-year deals, and were also reportedly the highest bidder for free-agent pitcher Zack Wheeler, who ultimately signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Royals, meanwhile, continue to budget with an eye on being able to extend their top homegrown players as they approach free agency. That group includes Jorge Soler, Hunter Dozier and Adalberto Mondesi.
Sherman appears to be on the same page with Moore, at least in the initial phase of Sherman’s ownership.
“If one player is not going to move the needle on this team right now, we’ve got to build some other things up,” Sherman said following his introductory news conference.
While not looking to make a big splash in his first winter as the ultimate decision-maker for the Royals, Sherman did give hints that he could be in favor of taking more risks in the future.
Sherman acknowledged that the club’s pending new television contract will provide more flexibility in terms of payroll. His past experience as a minority owner with the Cleveland Indians also points to a willingness lose money in order to build a winning team.
“I think in this business if you’re in a small market, you have to be willing to lose money at certain times to be competitive,” Sherman said. “The experience in Cleveland has been very beneficial. Of course, I’ve seen the numbers here. But you have to have a nucleus. It doesn’t make sense to go out and get one big free agent if you don’t have the talent around them. I think about in Cleveland, we started in 2016 and our payroll was $82 million. We had a good team. We were competitive.
“We added Andrew Miller at the deadline, and we got to the World Series. We didn’t win it. The next year, we signed (Edwin) Encarnacion to a three-year deal. I think that was the largest free-agent deal in Indians history then. A couple years later, we traded him away and got Carlos Santana back, a switch-hitter and a good player. Those are all moves that were intended to keep us competitive.”
