Royals probably won’t rush to sign free agents, Moore says, but later deals possible
Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore won’t feel a bit of trepidation if he and his front office lieutenants leave the MLB Winter Meetings without adding a free agent to their roster.
Moore doesn’t feel pressure to make a move for the sake of making a move, or for the public relations of winning a news conference.
Instead, he will double down on the crop of young players the organization has patiently waited upon, possibly to a fault, to get their feet under them in the major leagues.
“For us, with our level of performance in the market, no one is going to jump up and take our (offers) right now,” Moore said Monday in San Diego, site of this year’s Winter Meetings. “Any free agents we sign will be January or February.
“Something may surprise me. And that doesn’t mean we won’t make an offer or two prior to then. But at the level we’ll be committing I think there’s very little chance we sign a free-agent before we leave San Diego. But we’ll have discussions.”
Last season, the Royals extended Whit Merrifield’s contract in late January. They also signed free-agent pitchers Drew Storen, Jake Diekman, Homer Bailey and Brad Boxberger in February.
Storen, who’d spent a year out of the majors following Tommy John surgery, didn’t make it out of the minor leagues, and the club designated Boxberger for assignment in June. Diekman and Bailey were two of the staff’s more consistent performers before being traded to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for minor-league prospects in July.
The Royals’ payroll right now projects to around $75 million to $80 million, and Moore doesn’t expect it to rise much. He said the club will have flexibility built in should it choose to extend the contract of a current player, such as Jorge Soler, who is arbitration-eligible, as well as room for free-agent additions.
At the same time, Moore said the Royals are having more discussions with agents than they’ve ever had at this point in the offseason. He also said he will talk with outfielder Alex Gordon’s agent while in San Diego.
As The Star reported in November, the Royals are planning on Gordon returning for the 2020 season. He’d gone into 2019 with the possibility that might be his final season. Gordon has not announced his retirement, and he and the club have remained in contact.
“We plan on meeting with Alex’s representation while we’re here to see where we stand,” Moore said. “That’s a priority for us, to see if we can get Alex back. But we haven’t talked to his people yet and I’ve had a couple of conversations with Alex this offseason.”
Rosenthal signing: Last week’s signing of relief pitcher Trevor Rosenthal had been about a year in the making, and the presence of Mike Matheny, Rosenthal’s former manager in St. Louis and the new manager of the Royals, may have put Kansas City over the top.
“I think with Rosenthal, he has a nice, trusting relationship with Mike Matheny,” Moore said. “He’s a local player. Jeremy Jones, who runs Building Champions (a baseball academy in Overland Park) and also does some work with us, has a relationship with him. So there’s some comfort there.”
The Royals attempted to sign Rosenthal last offseason but were outbid by the Washington Nationals. Rosenthal signed with the Nats for a $7 million base salary plus incentives and an option for 2020.
The Royals again pursued him when Washington released him, but KC wouldn’t guarantee him a call-up to the big-league roster. He went on to sign with the Detroit Tigers.
This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 8:20 PM.
