Royals biggest non-tender deadline questions swirl around Maikel Franco. Here’s why
Major League Baseball reaches its non-tender deadline on Wednesday, which means the Kansas City Royals and the league’s other 29 teams must decide whether to offer 2021 contracts to 40-man roster players with fewer than six years of service time.
Any player who is non-tendered — not offered a contract for next season — becomes a free agent. The deadline to make these decisions is 7 p.m. Central time Wednesday.
This offseason has already seen a large free-agent pool develop as many teams chose not to exercise options on existing contracts for veteran players. More than 180 MLB players had hit the open market as of November 1, not including minor-league free agents.
More than 50 players were non-tendered last winter, and even more could be cut loose this winter coming off of a pandemic-shortened season with sizable revenue losses for organizations.
Last season, a non-tender decision paved the way for the Royals’ acquisition of third baseman Maikel Franco. Now, the Royals’ biggest question mark at the deadline figures to be whether they’d benefit from non-tendering Franco.
Franco, who signed as a free agent last winter after the Philadelphia Phillies non-tendered him, battled a leg injury which hobbled him on the base paths for a large portion of this summer’s pandemic-shortened season. He still started in all 60 games (eight as designated hitter, one at first base) for the Royals.
Franco, 28, posted a slash line of .278/.321/.457 with eight home runs, 38 RBIs and tied for the third-most doubles (16) in the American League.
He signed for a base salary of $2.95 million after his production slipped in 2019. His bounce-back performance in a shortened 2020 season may warrant a significant salary increase.
Franco is eligible for salary arbitration this offseason. MLBTradeRumors.com projects his 2021 salary between $4.5 million and $8 million depending on various methods of calculation, while Spotrac estimates his salary at $6.25 million.
The Royals could choose to non-tender him to avoid arbitration and save money in order to pursue other free-agent targets, and the sides could still negotiate a free-agent deal to keep Franco in Kansas City.
This week, the Royals signed outfielder Michael A. Taylor and agreed to a yet-to-be-finalized deal with pitcher Mike Minor.
Royals general manager Dayton Moore held a video conference call with reporters on Monday to discuss the Taylor signing. When asked by The Kansas City Star if completed or pending free-agent signings might force the Royals to non-tender a player of players at the deadline for financial reasons, Moore said, “It could. ... We’ve got a lot of balls in the air right now.”
Moore went on to add, “It’s likely that we move on from certain players because their financial expectation doesn’t align with what we can do in other areas based on this market. So we’re looking at that. I don’t know how it will unfold, but we’re looking at different things.”
Moore also reiterated a comment he made previously this offseason that his front office may be more “transactional,” seemingly hinting that they might pursue players who hit the free agent market after the non-tender deadline.
The group of arbitration eligible Royals set for pay raises this winter includes designated hitter and former AL home run champion Jorge Soler, starting pitcher Brad Keller, shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, infielder/outfielder Hunter Dozier, starting pitcher Jakob Junis, relief pitcher Jesse Hahn and outfielder Franchy Cordero.
The Royals also could turn to internal options at third base. In the past, the organization expressed confidence in Kelvin Gutierrez, ranked No. 23 prospect in the Royals’ farm system by Baseball America.
Gutierrez received his first promotion to the majors in 2019. However, Gutierrez’s penchant for injury played a role in the team’s pursuit of Franco last offseason.
Dozier seemingly settled in at first base in 2020, but he has also started at third base as well as the outfield.
The future of the position could include the organization’s top prospect Bobby Witt Jr., one of the Top 100 prospects in baseball.
Witt, a shortstop and former No. 2 overall draft pick, got repetitions at third base in spring training 2.0/Summer Camp as well as during scrimmages at the alternate training site.
With the Royals committed to Mondesi as the everyday shortstop in the majors, third base may be a path to regular playing time for Witt if he advances quickly. Witt and Mondesi played side-by-side at shortstop and third base at times during spring training 2.0 intrasquad games.
