Royals avoid arbitration with Brad Keller and Adalberto Mondesi. Here are their deals
Keeping with the organization’s approach under general manager Dayton Moore, the Kansas City Royals reached one-year contract agreements with young potential cornerstones Brad Keller and Adalberto Mondesi to avoid arbitration.
Keller, a 25-year-old right-handed starting pitcher, agreed to a salary of $3.35 million for the 2021 season and the 25-year-old switch-hitting shortstop Mondesi agreed to a salary figure of $2.525 million in 2021, according to a source with knowledge of the agreements.
Friday marked MLB’s deadline for teams and players to reach an agreement before they were required to file salary figures in preparation for arbitration hearings in early February.
With the Keller and Mondesi salaries now set, the Royals have reached agreement with all of their arbitration-eligible players.
Both Keller and Mondesi remain under club control through the 2023 season. They’ll each have two seasons of arbitration eligibility remaining.
Keller, viewed as the budding ace of the starting rotation, still has pitched just one full-length season in the majors as a starter. At the end of that 2019 season, the Royals shut him down prematurely due to workload concerns and an innings limit.
Keller got a late start to last season due to a COVID-19 infection during spring training 2.0/Summer Camp. The interruption to his throwing progression caused him to start the season in the injured list as he continued to ramp up.
In his three seasons, including the shortened 2020 campaign, Keller has posted a 21-23 record with a 3.50 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, a .242 opponent’s batting average, 6.3 strikeouts per 9 innings, and a 1.85-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Keller, who pitched out of the bullpen to begin the 2018 season, has made 57 of his 78 appearances as a starting pitcher.
In those 57 starts, he has posted a 20-22 record, 3.59 ERA, struck out 240 and walked 130 in 338 innings. He has tossed two complete games, including one shutout. He has registered a 1.29 WHIP and 6.4 strikeouts per 9 innings as a starter.
Mondesi, who entered spring training last February coming off of shoulder surgery, endured a pandemic-shortened season characterized by stark offensive peaks and valleys last summer.
Through his first 30 games, Mondesi scuffled to the tune of .213/.234/.278 slash line with five doubles, a triple, two walks, zero home runs, two RBIs, 10 runs scored and seven stolen bases.
After what seemed like prolonged struggles relative to the truncated 60-game schedule, Mondesi finished strong with a slash line of .297/.350/.550, with six doubles, two triples, nine walks, six home runs, 20 RBIs, 23 runs scored and 17 stolen bases in has last 29 games.
Mondesi’s first five seasons have been largely plagued by injuries which limited him to 308 games. He’s logged a career slash line of .251/.284/.415 in the majors. In the past three seasons, he’s slashed .265/.296/.444.
In 2020, Mondesi led the majors in steals (24) as well as infield hits (15). He also recorded the longest home run hit by a Royals player with his 458-foot blast at Cleveland’s Progressive Field on Sept. 7.
In December, the club reached deals with outfielder/designated hitter Jorge Soler, infielder/outfielder Hunter Dozier, outfielder Franchy Cordero and pitchers Jakob Junis and Jesse Hahn, who were all arbitration eligible this winter.
The only case to go through the full arbitration process between the Royals and a player during Moore’s tenure came in 2018, when pitcher Brandon Maurer filed for a $3.5 million salary and the Royals ultimately won the hearing and Maurer made $2.95 million.
