Royals’ offseason spending, fourth in MLB, reflects fresh urgency of John Sherman era
Shortly before the Royals on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium introduced veteran outfielder Hunter Renfroe, he met with J.J. Picollo, the man orchestrating the intriguing free-agent binge that has created one of the most compelling national storylines of baseball’s offseason.
Among the topics between them was a telling anecdote about the dynamics of the makeover forged by the Royals, who have spent the fourth-most money in free agency in Major League Baseball (some $105 million).
That stands in stark contrast to an enduring perception of their frugality somewhat well-earned — though not always — through most of the last few decades.
At the time the Royals had agreed to terms with Renfroe, they still were in negotiations with the player who loomed as perhaps the most key new addition of all, starting pitcher Michael Wacha.
But as a way to illustrate the forces at work for the Royals, Picollo wanted Renfroe to understand they had something else to contemplate at the time: a prospective trade for Miami starter Jesus Luzardo.
It was a deal the Marlins repeatedly insisted they’d only make in exchange for 26-year-old Vinnie Pasquantino — widely seen as a core part of the Royals’ immediate future.
The potential trade, first reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and confirmed to The Star, never exactly was imminent. But it was established that it would take nothing less than Pasquantino if the Royals determined that was their best path to the essential further upgrade of starting pitching to go with the earlier signing of Seth Lugo.
“The options were simple. We could continue to explore a trade opportunity and maybe create a hole — plug a hole, but create a hole,” said Picollo, now into his second year as the team’s executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager. “Or we could extend (financially) a little bit and stay in the fight for some of what we thought were the top free-agent arms out there.”
So he turned to owner John Sherman, who told Picollo if he and his staff felt the better approach was spending more on the free-agent pitching they had his support.
“Which is exactly what he has said we will do all along,” Picollo said, echoing Sherman’s public stance over the last couple years. “‘When the time’s right, we will do what we need to do.’”
Any number of reasons made this the right time for the moves that have demonstrably made this what Picollo called a “vastly different” team over the matter of weeks.
Most obviously, of course, the Royals in 2022 matched the worst record in franchise history (56-106). The so-called “evaluation season” was marked mostly by the combustible pitching that had the third-worst ERA (5.17) in baseball.
As much as calling it an evaluation season seemed like a euphemism for “nothing to see here,” the Royals sure have acted on it. Particularly since they came to see it as enough was enough in terms of waiting for more young pitchers to take meaningful steps.
So they made change a point of conviction by churning into some productive transactions along the way (particularly dealing reliever Aroldis Chapman for thus-far-a-revelation starter Cole Ragans and reliever Jose Cuas for late-season powerhouse Nelson Velazquez) and with an offseason commitment that led to a whirlwind couple weeks.
Within that, each move made for an important bolstering message to the core position players — not the least of which is emerging star Bobby Witt Jr., with whom the Royals would like to sign a long-term extension but who doubtless craves playing for a winner.
For that matter, each move enabled more moves by establishing further credibility and currency about the operation.
At the news conference to announce the signing of Lugo, for instance, Picollo suggested signing reliever Will Smith might have “jumpstarted” what was to come.
Evidently so.
“Any time the ownership puts an exclamation point on a team (by spending like this), Renfroe said the other day, “I think that’s huge. And hat’s off. I love that.”
Another factor makes this time right, whether consciously or coincidentally.
Because it comes as Sherman and the Royals seek to move out of the Truman Sports Complex into a new stadium with an attached entertainment district they’ve stated will either be in downtown Kansas City or North Kansas City.
Between an ongoing reverence for Kauffman Stadium and an estimated price tag ($2 billion-plus for the project) hinging on hundreds of millions of dollars of public money, the notion has met with resistance that includes this argument:
“Why does a perpetual last-place team deserve a new $2 billion stadium?” was the first question asked of Sherman in December 2022 on a listening tour for the potential project. “If you won’t invest in the team, why should we invest in you?”
In a great sense, the points are apples and oranges.
But in the sense that matters most, public perception, they are entwined.
That’s why I wrote late last season that it would be win-win for the Royals to spend big this offseason. And it’s why I find it hard to understand some of the cynicism I’ve heard about their motivation to spend now.
Because the Royals should be doing both all they can to win and all they can to engender public support, shouldn’t they? And it just seems patently illogical and unfair to criticize them for not spending … and then criticize them for doing it.
The night of the listening tour at the Plexpod Westport Commons was when I first heard Sherman say “when the time is right, we’re going to invest very, very significantly to win on the field.”
The point then was that the Royals wanted to determine what they really had with a promising but unproven nucleus under new management — including overhauls of organizational systems — and a new manager.
So here they are now, spending significantly with an eye toward hauling themselves up out of the abyss this season — with pieces that could be appealing for trades if they don’t get the right traction.
But part of Picollo and his staff’s pitches to the free-agent group, which also includes reliever Chris Stratton and versatile infielder Garrett Hampson, was about the more immediate and seemingly accessible.
The pedestrian American League Central, Picollo and the Royals believe, is winnable.
Winnable and winning it, of course, are entirely different — and the Royals first have to avoid being knocked out by the end of May as they so often have been.
To make meaningful strides, they also need the now-not–so-young youngsters to blossom and the newcomers, of course, to both stabilize and catalyze.
So absolutely nothing is assured.
Still, something fresh has been established about the organization under Sherman — who since buying the team in 2019 has had to contend with a pandemic, a work stoppage, revival of the farm system and presided over the so-called evaluation season.
He also made the first major front-office change since 2006 when he replaced Dayton Moore with Picollo after the 2022 season.
Through all that fog, it was hard to see with certainty what is apparent at least right now but will be best measured over time.
Something that Picollo wanted to make sure Renfroe and even baseball itself knows.
“I think we’re a much deeper and better team,” Picollo said, “because of the latitude (Sherman) gave us.”