I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are still so full from all the delicious food that you’re not even thinking about the fact that the Royals have been way too quiet this offseason. The winter meetings are only a couple weeks ago, so the action should get hot and heavy pretty soon, and that CBA should be taken care of relatively soon too (we hope), which might get the ball rolling a little bit more too. I think it was two years ago that all the action happened on like three days and the rest of the offseason was a snoozefest. This is shaping up to be the same way.
- I have a weird contract idea, so keep with me on this. The Royals should sign Mike Moustakas to an extension. That’s not the weird part. The Royals should sign Mike Moustakas to an extension with an opt out after 2017. Now I’ve got your attention. Okay, so as you know, Moose is coming off a pretty serious knee injury. He’ll probably come back fine, but we really don’t know yet. He’s also guaranteed $8.7 million in 2017 for a team that is looking to save money wherever they can. What if the Royals offered Moose a deal like three years and $28 million with an opt out following the 2017 season? Why would they do that? As of right now, he’s scheduled to become a free agent anyway after 2017. In my scenario, I’d give him a $4 million salary in 2017 and a $2 million buyout if he opts out. This would save the Royals money in 2017. But why would he do it? What if he doesn’t come back. As of this moment, he’s guaranteed to make $8.7 million for the rest of his career. He may never get another deal. He probably will, but he may not. If he signs this deal, he’s guaranteed to make $28 million for the rest of his career. If he can’t play anymore, he still gets it. But he still gets the chance to hit free agency if he proves healthy. Some may wonder why Scott Boras would do this, but I think it’s absolutely the type of deal Boras would go for. He’s lowering the risk on one of his clients to his agency while still keeping free agency as an option following next season. The Royals could be on the hook for 2/24 for a guy who can’t play, but the 2018 and beyond team is kind of in disarray anyway. And if he does rebound in the following years, the Royals have a trade chip when they’re rebuilding. Plus, he’d get to hit free agency at 31 anyway. I don’t know. I’m sure there are issues with this, but I’m intrigued by the idea.
- I thought about writing a whole post about this, but I decided just to include it here. If I had a Hall of Fame ballot and followed the rules of only selecting 10 players, my ballot would be Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Edgar Martinez, Tim Raines, Manny Ramirez and Ivan Rodriguez. I actually only ended up selecting nine. Some might question having Ramirez on there given his suspensions, but I’m a believer that the numbers put up were the numbers put up, so I’m not dinging guys for PEDs. I included Hoffman, but I’m iffy on that. He did rack up over 600 saves, and whatever you think of that stat, it’s still impressive. I left off Curt Schilling because he’s borderline to me and he’s insufferable, so that pushed him on the other side. I did think about Larry Walker and even Jorge Posada, but ultimately both fell short for me. My guess is we see Bagwell and Raines get in this year and maybe Pudge, Guerrero and Hoffman. I think Hoffman will eventually make it as he was at 68.3 percent of the vote last year. I also think Pudge will eventually get in, but I just feel like he’ll be made an example of this season for some reason. And Guerrero seems like a guy who will debut at like 58 percent and get in on his fourth try. Anyway, that’s my ballot and my guess for what happens in a couple months.
- Baseball America released their top prospects for 2017 and while Clint Scoles handles most of the prospect talk around these parts, I wanted to chime in a bit on the list. If you haven’t seen the list, click here. I don’t really have a big problem with the 10 names on the list, but I’m not sure I agree completely with the order they’re in. I think the top three are somewhat interchangeable, which is more about how thin the system is than how good they are. I’d probably put Dozier first, but I also value a likelihood to contribute. Staumont has had such a great showing in the AFL and has such great stuff that I understand him at the top. I’m not sure I see it with Eric Skoglund. The stuff just isn’t there for me. I’d personally probably put Chase Vallot fourth with Ryan O’Hearn fifth, Scott Blewett sixth, Jorge Bonifacio seventh, A.J. Puckett eighth, Skoglund ninth and Kyle Zimmer rounding things out. Interestingly enough, I do think Zimmer has a chance to be one of the best 10th ranked prospects in an organization of all time because the question is, of course, not his pitching ability but his ability to stay healthy. Of the top 10, I could see six of them contributing to the Royals in 2017 (Staumont, Strahm, Dozier, Skoglund, Bonifacio and Zimmer). This system is definitely not very good right now, though, so I imagine the Royals will be quick to try to rebuild the system if things go bad next season.
- The Royals did do something in the last few days, and that’s sign Drew Butera to a two-year deal worth a total of $3.8 million. A deal that small barely moves any sort of needle, but it did generate some discussion among Royals fans. Of course, I think it’s just because we’re hurting for anything to talk about these days. Personally, I’m fine with the deal even though I doubt Butera is going to hit like he did in 2016 ever again. Butera wasn’t my first choice as backup catcher, but I’m not sure my first choice (Alex Avila) would have come to KC to be a backup anyway, so there you go. With Butera, the pitching staff and the coaching staff seem to have a good relationship with him. I understand the desire to save some money in this role and the Royals have Cam Gallagher slowly working his way through the system who could serve as the backup to Salvador Perez, but I have no issue with the familiarity of Butera. For a guy who will likely only start 25-30 games behind the plate, it’s hard to build familiarity quickly, so they already have that built in. I wish there were more transactions to discuss than this, but I’m really okay with this move.