Comments on: It’s Time To Talk About The “R” Word http://kansascity.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/12/12/its-time-to-talk-about-the-r-word/ Just another Baseball Prospectus Local Sites site Mon, 19 Aug 2019 20:28:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1 By: Kansas City - Baseball Prospectus http://kansascity.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/12/12/its-time-to-talk-about-the-r-word/#comment-28248 Wed, 20 Dec 2017 13:13:47 +0000 http://kansascity.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=17288#comment-28248 […] their Hosmer and keep payroll around $110 million. Sure, there are movable contracts on the ledger. As mentioned in this space, Danny Duffy and Salvador Perez are a couple of players who are affordable for the right team, […]

]]> By: nikadimuz http://kansascity.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/12/12/its-time-to-talk-about-the-r-word/#comment-28034 Sat, 16 Dec 2017 19:15:13 +0000 http://kansascity.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=17288#comment-28034 I understand that baseball is a game of chasing the latest craze that worked for another team. I think we are seeing the most recent crescendo’ing of that craze this winter with teams paying big bucks and multiple years for relievers. The next such craze is already taking root in the “total rebuild” model followed by the Cubs and Astros.

I will be very sad if Moore chooses to go that route. People seem to forget that the Cubs and Astros are two very rich teams that can afford to keep their players as they get older plus supplement their homegrown group with high-priced free agents.

The Cubs’ payroll for the past two years has been over $170 million. The Royals are in no position to touch that statusphere of payroll. By all reports they were well well within the red at $143 million. The most recent reports are that the Royals break-even is in the $110-$115 million area. Whether that is accurate or not, the Cubs have room to spend at $170 million. The Royals are not able to stay consistently at even $140 million.

The Astros’ payroll this year was $124 million (per Cots without including whatever they paid Verlander). That is with most of their talent still years from free agency (some even not even at arbitration). The Astros have been masterful with their acquisitions and arguably had no bad contracts (Johnathan Singleton being the lone exception at $4.5 million owed for 17-18). The Astros will be able to afford it when Springer, Altuve, Bergman, etc. get deep into arbitration and potential free agency. The Royals never had that level of talent during their recent run, but couldn’t afford to keep all those players as they get to the last few years of arbitration.

Teams like the Royals can maybe keep some of their home grown talent to long term contracts or supplement the cheaper talent with free agents, but not both. You cannot look at the Astros/Cubs model and expect it to be cookie cutter approach that works for all teams.

The less than successful rebuilds far outnumber those two teams. The Cincinnati’s, Tampa Bays, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, San Diego’s of the baseball world have been trying to rebuild for multiple years without much sustained success.

The Royals are the only small market team to win a WS since the strike of 1994 (Miami IS NOT a small market). Few have even made it to a WS, much less back to back (I think Cleveland may have made something close in the lat 90’s). Moore has earned our trust in what happens the next few years.

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