Is the Royals outfield wide enough? Are the Royals throwing away their shot? Kansas City sure didn’t wait for it and went out and signed center fielder Billy Hamilton. It might be nice to have Hamilton on our side.

On top of that move, the Royals signed utility man Chris Owings, and carved out some space on the 40 man roster to make room for likely Rule 5 picks as they finish up a somewhat busy but curious Winter Meetings.

Programming note: While what you’ve known as BP Kansas City is being absorbed into the larger Baseball Prospectus site, if you’re subscribed to our podcast through iTunes or another app, you should still continue to receive new episodes as they’re published just like you always have.

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Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com.

The Royals took aim at locking down their 40 man roster, purchasing the contracts of three pitchers, claiming one and designating another for assignment.

As they massage the roster, they also have some arbitration offers to consider. What will be the fate of Cheslor Cuthbert, Jesse Hahn, and Brian Flynn? Is new claim Conner Greene a good pickup? Hey, who’s this Arnaldo Hernandez fella? And did you say Ross Gload? What’s he got to do with these guys? (spoiler: nothing but we got distracted for a second)

Along with those decisions, we discussed the hiring of Mike Matheny and if he’s picking out furniture for Ned Yost’s current office or not (and who the alternative Managers-in-waiting might be).

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Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com.

The Royals made a couple more moves since our last episode, so we recapped the dearly departed, including some minor league free agents.

But with new free agents come new signings, so we discussed the signing of post-hype prospect Michael Ynoa to a minor-league deal. It’s low-risk, high-reward, which is right in line with how the Royals should approach the offseason.

Once 2019 starts, though, the Royals may show some new flexibility within the pitching staff. Comments from Dayton Moore suggest some openness to experimenting with the bullpen and how some players are used. The Royals might – gasp – go a bit outside the book next season. With a lot of arms available, but no marquee names projected for the big club, we weighed the pros and cons, and speculated about how long the experiments might actually last when all is said and done.

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Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com.

The 2018 season is over, and we’re now starting to see some transactions and roster decisions being made.

For the Royals, their 2019 team is not likely to change that much from the team that ended 2018, but there are definite opportunities to improve the team for next year and beyond. We discussed how active they might be and where they may try to direct their attention. While most of baseball looks at the big names, the Royals will be out of the marquee free agent battle

Along with that discussion, we also talked about some of the next wave of talent and some of the difficulties of developing and moving talent up the ladder.

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Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com.

Every season, amidst the fun and games of spring training, we set some over/under marks for particular players and judge where we think they’ll land.

This year, our array of predictions were hit and miss, but the journey is half the fun, right? We reviewed the predictions from March, what went right, what went wrong, and what was close.

Along with the over/under judgments, we also reviewed some bold predictions from before the 2018 season. Did we miss entirely? Did we nail them? Similar to the Royals disappointing-turning-into-optimistic season, it was a little of both.

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Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com.

For the fifth time in their history, the Royals have reached 100 losses. That’s not good, but we tried to add some perspective to the mark, in light of the Royals decent and much-more-watchable second half of the year.

Along with that is the emergence of Whit Merrifield as a consistent and dynamic star, Adalberto Mondesi as a hopeful phenom, and Ryan O’Hearn as a power-hitting giant. We focused mostly on Merrifield’s efforts this year and his consistency all season long, but Mondesi and O’Hearn have been so good that they sneak their way into any Royals discussion these days.

We also took a glance at the MLB playoff picture, including a potential chaotic finish, an easy team to root for, and some proposed changes to the playoff system.

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Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com.

It’s been a difficult year, but the last month hasn’t been so bad. A number of Royals have started hitting, including surprises like Ryan O’Hearn, and a couple of pitchers have been great.

It makes for a more entertaining second half and an encouraging finish to the season.

We discuss Jakob Junis, Adalberto Mondesi, Brad Keller, and O’Hearn as well as the very fun near-perfect game by Jorge Lopez.

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Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com.

This week we covered the end of Danny Duffy’s season and the impact his varied ailments might have on him going forward. We also talked about the shifting perception of his contract and trade value.

In other injury news, we expressed disappointment in Jorge Soler’s setback during his rehab stint. After a strong start, a flukey injury shut him down and his season is over. We speculated on his role in 2019 and beyond in light of his abbreviated season.

And then we covered some odds and ends: Ryan O’Hearn mashing, Whit Merrifield’s great year, the Drew Butera trade, what to expect from Jerry Vasto and Ben Lively, and the emergence of Brad Keller and some other rookie arms who’ve shown promise this year.

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Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com.

On Wednesday, the Royals traded Lucas Duda for cash, opening up a roster spot just in time for September call-ups to start showing up. We discussed Duda’s storied legacy in Kansas City from Day One to now.

With the roster spot, a whole batch of minor leaguers could be called up to the majors, including some names who’ve been waiting for their shot like Frank Schwindel and Richard Lovelady, but some other players have a shot to come up too.

And while Duda has departed, the Royals may have to make a few other moves to bring in the new crowd. We went over a few options.

Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and BlogTalkRadio. You can also download this episode here (mp3).

Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com.

Ya know, Luke Hochevar wasn’t the All-Star we may have hoped for after being the first overall selection in the 2006 draft, but he had his moments in his Royals career. We discussed his recent retirement and the up and down career Hoch experienced with the Royals.

We also discussed some of the recent moves, including the release of Blaine Boyer and trade of Terrance Gore, plus the pitching staff adjustments that corresponded with a Danny Duffy DL designation.

Finally, we took a glance at the standings and talked about the relative strength of each league as well as our current favorites from each side.

Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and BlogTalkRadio. You can also download this episode here (mp3).

Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com.