The MLB Winter Meetings begin today and it is expected that the moves will heat up once all the MLB front executives converge in Nashville. While the Royals have made a couple of minor acquisitions with the Atlanta Braves (acquiring reliever Nick Anderson and starter Kyle Wright) and signed utility player Garrett Hampson to a one-year, $2 million deal, they haven’t made a “major” splash yet that has sparked a Royals fanbase that is a bit apathetic or pessimistic following a 106-loss season. Hopefully, that will change after this week when many players could be on the move. Royals fans are curr ..read more

In my last post, I wrote about four Royals hitters to be optimistic about, based on their 2024 Steamer projections. On the pitching end, I wanted to highlight a few starting pitchers individually whose projections stood out, and then look at some relievers as a group who also could be intriguing according to Steamer. Here’s a look at how Royals pitchers expected to pitch more than one IP this year fared according to those Steamer projections. As expected, Steamer projects that Cole Ragans will be the Royals’ best overall pitcher in 2024 as he is expected to produce a 3.92 ERA and 2.6 fWAR in ..read more

It’s been a nice Thanksgiving break, as I was able to get out of the country a bit to rest and recharge. I was worried for a second about missing some moves, but thankfully, the Royals seemed to take care of all their pre-Thanksgiving moves before I left for vacation in the Caribbean. Usually, the winter time, especially from late November to January, is typically seen as “projection season” by baseball fans and fantasy baseball analysts. Whether it’s to get a glimpse of which players will break out for one’s favorite team or for fantasy baseball managers to get an idea of who to target in upc ..read more

Friday evening was Major League Baseball’s non-tender deadline, and it was certainly a busy one across the league, as 63 players were non-tendered by their respective clubs. 63 MLB players were "non-tendered" yesterday by their teams. 1st-round picks, All-Stars, and Playoff heroes among them. The brutal reality of getting to MLB free agency: Getting to the big leagues is one thing, staying long enough to cash in via the free agent market is an… pic.twitter.com/SuJcemoWbx — Jacob Turner (@TheJacobTurner) November 18, 2023 Some big names of the group included Brandon Woodruff of the Brewer ..read more

Tuesday was the deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 Draft in December by adding them to the 40-man roster. Here are the moves the Royals made, according to their official X account. We have selected RHP Will Klein and OF Tyler Gentry to the 40-man roster. C Logan Porter and RHP Josh Staumont have been designated for assignment. — Kansas City Royals (@Royals) November 14, 2023 I didn’t get a chance to write a post on pitchers, but in my post on hitters, Gentry was a guy I figured the Royals would add to the 40-man roster on Tuesday. Klein also was another player I thought would be p ..read more

The Rule 5 Draft is still roughly a month away. That said, over the next 30 days, the Royals will need to make some roster moves to protect certain players in their farm system from the December draft that occurs during the Winter Meetings. Sometimes it can be difficult to gauge who is worth protecting from the Rule 5 and who isn’t. Any player who is selected in the Rule 5 draft needs to stay on an MLB roster for the whole season, or else they will be returned to their previous organization. Thus, players who haven’t really ascended above High-A ball aren’t really at risk of being selected in ..read more

It appears like the Royals roster, at least leading up to the Winter Meetings in December, is starting to form a bit. After releasing Taylor Hearn, Tucker Davidson, Bubba Thompson, and Nate Eaton from the roster since the conclusion of the World Series, the Royals came to an agreement with reliever Taylor Clarke, one of their arbitration-eligible players this offseason. We have agreed to a 2024 contract with RHP Taylor Clarke, avoiding arbitration. — Kansas City Royals (@Royals) November 11, 2023 The move was a mild surprise, as Clarke is coming off a 2023 season in which he posted a 5.95 E ..read more

The Royals in 2024 need to see an uptick in offensive production at multiple positions. They ranked 23rd in runs scored, 25th in OPS, and 28th in OBP a season ago, despite having Silver Slugger and All-MLB nominee Bobby Witt, Jr. in the lineup. Thus, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Royal finished 56-106 overall in 2023. Bad offense paired with bad pitching is a recipe for disaster on historic levels (which ended up being the case last year, as the Royals tied for the most losses in franchise history). One position that the Royals would most likely need some improvement at next season would ..read more

MLB Free Agency officially begins on Monday and it should be an interesting offseason for the Kansas City Royals. After finishing 56-106, tied for the worst record in Royals history, it is likely that JJ Picollo and the Royals front office will want to make some moves this offseason. Already, the Royals have trimmed their 40-man roster a bit, as they released players like Nate Eaton, Taylor Hearn, Bubba Thompson, and Tucker Davidson to get to the 40-man mark. It’s also likely that they may non-tender a player or two in the coming weeks leading up to the Winter Meetings in December, especially ..read more

Maikel Garcia was one of the more promising Royals rookie stories in 2023, especially when it came to his glove and ability on the basepaths. In his first full season in the Majors (he only played in nine games in 2022, mostly due to the Royals’ COVID vaccine issues a season ago), his defense at third base ranked in the 98th percentile in Outs Above Average, according to Savant. In addition, he stole 23 bases on 30 attempts, which was the third-highest number on the squad (behind only Bobby Witt, Jr. and Dairon Blanco). As a result, Garcia produced a 1.9 fWAR in 123 games, a pretty solid mark ..read more