FanPost

What grade would you give this hypothetical offseason?

We have made many suggestions for what the Royals could do this offseason to improve the team. But that could, and probably will, differ greatly from what Dayton Moore actually will do. In my head, I have been formulating the offseason that I fear Moore will have, which I describe below. It's not the worst of all possible worlds. And maybe I shouldn't fear it at all. Look through it and tell me what grade you'd give Moore if that's what he did this offseason.

  • Arbitration eligibles - Non-tenders Luke Hochevar and Chris Getz. Moore tenders Felipe Paulino ($2.4M), Brayan Pena ($1.1M), and Blake Wood ($700K).
  • Right Field - Keeps Jeff Francoeur and Yost says he will be the Opening Day starting RFer, but that there is room for Myers on the roster when he's ready.
  • Starting Pitching #1 - Signs Kyle Lohse to a 5-year, $65M contract.
  • Starting Pitching #2 - Signs Jeremy Guthrie to a 2-year, $15M contract.
  • Second Base - Signs Kelly Johnson to 1-year, $5M contract
  • Relief Pitching #1 - Signs Jon Rauch to a 1-year, $3.5M contract
  • Relief Pitching #2 - Signs Michael Gonzalez to a 1-year $1M contract
  • Resulting payroll = approx. $76 million

The above is not a prediction, per se. But it does seem consistent both with the organization's stated desire to improve starting pitching, including shelling out some money for it, and with Moore's practice of dividing up available dollars for new acquisitions among many players, including unneeded relievers.

Starting pitching is upgraded, although probably not in the way we would ideally want. Lohse is given a very long contract for a good deal of money, which sounds like something Moore would do. Ditto Guthrie. Kelly Johnson is past his prime and a former Brave. Sounds like an overpayment ready to be made. Ditto Gonzalez. Moore doesn't seem to realize that the Royals have a good, young, cheap, deep bullpen that doesn't need FA acquisitions. So I would kind of be surprised if he doesn't add to it yet again with some meh pitchers.

If this did happen, what grade would you give it?

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.