Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for December 24, 2015

Hope you're on the "nice" list.

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Dec 24, 2015, 8:00am EST

Royals Rumblings - News for December 24, 2015

Sam Mellinger writes about the inner-conflict the Gordon negotiations put on the Royals.

Moore loves Gordon as a baseball player, a role model, and a man. Moore has earned owner David Glass’ trust, and by all accounts has freedom to build the roster and the credibility to occasionally push the budget. But barring a major surprise, it’s hard to see where Gordon’s open-market potential fits into the Royals’ financial reality. This isn’t even about saving money for a possible bid on keeping the younger players in Kansas City long-term.

The conflict could not be more stark. Gordon embodies the Royals’ rise from the punchlines, and his style personifies everything Moore wants his team to represent — relentlessness, talent, athleticism, humility and hard work. But signing Gordon would require something the Royals have sworn off — a long-term, big-money contract to an aging player, the kind of deal that almost never ends well for the team.

This is where Moore’s inner-conflict will be tested. He likes to follow his heart. But, like he said, business is business.

John Viril at Kings of Kauffman is not too impressed with Gerardo Parra as a fallback option.

The biggest weakness in the 28-year-old Gerardo Parra’s game is that he’s almost useless against left-handed pitchers. Parra’s career slash line against lefties is an anemic .232/.296/.302. That’s Omar Infante in 2015 level, which simply isn’t acceptable for the KC Royals. The left-handed hitting Gerardo Parra does hit righties at a .289/.335/.432 clip, for a solid OPS+ of 110 (10% better than an average major league hitter).

Hunter Samuels at Pine Tar Press takes a look at what it might take to lock-up the current core to long-term deals.

If the Royals don’t want to sign Gordon, and would rather extend one or more of those four players, it’s going to cost a lot of money, and may not be wise. (One could make an argument that Gordon is the safest investment of all of them, but that’s a discussion for another day.) If the player(s) would agree to take a significant discount to make the extension more affordable, the team wouldn’t have any problem signing Gordon. In other words, a contract for Gordon and extensions for the players mentioned aren’t totally related.

Signing Gordon now doesn’t prevent the Royals from possibly extending their other players, particularly because locking up those players seems unlikely as it is. Signing Gordon now does improve the chances that the 2016 and 2017 Royals will be playoff contenders. Signing Gordon now doesn’t mean the 2018 Royals will be bad. Sure, the team could take a step back that season, but considering the extension candidates will be difficult to extend anyway, the 2018 Royals are probably in better shape with Gordon on the roster.

It simply makes more sense to sign Gordon now and worry about the future, in the future.

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