Royals Rumblings - News for October 12, 2017

Royals Rumblings - News for October 12, 2017

Jeffrey Flanagan at Royals.com writes that of the looming offseason decisions the Royals have to make, Eric Hosmer is the most likely to return to the club:

3. 1B, SS, 3B, CF: It all depends where Moore allocates his financial resources. The Royals already committed about $105 million (unofficially) for payroll in 2018 and figure to spend about $145 to 150 million. Raul Mondesi could step in for Escobar, Cheslor Cuthbert could take over for Moustakas and Paulo Orlando could replace Cain. There is no easy replacement for Hosmer.

Possible FA fits: The guess here is the Royals will do everything they can to keep Hosmer, who is the face of the franchise, a fierce competitor, a great teammate and someone who cares about the community. Hosmer, Moustakas and Cain seem likely candidates to get qualifying offers.

David Lesky looks at the roster matters for the upcoming offseason:

Ryan O’Hearn, Eric Stout, Corey Toups, Foster Griffin, Corey Ray, Brandon Downes and Emilio Ogando are some of the players who the Royals will need to add to the 40-man roster this winter to protect from the Rule 5 draft in September. Some could likely get by without being selected, but I would bet the Royals add at least O’Hearn, Stout and Griffin and I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of the others added as well. So that takes up spots.

And then there are the players who are out of options. Those include Jorge Bonifacio, Terrance Gore, Jorge Soler, Brian Flynn Nate Karns and Billy Burns. Bonifacio, Soler and Karns are no-brainers for the Royals to figure out how to keep them on the big league roster in 2018, but the other three are the easy roster casualties if they need to make a move. It’ll be sad to see Gore let go, and I can’t imagine some contending team won’t pick him up with September baseball in mind, but that’s the business of baseball sometimes.

Apparently this was a thing:

Jeff Sullivan details the worst called ball of the playoffs (not just this year, but the worst dating back to 2012).

Russell Carleton defends AJ Hinch’s decision to go to Justin Verlander mid-inning in Monday’s decisive ALDS game.

Future Royal Shohei Otani underwent a minor surgery:

Bill Baer writes that Cleveland’s early exit from the postseason can be chalked up to their regular season stars not showing up. Being Racists probably didn’t help either.

Stephen Strasburg beat the Cubs and tough guys.

The Coreys are getting a Lifetime biopic.

The Boy Scouts won’t just be boys anymore.

Get down with Danse Macabre.

Volcanic eruptions that helped shape the Pacific Northwest cooled probably cooled the Earth.

The song of the day is “Solsbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel: