Spring Training Gamethread XIV: Royals at Diamondbacks

What a difference a week can make. Last week about this time everyone was still reeling about the Lucas Duda deal and now the Royals have signed three more veterans to inexplicably play instead of their young guys: Jon Jay, Ricky Nolasco, and Mike Moustakas. Of course, Nolasco is here on a minor league deal and Moose’s signing probably won’t be official until later today or tomorrow but still.

So what to make of these new Royals? I’m a fan of the proposal by Matt LaMar, yesterday. Go all in with a bunch of the remaining high quality free agents who can’t get deals and see if you can’t compete this year, after all. Otherwise the team is just going to hit about 75 wins which serves neither a playoff run nor future draft considerations. Yes, the Royals could trade all of these veterans at the deadline but there are a bunch of questions about that.

• Do you really think they’ll all be healthy and good?
• Did you see what the Tigers got for J.D. Drew, last season?
• Do you really trust Dayton Moore to actually trade them instead of riding them for a few extra wins?
• Do you really trust Dayton Moore to extract the most value for them if he and the market are both willing?

We’ll just have to see how it goes, it seems. Anyway here’s a spring training lineup:

If you’re wondering where Moose is, Flanny has an additional update on that situation: