Royals Rumblings - News for December 11, 2019

If you missed it here last night, the Padres are apparently pursuing Whit Merrifield.

However, Alec Lewis of The Athletic thinks if someone was going to blow the Royals away with a trade offer for Whit, it would have happened by now:

A team has not offered the right type of deal for Merrifield, and so the Royals have not traded him. The explanation is as simple as that, and it speaks to two broader truths: If a team has yet to make the right offer for Merrifield, it’s unlikely one will surface in these next few days; and if the Royals have not received an offer they feel like they deserve for a player they value highly, they are not going to settle for less just because.

The latter point is thematic as it relates to the Royals’ overall strategy. They are sticking to their plan. What will it take for the Royals to drift from that plan? An offer that propels them forward.

In Royals media news, 610 Sports Radio and Josh Vernier are reuniting:

Josh Vernier will return as the 610 Sports Radio Royals Insider in 2020, a role that he held from 2013 through July of 2018. Vern will resume his duties of hosting all 162 pre & post game shows along with the Royals Hot Stove Show on 610 Sports Radio plus a Royals focused podcast on the 435 Podcast Network.

Good news on Adalberto Mondesi:

Dayton Moore is no stranger to player reunion type of signings, so...here’s this.

The San Diego Padres are apparently dying to trade our old friend Wil Myers.

Among many notes in this Tampa Bay Times column is that old friend Ben Zobrist is 50/50 on whether he’ll play next season.

Players who are not on their team’s 40-man roster would no longer be subject to testing for marijuana if current negotiations hold in the new CBA. This aims to curb opioid dependency among players.

Didi Gregorious, free agent shortstop and owner of a truly elite name, is heading to the Phillies.

The ever-present “mystery team” could land Gerrit Cole. But it will probably be the Yankees or Dodgers or something. [UPDATE: It’s the Yankees.]

Thoughts from some of the minor league teams facing the chopping block:

“There’s been a lot of emotions we’ve experienced,” says Ryan Keur, the 31-year-old general manager of the Daytona Tortugas, the Cincinnati Reds’ entry in the Class A Florida State League. “You think a little bit about why Daytona is on the list, especially when you consider all the positives going on in Daytona Beach – typically toward the top end of league attendance, have invested a couple million dollars the last couple years in the facility, and you can’t forget about the history of the ballpark.

“We play at Jackie Robinson Ballpark, which is where Jackie broke the color barrier in 1946. For baseball, which prides itself on diversity and inclusion, to think about removing professional, affiliated minor league baseball from the place where Jackie broke the color barrier, is something tough to swallow.”

Jets running back Le’Veon Bell was still too sick with the flu to play on Sunday, but he bowled a personal-best 251 on Saturday. What’s your best? Mine is...lower than that!

Staying in an AirBNB any time soon? Bleak but necessary safety tip: check the carbon monoxide detectors.

GEDMatch is a DNA aggregation service whose data led to the identification and capture of the Golden State Killer after a relative uploaded their data to explore their family tree. It is now owned by a forensics genomics firm, though they claim the portion of their database to which law enforcement has access is still strictly opt-in.

A self-driving truck delivered 40,000 pounds of butter 2,800 miles with no problems. This was likely the first such cross-country trip. Also, this story contains the following sentence: End of year is peak butter time, according to Land O’Lakes.
I would like to offer the correction that all times of year are peak butter times, thankyouverymuch.

This came on during my bowling league last night. I still love it.