Royals Rumblings

Royals Rumblings - News for December 23, 2019

What is Kelvin Gutierrez’s future with the Royals?

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Dec 23, 2019, 8:00am EST

Royals Rumblings - News for December 23, 2019

RJ Anderson at CBS Sports thinks the Maikel Franco signing could make Kelvin Gutierrez available.

A team like … well, the Rays or the Brewers (neither of whom have a reliable third baseman) could be drawn to Gutierrez as a low-risk, high-reward addition. The Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins would make sense, too -- after all, the Twins helped a slew of hitters learn to lift-and-separate just last season -- as well as the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, and Washington Nationals (though the Nationals were Gutierrez’s original team).

Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer answers whether the sale of the Royals to John Sherman is hurting the Indians’ payroll this year.

Having Sherman put his shares of the Indians in a trust so he could officially purchase the Kansas City Royals in November certainly hasn’t helped the Tribe’s cash flow. But he pretty much decided to buy the Royals in spring training last year so this didn’t sneak up on anybody.

Michael Huckins at Kings of Kauffman looks at first base prospect Nick Pratto.

The hope for 2019 was that Pratto would take his .786 OPS from 2018 and build upon it. It did not really work out that way. In Wilmington, almost all his numbers dropped. His batting average would drop nearly 90 points. His slugging percentage would drop all the way down to .310. That is simply not an acceptable level of pop for a major league first baseman.

Matt Browning at Tomahawk Take has a trade proposal for the Braves to get Whit Merrifield.

Brian Burnes at Flatland gives a history of Kansas City ballparks.

The Royals announce who is scheduled to appear at FanFest this year.

A Royals marathon will air on Fox Sports Kansas City on Christmas eve.

The Kansas City Business Journal continues their profiles of those in the Royals ownership group with a profile on Don and Jean Wagner.

Dallas Keuchel signs a three-year, $55 million deal with the White Sox.

The Blue Jays sign third baseman Travis Shaw to a one-year, $4 million deal

The Tigers sign first baseman CJ Cron and second baseman Jonathan Schoop.

What is happening with this Mets holiday video?

Red Sox owners sit on a $6.6 billion sports conglomerate.

Umpires will reportedly allow MLB to test an automated strike zone next year.

Baseball had a record $10.7 billion in revenues in 2019.