Royals Rumblings - News for November 5, 2020

Royals Rumblings - News for November 5, 2020

Jeffrey Flanagan writes about the biggest needs for the Royals this off-season.

Outfielder The Royals now will have to replace Gordon, which won’t be an easy task, in left field. It’s likely that Franchy Cordero gets the first crack at the job, but Kansas City still has very little experienced depth in the outfield. Whit Merrifield likely will patrol either center field or right field. But the other outfield candidates on the 40-man roster — Edward Olivares, Bubba Starling and Nick Heath — have very little experience. The club will search for a cost-efficient veteran or two as either a starter or to add depth.

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter wonders if the Royals are finding the new market inefficiency during the pandemic.

The Royals are banking that this emphasis on scouting, player development, and the players in their farm system will eventually lead to MLB success sooner rather than later. Honestly, the emphasis on scouting and player development was always a calling card of Moore when he arrived to Kansas City as GM in 2006, but he seemed to abandon it temporarily during the Royals’ successful seasons from 2013-2017. That seems to have changed now, and I doubt that Moore will put his chips in too aggressively again during the “Process 2.0” for the sake of the short-lived Major League success. That is not to say Moore and Sherman won’t make big moves in the future, but I imagine they won’t do so at the cost of gutting the farm system as before, for the Royals had to take a couple of years to re-stock after the 2017 season.

Shawn Bauman looks at the Royals executives who may be departing for other jobs.

Leigh Oleszczak at KC Kingdom writes the Mike Montgomery trade didn’t work out.

Jeff Passan answers 20 big questions for this off-season.

Trevor Bauer rejects the Qualifying Offer.

Who is the best free agent this off-season?

What is the best GM opening this year?

Free agent second baseman Kolten Wong has already heard from six teams.

Who could be a match in a Kris Bryant trade?

Was there really not a better time to announce Gold Glove winners?

Why a neutral-site World Series is a bad idea.

When Dmitri Young sacrificed a place in history to help one of the worst teams ever.

A ranking of all 116 World Series.

It looks like the NBA may begin its season December 22.

The roadblocks to the Chiefs winning the rest of their 2020 games.

Scientists think they know the source of a mysterious radio burst in our galaxy, but it raises even more questions.

Maybe the problem isn’t that polls are wrong, it’s that they’re useless.

Can Netflix make a splash at the 2021 Oscars?

Your song of the day is Fleetwood Mac with Hold Me.