Royals Rumblings - News for November 10, 2021

MJ Melendez was awarded a the “Top Offensive Player” MiLBY for his 2021 season, with 33% of the vote. Bobby Witt, Jr. received 20% of the vote, good for third place.

At The Athletic, Alec Lewis digs into what extension talks with Andrew Benintendi might look like:

As these dollar figures show, players similar to Benintendi typically receive an average annual value of about $10 million over five years. For an extension to occur, the Royals would likely have to go above this mark. On one hand, this could make sense for the club. The Royals’ payroll is projected to drop considerably in 2023 and beyond. The club also is lacking a bit in outfield depth. Kyle Isbel, who debuted in 2021, could be an option. But could he produce to a level anywhere close to Benintendi? Behind him, there are prospects such as Nick Loftin, Brewer Hicklen, Tucker Bradley and Erick Peña.

None provide certainty anywhere close to the level Benintendi would.

“We like him,” Moore said last week. “We’re definitely going to need outfielders in the future. And he’s always going to have professional hitting attributes. His pitch selection is good. It’s always been good.”

Anne Rogers did a mailbag at Royals.com and addressed, among other things, roster construction of pitchers:

“Do we build the best bullpen we can and support the young starters?” Moore said last week. “The one thing we have to be mindful of always is, you don’t want to put the young starters in a position where you have to leave him out there a little too long. You don’t want to put (manager Mike Matheny) in that position, either.”

For example: Ervin Santana, the 38-year-old the Royals signed to a Minor League deal last offseason and carried on the big league roster the entire season, could return to make eight to 10 starts and provide long-inning relief in the bullpen. The Royals could also target relievers on the market to give depth there and reduce the workload stress of three of the highest-leverage relievers they had this year in Scott Barlow, Josh Staumont and Jake Brentz.

Ken Rosenthal’s notes at The Athletic echo some of the same sentiment - a top-tier starting pitcher isn’t likely:

Look for the Royals to be active in the bullpen market, building around core relievers Jake Brentz, Scott Barlow and Josh Staumont. A veteran starting pitcher to lead their young rotation also would be a good fit, but perhaps beyond the team’s financial reach.

Power is another concern — the Royals were 13th in the AL in slugging percentage — but the arrivals of infielder Bobby Witt Jr. and two other prospects, catcher MJ Melendez and first baseman Nick Pratto, could help make a difference.

You can vote for Salvy for the MLBPAA Heart and Hustle award.

Personnel from 15-20 MLB teams showed up to watch a Justin Verlander showcase.

Is this NBA exhange of big hits between Markieff Morris and Nikola Jokic the basketball equivalent of, like, a batter getting beaned after a cleats-up slide?

A man has been arrested in connection with approximately six murders in Kansas and Missouri.

Was your information affected by the Robinhood breach?

Malala Yousafzai got married. Here’s to happiness for an amazing woman.

I don’t use GPS often (not a brag, Council Bluffs is just a pretty small city), so I didn’t realize that Google Maps had rolled out one of the only features it was missing: dark mode.

Is ‘Succession’ the best...sitcom?

At Defector (but free to read) is an interview with an architect about the inhumane mega-dorm with no windows that UCSB is apparently moving ahead with, designed by non-architect, billionaire Charlie Munger.

You’ll be able to buy stuff on Amazon using your Venmo starting next year, if you want. No word on if you get to use cool emojis on Amazon purchases the way you can absolutely must when you pay your friends back for stuff.

Today’s question I borrowed from Reddit: What food is overrated?

SOTD: newish Brandi!