Royals Rumblings - News for March 14, 2022

Royals Rumblings - News for March 14, 2022

Dayton Moore discussed a lot of things related to the club when lockout finally ended, including how aggressive he thinks they’ll be in trades and free agency (spoiler: not very).

“I don’t anticipate us getting involved with a lot of the high-dollar free agents at this point in time,” he said. “But nonetheless, we’re renewing some of the communication that has been absent through this past winter.”

...“One of the things we talked about was the importance of us staying disciplined with this current group of players. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to look for ways to supplement our talent. We will. But as you know, our roster is at 40. And it’s a very young and talented roster with more players and pitchers on the horizon.”

Bobby Witt Jr. headlines the Royals’ list of 21 non-roster Spring Training invitees.

Here is the full list of the Royals’ non-roster invitees:

Pitchers (8): RHP Colten Brewer, LHP Austin Cox, RHP Jose Cuas, LHP Josh Dye, LHP Foster Griffin, RHP Brad Peacock, RHP Jace Vines, RHP Arodys Vizcaíno

Catchers (4): Tyler Cropley, Kale Emshoff, Freddy Fermin, Logan Porter

Infielders (5): Witt Jr., Gabriel Cancel, Iván Castillo, Clay Dungan, Vinnie Pasquantino

Outfielders (4): Dairon Blanco, Nate Eaton, Brewer Hicklen, JaCoby Jones

Lynn Worthy writes about Michael Massey and his painful journey due to nagging back injuries.

Massey’s back problems plagued him through his first season in the minors at the Rookie League level. He still batted .272 with 47 hits and 25 RBIs in 42 games, but he just wasn’t right.

“My first year in Burlington, I could barely tie my shoes half the time,” Massey said. “I think I played 42 of the 80 games. So just the program and the patience that they’ve had with me has been second to none honestly because there’ve been a lot of times in my own head that I didn’t think I could do it.” Massey continued to play, but doubt had taken hold. Could he get to that 96-mph heater up? Could he rotate his hips the way needed? Would he have the range he needed in the field?

Over at Kings of Kauffman, Mike Gillespie says that Ryan O’Hearn should be on a short leash.

Let’s take a moment here to round up some league activity now that free agency and trades are green lit. Here are some quick hits:

• Carlos Martinez signs a one-year deal with the San Francisco Giants for $2.5 million.
• Nelson Cruz signs a one-year deal with the Washington Nationals for $13 million.
• The New York Yankees trade Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela to the Minnesota Twins for Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
• Brad Boxberger signs a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers for $2.5 million.
• The San Diego Padres are “aggressively shopping” both Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers.
• Old friends Hanser Alberto, Matt Strahm, and Jesse Chavez found teams over the weekend.

What’s going on in the world? Let’s take a tour of some content around the Vox websphere.

• On Vox.com: Could Vladimir Putin actually fall?
• On The Verge: Did you want more “+” subscriptions? No? Too bad: CNN+ is coming.
• On Polygon: The new Halo show is decades in the making. How does it differ from the games?
• On Eater: The best air fryer recipes according to the site’s editors.
• On Recode: How inflation is cutting into, and in some cases wiping out completely, wage gains.
• On Curbed: A profile on the 2,731 person global project to build New York City...in Minecraft.

Song of the Day

The Band CAMINO - Daphne Blue