*** Official 2014 AL Champion Royals Off-season Repository ***
 

So, I didn't see a thread started, and all the others are pretty maxed out to the point where a fresh thread would be needed soon either way.

Time to share the run up to ST & and another memorable year in the making!

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...5c4cfc8b8a.jpg

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/...a-melky-hunter
via http://cbssportsapp.com


KC realistic about Shields, will take look at Santana, Melky, Hunter.

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- The American League champion Royals improved their monetary fortunes with their run all the way to Game 7 of the World Series, and while they intend to speak to their ace James Shields, they are realistic about their chances. That is to say, they know they are almost nil.

The Royals' payroll, high for them at $92 million last season, but still well below league average, is expected to be in the range of $90-to-100 million again. But since they have little interest in spending more than 15 percent of their payroll on one player, they understand Shields will almost certainly be somewhere else next year.

That's OK, he served them well, for $22 million over his two years in KC, helping them into contention the first year there, and all the way to the World Series in his second year. Even if as expected that was it for Shields in Kansas City, the oft-criticized trade of big outfield prospect Wil Myers in the multi-player deal for Shields and Wade Davis, who turned into a relief star, has to be one of the better trades anyone's made in the past several seasons.

The Royals will take a look at another former Royal, Ervin Santana, who had a nice year for them in 2013 before bolting as a free agent last winter. Santana and Shields are both expected to turn down qualifying offers by Monday's deadline, but Santana should be significantly less expensive than Shields in free agency.

The Royals' other main need is in the outfield, and they'll consider yet another former Royal, Melky Cabrera for that role, though Torii Hunter seems to be of particular interest to them. The Royals pursued Hunter seven years ago when he signed a $90-million, five-year deal with the Angels before going to the Tigers.

Kansas City will also weigh a return for Norichika Aoki, but with him looking for a three-year deal, the other outfield options seem to be more in play at this point.

*sidenote- lots of chatter up here in Chicago about the White Sox are very interested in aggressively signing Aoki, just fyi.

Alright sorry I didn't realize the off-season thread was part of the 2014 post season thread if someone can move this and lock it down

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Awesome

I actually like this one better just because I don't want to be reminded of the game 7 loss anymore. If it catches on, great. If not bump it in a week and I'll merge it.

I like this one better too.

Brett Anderson and Brandon McCarthy should be looked at closely to replace Shields.

Soto could also be a great compliment to Salvy. Play him against Lefties, DH Salvy, bench Dyson, and put Kemp (or power bat in RF).

This should be the title of the other thread... I hate being reminded, as well.

It's saddens baby jesus.

AL Champions

tried to change it twice....no dice

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Royals are expected to meet with the agent for Ervin Santana this week at the GM Meetings.</p>&mdash; Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/status/531899679252828162">November 10, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Reminder, we will lose our 1st round pick if we sign Santana. (but we'll still get our Shields sandwich pick)

They need to sign Santana. Also isn't Gattis a possibility via trade as well as Kemp? Royals seem to want Hunter too but he wants to stay with the Tigers

Royals interested in Raul Ibanez next year

http://t.co/ikXh2LUAyo

He was offered the hitting coach job from the Yankees and is a managerial candidate for the Rays. I doubt he will be back here next year.

No Hunter wants to play for a winner

Per Bob Nightengale

There are at least 10 teams who have expressed interest in free agent Torii Hunter, and the most aggressive teams all reside in AL Central.

Royals and Ervin Santana have talked; reunion in KC a possibility

Jon Heyman
PHOENIX -- A reunion for Ervin Santana and the Royals is definitely an option.

The Royals have reached out to Santana, and the right-hander is said to be very receptive to a return to the team he left as a free agent a year ago.

There's nothing close yet as his free agency is just getting started, but Kansas City seems resigned to losing ace James Shields even after added revenues from its AL pennant and World Series appearance, so a return for Santana is logical. Santana is said to very much like Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland and other Royals people.

Santana is believed to be seeking a five-year deal.

Shields likely will win a contract that's expected to pay him in the range of $20 million a year, pricey for KC.

Santana is rejecting the Braves' $15.3 million qualifying offer for 2015, sources said, just as he rejected the Royals' $14.1 million qualifying offer a year ago. His free agency was difficult last offseason; he didn't sign until spring training when the Braves matched that $14.1 million figure.

Santana had an extremely good year in Atlanta, going 14-10 with a 3.95 ERA, and scouts noticed his velocity and strikeouts were up.

Mets sign Michael Cuddyer to a 2 year deal

**** that thread. It was stupid to have a 2014 post season/off season thread. It's pretty much the reason we lost game 7.

****ing burn that thread. And ban who started it. Also ban Austin, who thought it was a good idea.

...in off-field role.

You're mean for posting it like that.

Mets give up the #15 pick for signing Cuddyer.

So would you prefer 2 years/$21 mil for Michael Cuddyer or Matt Kemp at 5 years/$72 million?

I'd prefer rat poison to either

I don't want a full-time DH. Since they are both awful in the outfield, I'll pass, you don't sign either of those guys as a part-time DH.

Melky
Santana
Hunter

Do they make us favorites in the AL Cental?

Cuddyer signed with the Mets, so that option doesn't exist, anyway.

Who should we root for to sign Shields to get the highest pick?

Red Sox or Cubs

If they don't idk who will

Hell yeah.

Detroit is losing plenty and and that BP is still crap!

Glad that everyone is pretty much in agreement.

I seriously would not have kept up with the off-season and Royals discussion on here that much simply because it was part of the post season thread and game that proceeded the 6th discussion.

Silly? maybe...
It just felt dirty, and a bitter reminder of a close but disheartening outcome.

Ready to move forward with a positive repository that doesn't contain bad juju to carry over for 2015!

I think we'll end up with a sandwich pick in the first round unless he signs with a team with a protected selection.

I'd bet anything they sign Andy Miller

Ryan Howard Trade Rumors: Latest Buzz and Speculation Surrounding Phillies 1B

Joseph
Zucker
Nov 10, 2014

The Philadelphia Phillies are telling anybody who will listen that Ryan Howard is available. However, given the first baseman's massive contract and poor performance, offloading him will be much easier said than done.

USA Today's Bob Nightengale reported that an unlikely suitor has emerged: the Kansas City Royals:

The Royals aren't about to rip up their payroll, and David Glass suddenly isn't about to go all Steinbrenner on us, but if the Phillies are willing to eat most of the contract, the Royals have had internal discussions about acquiring him.

They believe he just might be the perfect fit to replace Billy Butler as their everyday DH, and considering they didn't have a single player hit 20 homers or drive in 75 runs last year, he may be the power threat the Royals need to return to the World Series.

Acquiring Howard would certainly fly in the face of the Royals' strategy of investing in younger players who excel in the field and on the basepaths. Howard's style is almost anathema to everything Kansas City did right in reaching the World Series.

With that said, the Royals were the only team to hit fewer than 100 home runs as a team last year, so there's a clear power void. Kansas City needs to add a bat this offseason. In addition, a move to the American League would suit Howard, since he wouldn't have to play any defense as a designated hitter.

However, a few major red flags arise when debating any potential trade.

One is that Howard's power has been in decline for the last four or five years and hit rock bottom in 2014. Although he hit 23 home runs and drove in 95 runs, his .380 slugging percentage was the worst of his career.

Dan Szymborski of ESPN.com tried to distill the spectrum of the 34-year-old's talent:


The other concern is Howard's contract. He's due $50 million over the next two years and has a $10 million buyout in 2017.

While the Phillies will eat some money in order to move Howard, whatever team trades for him will likely still be overpaying for an aging first baseman who's long since passed his prime.

It's still very early in the offseason, so there's no telling where Howard could end up. Just because the Royals are potentially throwing their name in the hat doesn't mean they're giving it serious consideration.

Damn that's actually very likely.

Ryan Howard? No!

Picked up a couple of these today!

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...dc4e8ef56b.jpg

Hell, why not?

Because he can't field and he can't hit.

Hoping my dad can pick one up for me. A website says they're only available in MO, KS, and Nebraska. They should include Oklahoma.

He can't play RF & we aren't looking for another full time DH.

Why would you care about his fielding? We have a GG winner already

His 190k certainly make me gulp but he has hit RH very well in his career and he won't play vs LH. He seems healthy with 153g last year. Depending on terms, he could be a good risk. Hell we kept Ibanez old balls in the roster most of the year

We wouldn't be paying Howard as much as we paid Ibanez.

IIRC, we are going to the rotating DH philosophy. So, he'd have to play in the field some.

His career numbers are fine. It's the latest numbers that I'm worried about.

We have to be creative. He prob will suck but we don't have a DH now anyway. If you wanna find a decent bat to platoon with Salvy taking the 1/4 of LH pitching at bats, we could do worse


I'm so desperate I'd consider giving Big Donkey a call. To see if he wants one more run for glory

If we're going to spend money, we should get a good player for it. Not just a name.

Howard would have lead the Royals in home runs and RBI's last year.

Sure but we aren't spending $ for a DH I don't think


Roll out the Donkey. In 370 ab he still smacked 20 bombs and 17 doubles. And only 4 gidp. He's the anti Butler

A lot of players would have. That's not exactly a high bar.

Howard was 4th in the NL in RBIs and 14th in home runs. It would be a major upgrade for the DH position.

Replacing Butler and Aoki with Howard, you have 13 more home runs and only 14 less RBIs. Find another platoon for Dyson and we would be fine.

But the question is "Can you get the same, or close to it, production for less money?" Because we're going to need a pitcher. And we'll probably sign a couple of other squad players. Can't spend it all in one place.

First healthy season in the last three, different park, different league, 35 years old,.690 OPS. no positional flexibility, etc.

He struck out a ton and had a sub 700 OPS. Hes Adam Dunn without the walks. Basically Mike Jacobs.

Are we moving to this thread, officially?

Re: Howard, I don't care as much about HR and RBI, counting stats that can lose context if you look at them alone. Howard's sub-.400 SLG last year is more concerning to me than anything. Give me the guy who hits .280/.330/.425 with 12 HR over the guy who hits .220/.300/.380 with 25 HR any day of the week.

He's a declining three outcomes player who must be very cheap ($5-8 million a year) for it to even be a consideration for KC.

I'm not so sure he'd sit against lefties if acquired, though. He's got decent numbers against lefty pitching during his career and actually had a higher OPS against lefties last year.

Perhaps Howard isn't a great option but how is Country Fatboy? I mean, people still consider bringing that guy back and he stinks too

Wouldn't acquiring Howard go against the plan to rotate individuals out of the DH spot by having the guy who plays DH the most able to play something other than 1st?

It would. I'd be very surprised if these rumors are serious or lead to anything.

I can't see Philadelphia eating enough cash to make it work for KC, and it flies in the face of what they want to do.

So, this is kind of like the "Royals willing to trade Gordon, Hosmer, or Moose" rumor?

Would like Melky. His last 4 years have been very very good. But if he gets popped again for PEDs...that would not be good.

Ryan Howard is worth about 2M a year. He got paid $25,000,000 last year. They owe him 60M over the next 2 years.

LOL @ PHILS

ON GROUND LOLING AT PHILS

Agreed. I think best case scenario that is somewhat realistic is

Melky
Tori
Santana

That's pretty hopeful though. What would it take to get those 3? 35 Million this year maybe? So Glass would have to push it up to 115Million?

Ok, maybe not so realistic.

True, but it's our bar, so let's look at clearing that before going for the Olympic record...

I would rather have given Butler his option than trade for Ryan Howard, even if he was almost free. Jesus, I hope the rumor that some people in our front office were seriously talking about him is wrong.

Ditto, I did not even bother to look at how many home runs he hit, because whether your hitting value comes from getting on base, driving guys in, hitting it over the wall, or some combination of the three, it all shows up in the OPS somehow. Sometimes its valuable to see where the offensive value is coming from like when you are seeing if someone's numbers translate to our ballpark, but all I mostly care about is OPS and defensive value. Ryan Howard has no defensive value, and his OPS sucked last year for a non-premier position player. It wasn't a one-year fluke either, because he's getting old so he's probably on the decline.

If he was on the freaking waiver wire (edit: with no financial consequences for taking him), I might pick him up for depth, but I'm not giving him a starting job.

I honestly don't know why they don't look at riding the post season success with a bump in the payroll and generating further interest in the fan base for the upcoming season. I'd bet dollars to donuts a healthy portion of it would be recouped in additional attendance and season ticket sales.


I'm not advocating for aimless spending, but if they have a list of targeted FAs, maybe it's worth a few more $$$ to acquire number 1 or 2 on their list instead of trying to hoof it with somebody down the list.

Again, it's a crapshoot in being able to eye x or y guy's value in comparison to the next available guy in relation to the drop off in proportion to dollar value.

I realize this isn't some illuminating idea, but for the fact that it seems like the Royals always make their list of FAs by rank and immediately skip over even inquiring about the guys at the top.

Somewhat different but along the same lines of a number of people who brought up keeping our triple threat in the bullpen. A lot of posts alluded to who would we get rid of this off-season. But, what was a major factor in their post season success?

Now why would you want to break that up and lose that competitive advantage? Many would say a small market team can't afford the luxury of devoting that much payroll to your bullpen. However, if it means you're going to be more competitive, then who says you have to follow the traditional allocation of resources within your payroll?

Sorry to ramble, but point being is I don't buy this idea that they have to scrape by on every player they look at in FA. A jump in payroll can be offset by increasing attendance and all the revenue streams that are generated by fielding a team in the title chase.

Does anyone really think that the Royals didn't make hand over fist thanks to the post season success?

I'm not talking about throwing money around with impunity like the Yankees tossing cash into the wind, but if there's a player out there whose the guy, who would be the perfect addition, then cut the defeatist attitude of throwing in the towel and waving the white flag right off the bat.

Much like their comments about being able to resign Shields. I'm not saying I think resigning him is a must or that I necessarily believe he's that player you open the checkbook for, but you don't have to come out and broadcast his future is a forgone conclusion.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Braves&#39; asking prices for Gattis and other young players is said by rival officials to be extremely high.</p>&mdash; Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/532257896961437696">November 11, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

From Royals standpoint, probably means Ventura or Duffy.

"Making money hand over fist" is one of those sorts of vague expressions that lets the reader believe what they want to believe, and react accordingly, but we really don't have to go there.

We think they made about an extra $10-15MM on the postseason. They will probably sell about 300,000 extra tickets next season. This stuff can be quantified.

None of that leads to a top 1/3 in baseball payroll, at least until our terrible TV deal expires or is redone.

Which in turns means "**** no"

If you want a dream a little, then in 2020 IF the Royals are still making the playoffs every other year, IF we're selling at least 2.2MM tickets, and IF the ratings are still great, and IF sports TV contracts are not a bubble that has busted by then, then the team could be put into a great financial position to spend a lot more money.

Our biggest problem is the local TV contract.

Adding $35 million in payroll without a corresponding move probably pushes it into the $120 million range, if arb cases go as expected.

Would love for them to do it, but not going to lynch if they can't.

Pushing it to around $100 million should allow KC to make a few solid moves to help the rotation and the lineup.

If you sign Cabrera, I'm not so sure KC needs Hunter any longer. At that point, I'd probably be looking for the best bat I could find that hits LH pitching at a decent level. Not sure spending $10+ million on Hunter is necessary at that point.

And none of that guarantees a revenue increase from those sources in future years. If we sign anyone of significance, they're generally looking for 4 years of guarantees. It's a challenge to match revenue over an extended period of time (due to the variability of the various revenue streams) to the costs that are fixed based on contract length.

There will probably be residual benefit to the top line related to merchandise, ticket sales and the associated concession sales, but beyond 2015 there's no way to predict continued success/revenue growth. With that in mind, Glass will continue to remain somewhat conservative most likely.

What we can't fix, and what is holding the payroll back is the local TV deal with Fox Sports Midwest. $20M/year through 2019 is a nightmare. And it will continue to get worse as other teams sign new and more lucrative contracts with their local provider. The Dodgers get $250M for context.

A ~$90-100M payroll isn't unreasonable, with perhaps a slight bump to account for recent and future success.

I wonder if that deal can be extended now as sort of a good faith move by the network.

I wouldn't hold your breath.

Jon Heyman said the Reds and Royals are interested in Aoki. But royals prefer Hunter over him

Cable deals aren't based on ratings

The Royals are meeting with Butlers agent today. There also interested in pitcher Brett Anderson

No, you and I are in agreement. I would just like to see a bump from the previous low 90 million to around $105 million, give or take.

I don't think that is overextending their payroll and yet provides some nominal cash flow to improve their roster.

I don't know why that seems like an irrational desire or not feasible from an organizational standpoint of remaining profitable and increasing the value of the franchise.

We are so far removed from the end of our contract, that an extension now is probably not a good idea, unless we were really sure the bubble was going to bust. If FSKC contacted the Royals to talk about the deal right now, they should be suspicious. Extension talks with Fox would make more sense in 2018 or so.

100-105 sounds reasonable. If we can sell 2.2MM tickets and make the playoffs again sometime in the next couple years, we ought to be able to break even there, and if it doesn't work, we have a losing season, and it ends up being a small short term loss, well we probably need to float a little money before the new TV deal anyway.

I don't expect Glass to operate at a long-term loss, but 100 or so doesn't sound like a big ask. (edit2: operating loss. I don't count capital gains, at all)

edit: and on the upside, if ticket and apparel sales go better than expected and we end up on pace for 2.4MM+ tickets instead of the 2.2MM we're thinking, then thats enough to swing a decent deadline deal if needed, too.