Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla
Is he worth that kind of deal? I love the guy as a Royal, but could his production be replaced at a lower cost?
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For the way the Royals play? Boy, it'd be tough.
Most teams value offensive WAR above all else, but the Royals derive so many of their wins through the 'gritty' side of the spectrum - the pressure of speed, premier defense and aggressive baserunning. A guy like Gordon, who's 6 WAR may not be a 'true' 6 WAR on a team like the Cubs, probably does directly contribute 6 wins or so in a healthy season on a team like the Royals because they play in a way where his dWAR and baserunning shares directly influence the ballgame.
Finding another 6 WAR sprinkled among other spots on the team is gonna be damn tough. If you had an in-house option that could give you 3 WAR while being cost controlled, you could get the other 3 WAR in the market somehow but I'm not sure the Royals have that, do they?
Maybe they keep Zobrist on a 3 year deal for $45 million and move Mondesi to 2b? But then you have to factor in the long-term financial costs of starting the arbitration/FA clock on Mondesi. Moreover, you still may want to do that to replace Rios in RF, so you still need to fill LF somehow.
Bottom line is that Moore will probably need to spend some of that WS revenue. The only question he needs to really ask himself is whether or not a long-term deal with Gordon would interfere with their ability to retain Hosmer, Moustakas and Cain. The worst thing a team can do is hold onto the 'last wave' too long and in the process cost themselves part of their next core.
The Royals may just be wise to expect that the rest of the Central will underperform again, keep their powder dry, win the central by a couple fewer games next year and rely on another post-season hot streak to advance through October.