As the season comes to a close after an awful season, there is a possibility of some hope since the team played better in late August to the end of the season.
Here are all the important dates you need to know for the 2018-19 MLB offseason. Some of them do involve the Royals, such as:
Oct. 29: As of 9 a.m. ET on Monday, all eligible players are free agents (Escobar - good riddance).
Oct. 31: Most contract option decisions are due on this date (Hammel should be declined, resulting $2 million buyout and Peralta should be accepted, resulting $3 million increase to the payroll, and could be future flip for additional minor leaguers if he performs well).
Nov. 6-8: General manager meetings in Carlsbad, California.
Nov. 12: Deadline for free agents to accept or reject the qualifying offer.
Nov. 14-15: Owners meetings in Atlanta (possible future CBA discussions).
Nov. 20: Deadline for teams to add eligible minor leaguers to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft.
Spoiler!
The Royals announced they've added RHPs Arnaldo Hernandez, Josh Staumont and Scott Blewett to the 40-man roster, protecting them from next month's Rule 5 draft. Blewett appeared to take a big step in the Arizona Fall League. The 40-man roster is full right now.
Nov. 26-29: MLB Players Association executive board meeting in Dallas (possible future CBA discussions).
Nov. 30: Non-tender deadline.
Dec. 9-13: Winter Meetings in Las Vegas. This is typically when all offseason hell breaks loose.
Dec. 13: Rule 5 Draft (could see the Royals taking a stab here).
Jan. 11: Deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to submit 2019 salary figures (I believe KC has some arb-eligible players).
Feb. 1-20: Arbitration hearings. You win some, you lose some.
Mid-Feb. : SPRING TRAINING!
As usual, let's have a good off-season discussion on ways that the Royals can/should/would do to improve. I will try to update the OP as the off-season goes along. And Duncan, you're more than welcome to provide us some information that I can add onto the OP. Just let me know.
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A three-batter minimum for pitchers
Two batters.
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A universal designated hitter
Meh..
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A single trade deadline before the All-Star break
So no waiver trades? Think it would be better to borrow a soccer concept in allow for some sort of method to loan out a player if you can figure out a mechanism that makes this acceptable to both sides in a loan.
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A 20-second pitch clock
Seems too short.
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The expansion of rosters to 26 men, with a 12-pitcher maximum
30 man roster, 14 pitcher maximum from April to August 31 then it goes to the 40 man with 18 pitchers max until postseason.
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Draft advantages for winning teams and penalties for losing teams
Weight draft slotting by best record post trade deadline.
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A study to lower the mound
No.
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A rule that would allow two-sport amateurs to sign major league contracts
Still sounds like the Brewers might end up with Moose again. Means they'd have to move Travis Shaw, who was a gold glove finalist at third back to 2B for a whole season. Plus they have a big time prospect at 2B knocking on the door.
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Free-agent third baseman Mike Moustakas could be heading back to the Milwaukee Brewers, as a reunion between the two sides "seems inevitable," according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Rosenthal speculates that the Brewers might only be interested in a one-year deal with Moustakas, as Travis Shaw could move to second for the 2019 season and then back to third when top prospect Keston Hiura is ready for the majors.
Looking forward to the season. Gosh, things look so much better than did at AS break last year. Real reasons for some optimism about contending at some point. [Reply]
Originally Posted by FringeNC:
Looking forward to the season. Gosh, things look so much better than did at AS break last year. Real reasons for some optimism about contending at some point.
Originally Posted by FringeNC:
Looking forward to the season. Gosh, things look so much better than did at AS break last year. Real reasons for some optimism about contending at some point.
Absolutely. While I don’t think contenting is in the cards this year, this should be a team that keeps us interested through the AS break and slightly beyond. For a rebuilding team with little pitching, I’ll take it. [Reply]
As optimistic as I like to be, if the bullpen is still terrible this might still be a last place team. We'll see if guys like Lovelady can actually come up and give us a shot of life. There will probably be games where the offense looks rough and other games where they light it up with their team speed and a little bit of pop. At their best we might actually be a pretty fun offense to watch compared to the rest of the league.
The catch is who knows if anyone in our division will actually be any good. The White Sox could still make a move or two, including Machado. The Twins just continue to add mid range free agents, although they did get Nelson Cruz. It's the same question as last year for them though, is that all going to come together and actually work. The Indians are the front runners by default but they're not nearly the same team either. If any of the other teams could just play above their head for a bit you're probably a 2nd place team at least. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dallaschiefsfan:
Giving lower payroll teams higher picks for winning is an interesting attempt to stop the tanking trend. I kinda' like it because it can only be helpful to the Royals when they're winning - they never really tried to tank like other teams, so I don't see it changing the way they operate - only a potential benefit.
But I'm not sure how it helps the current issues being experienced with FA contracts. Teams like the Royals MIGHT change some behaviors, like signing a lower to mid tier FA here or there instead of going with a rook. However, the top tier FA's continue to stay on the market so late into the off-season because high revenue teams have simply changed their business approach to FA and aren't paying/bidding like they used to.
Since top tier FA's tend to set the market for everyone else, I'm not sure how this will change much, since the high revenue teams are usually signing the big names. I'm curious as to whether the corresponding penalty for tanking applies to high revenue teams as well - I would think it would have to...otherwise, they could tank without repercussions. Maybe they think the penalty will cause them to go spend crazy for the Harpers and Machado's of the world? I'm not so sure. You don't need those guys to simply avoid tanking.
It wouldn't change anything, if you suck and are going to lose 90 games because of past bad contracts, you are still going to suck. Why go spend a shit ton to still lose 90?
They want competition? Salary floor and ceiling. 8 teams make postseason per conference.
If they institute the clock they also need to bar batter timeouts. Maybe also push the batters box away from the plate a inch or more on each side. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Valiant:
It wouldn't change anything, if you suck and are going to lose 90 games because of past bad contracts, you are still going to suck. Why go spend a shit ton to still lose 90?
They want competition? Salary floor and ceiling. 8 teams make postseason per conference.
If they institute the clock they also need to bar batter timeouts. Maybe also push the batters box away from the plate a inch or more on each side.
Not too familiar with baseball, I'm guessing? [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
As optimistic as I like to be, if the bullpen is still terrible this might still be a last place team. We'll see if guys like Lovelady can actually come up and give us a shot of life. There will probably be games where the offense looks rough and other games where they light it up with their team speed and a little bit of pop. At their best we might actually be a pretty fun offense to watch compared to the rest of the league.
The catch is who knows if anyone in our division will actually be any good. The White Sox could still make a move or two, including Machado. The Twins just continue to add mid range free agents, although they did get Nelson Cruz. It's the same question as last year for them though, is that all going to come together and actually work. The Indians are the front runners by default but they're not nearly the same team either. If any of the other teams could just play above their head for a bit you're probably a 2nd place team at least.
I felt like last year the Omaha team had a couple or 3 guys that would've been upgrades to the KC club; but no reason to burn a season's eligibility on a lost year.
But-I expect the pen to be better; and it's one of the spots a small market team can reasonably spend and get improvement.
I think it could be a 75ish win club pretty easily. With a little luck right around .500 [Reply]
