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.
Part of me thinks the Owings signing was insurance. As in, if we get a good enough offer, bye bye Whit.
I don’t know that they’re actively shopping him, but if someone blows them away they probably should consider it strongly. The winter meetings are usually when stuff like that goes down. [Reply]
Baseball twitter is in an uproar tonight. The HOF Veterans Committee announced tonight that they are electing Lee Smith and Harold Baines to the HOF. The Harold Baines one is particularly surprising. [Reply]
Let's put it this way, if you value WAR, and Baines gets in, you could make a case that Frank White and Alex Gordon could get in. They're in the same neighborhood in terms of WAR. But Baines did play for 20 years and was pretty consistent. [Reply]
Baines had 1 season greater than 3.0 WAR. One. Jim Edmonds, who didn't see the second ballot of the writer's committee, had six straight seasons greater than 6 WAR, and eight seasons better than Baines' career year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
Let's put it this way, if you value WAR, and Baines gets in, you could make a case that Frank White and Alex Gordon could get in. They're in the same neighborhood in terms of WAR. But Baines did play for 20 years and was pretty consistent.
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
Baines had 1 season greater than 3.0 WAR. One. Jim Edmonds, who didn't see the second ballot of the writer's committee, had six straight seasons greater than 6 WAR, and eight seasons better than Baines' career year.
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
Baines had 1 season greater than 3.0 WAR. One. Jim Edmonds, who didn't see the second ballot of the writer's committee, had six straight seasons greater than 6 WAR, and eight seasons better than Baines' career year.
It's a debate over whether they should value true greatness over a short time vs prolonged consistent success. I mean there's no doubt in my mind what Baines did was an accomplishment. It's hard to be a good player for that long and a lot of guys don't do that. But I don't know where you draw the line. I don't think he's a HOF but I was almost serious about Frank White... there's a guy who played 18 years and had 2000 hits and won 8 gold gloves and had more 4 WAR seasons than Baines did. I get that Baines almost had 3000 hits though. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
It's a debate over whether they should value true greatness over a short time vs prolonged consistent success. I mean there's no doubt in my mind what Baines did was an accomplishment. It's hard to be a good player for that long and a lot of guys don't do that. But I don't know where you draw the line. I don't think he's a HOF but I was almost serious about Frank White... there's a guy who played 18 years and had 2000 hits and won 8 gold gloves and had more 4 WAR seasons than Baines did. I get that Baines almost had 3000 hits though.
Yeah, I just hate that voters value guys that were above average for a long time but never great. It's one of the biggest issues with counting stats, as I'm sure you know. At least Baines was an objectively good hitter for most of his career. Craig Biggio was a good hitter, but if he had 2960 hits instead of 3060, maybe people realize that the guy was a career .280/.363/.443 guy. Chase Utley was almost just as valuable, and put up that value in far fewer years. Is Utley a HOF? [Reply]
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
Yeah, I just hate that voters value guys that were above average for a long time but never great. It's one of the biggest issues with counting stats, as I'm sure you know. At least Baines was an objectively good hitter for most of his career. Craig Biggio was a good hitter, but if he had 2960 hits instead of 3060, maybe people realize that the guy was a career .280/.363/.443 guy. Chase Utley was almost just as valuable, and put up that value in far fewer years. Is Utley a HOF?
biggio playing a couple positions bla bla bla. IDGAF but I remember that being throw around why he was HOF worthy. [Reply]
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
Yeah, I just hate that voters value guys that were above average for a long time but never great. It's one of the biggest issues with counting stats, as I'm sure you know. At least Baines was an objectively good hitter for most of his career. Craig Biggio was a good hitter, but if he had 2960 hits instead of 3060, maybe people realize that the guy was a career .280/.363/.443 guy. Chase Utley was almost just as valuable, and put up that value in far fewer years. Is Utley a HOF?
Yeah. Throw in that Biggio probably hurt the Astros his last few seasons while chasing 3k hits and it really leaves a bad taste. [Reply]