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.
If they trusted non-roided Bonifacio to be a quality MLB player, I don’t think this happens. I expect him to be the odd man out this year, either at Omaha or elsewhere.
Suspect he and Phillips may both start at Omaha unless they’ve given up on Soler in RF and plan to DH him most of the time. [Reply]
In the FG dashboard, there are 4,003 players all time with >200 games played. Baines rates as the 7th worst all time in terms of defensive value created. Here’s what he did:
Offense: 243.5 runs
Defense: -235.7
Base running: -8.8
Total: -1
So he basically didn’t create or destroy any runs over 20 years, mostly as a pretty good hittting DH who didn’t run or field. If you count him as a RF where he started, his 38 fWAR ranks 24/25 who got in. The avg RF war is over 70.
Summary: this Shithead has no business being in. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Great Expectations:
It is easy enough to skip the stuff honoring the pretty good and focus on the great. Cooperstown is a magical place that every baseball fan should visit.
No doubt. I could spend a week visiting that museum every day. I was 14 when I visited and I still remember how mind blowing it was to see all that cool shit from baseballs past in one place. It just amazes me how much the standards have lowered for players to get in. [Reply]
Any idea when preseason farm system rankings are released? I'm curious to see how far we've progressed. I'd venture a completely uneducated guess of maybe around 22-23 out of 30? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bufkin:
So Hamilton gets 1 year, 5.25 million with a mutual option for 2020. Which side do these types of options benefit on short term contracts?
Both.
Player gets more guaranteed money. Team shifts financial obligation 1 year out. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bufkin:
So Hamilton gets 1 year, 5.25 million with a mutual option for 2020. Which side do these types of options benefit on short term contracts?
Player.
There is no upside for team. Which is why only like 1-2 of these have ever been exercised by the player. [Reply]
One random tidbit from the Winter Meetings: Royals manager Ned Yost said the Royals' in-house projection system has the Indians winning 97 games in 2019 despite the changes they've made.
Apparently we also lost Elvis Luciano, a high upside 18 year old pitcher to the Blue Jays. That's strange that he was even available. We'll see if he can stick in the majors. [Reply]
