2023 – A new beginning for the Royals. Matt Quatraro era begins. A year to see which of our young players will make up the core going forward. Can Bobby Witt Jr become a superstar SS or will go to the hot corner? Will Brady Singer take the next step forward? Will Salvy be Salvy? Will Big Vin or Pratto take first base? Will they find a position for MJ? Who else emerges from the youth movement? Not to mention the development of the new downtown stadium.
Free Agents/Trades Acquisitions
Jordan Lyles, RHP
Ryan Yarbrough, LHP
Josh Taylor, LHP
Aroldis Chapman, LHP
Top 10 Prospects from Baseball America
1. Gavin Cross, OF
2. Cayden Wallace, 3B
3. Drew Waters, OF
4. Ben Kudrna, RHP
5. Frank Mozzicato, LHP
6. Maikel Garcia, SS
7. Tyler Gentry, OF
8. Nick Loftin, OF/3B
9. Angel Zerpa, LHP
10. Carter Jensen, C [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
I'm not in love with the Mondesi trade but this is where we are now I think. Dayton always said KC was a different market and that affected his decision making and judging by the blowback you see on Twitter and such he was absolutely right. It hasn't even been one full offseason and a lot of people already hate the Tampa Bay model of trying to build a team.
Sherman flat out said they need to be more transactional and take emotion out of decisions and so far that's what they're doing just like Tampa. That means trading good players, not overpaying free agents and being ruthlessly efficient with both money and production. We'll see how it pays off. It's pretty clear they're trying hard to create a pitching staff with no holes so they can play matchups all day long. Openers, different closers based on the matchups, starters only going 3-4 innings if the numbers dictate it. At least that's what it looks like.
But why are you trading for a shitty reliever? That part makes no sense, the Royals have like 57 pitching prospects some of them will be relievers because they are failed starters. [Reply]
Im not as down on these moves, as it feels more like cost efficiency moves than anything. Mondesi was making $3 mil to basically do nothing. Taylor was at $4.5 mil to help how? We have younger guys needing time to either develop or give the org an evaluation period. While loading up on arms. We saw this past season how not having enough arms can be extremely detrimental even in the bullpen. Sign more arms (seems what they are doing), let the young position players continue with the development/evaluation. And continue overhauling the developmental logistics throughout the org. Patience at this point isnt necessarily a bad thing. Paying tens of millions to Taylor, Mondesi, Dozier, Santana, O'Hearn, Merrifield etc is what we all wanted to see changed, and thats what is changing. [Reply]
JJ Picollo says they want to see Bobby Witt Jr as much SS as they can... same with Drew Waters and Kyle Isbel in the outfield. Those were factors in moving Mondesi and Taylor.
Isbel is a really good defender...not so great with the stick though. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
But why are you trading for a shitty reliever? That part makes no sense, the Royals have like 57 pitching prospects some of them will be relievers because they are failed starters.
I don't know for sure because we haven't seen how Quatraro manages. But if we're going off how Tampa does it, it's because they're trying to find 12-13 arms that can fill out a staff top to bottom and can match up with any possible scenario. Some of these guys will get hurt or surely bomb, but they're throwing numbers at it.
If he runs it like Tampa, it's not always going to be 5 starters, 3-4 strong bullpen guys you can rely on with 3-4 bullpen guys you use for long relief/getting blown out.
It's going to going to be 3-4 starters, a 1-2 guys who are "starters" who might pitch the innings 3-6 sometimes. A couple guys who can "close" and a couple guys who can "open" and maybe a couple other guys they can use in specific matchup situations. We'll have to see though but every guy will have to bring something to the table because they'll play the numbers and matchups religiously. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
I don't know for sure because we haven't seen how Quatraro manages. But if we're going off how Tampa does it, it's because they're trying to find 12-13 arms that can fill out a staff top to bottom and can match up with any possible scenario. Some of these guys will get hurt or surely bomb, but they're throwing numbers at it.
If he runs it like Tampa, it's not always going to be 5 starters, 3-4 strong bullpen guys you can rely on with 3-4 bullpen guys you use for long relief/getting blown out.
It's going to going to be 3-4 starters, a 1-2 guys who are "starters" who might pitch the innings 3-6 sometimes. A couple guys who can "close" and a couple guys who can "open" and maybe a couple other guys they can use in specific matchup situations. We'll have to see though but every guy will have to bring something to the table because they'll play the numbers and matchups religiously.
Pretty sure that Barlow is getting dealt.... [Reply]
Not bothered by these moves at all. A decent middle reliever for our young pitching staff sounds OK to me. What can I rely on Mondesi to provide for a young team that needs evaluation and development? Nothing. That's the answer. Nothing. Get some perspective people. There were no good moves to make for this contract and player. Same will be true with Dozier, except that Dozier could be a solid right handed platoon bat or batt off the bench w/ defensive flexibility (even if defense is sub-par) for a team in need of their 24th or 25th man. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
The two things about this is 1) they pretty clearly think their new pitching regime can fix guys up and 2) if this trade blows up in our face it's going to really blow up and look horrible. Mondesi has the tools to be a superstar. We're about to find out if he's truly glass or if there's something a training staff can do to reduce his injury risk.
Let's go worst case scenario. Mondesit has an MVP year after getting traded. If somehow that happened in KC, the Royals would not be able to resign him as he enters free agency after this season. So, if this majorly blows up on the Royals, the only thing they lost out on was trading the guy for a higher value to a contender. Royals trade record isn't great so even that would probably result in a minimal return that would not work out.
Mondesi has never had a passion to play baseball in Kansas City. That was not changing this year while on the Royals and it really didn't matter when they made this move. [Reply]
I would guess that the plan is to rehab/flip Taylor at the deadline and the Royals actually have a place to play him where they didn't with Mondi? Idk. Maybe trying to make sense of the deal is a futile effort [Reply]
Seriously. The past 6 months has turned the Organization into what many wanted to see. We wanted GMDM gone, wanted Mathfucktard gone, wanted Eltard gone, wanted the expensive vets that were blocking players gone, wanted the young players opportunity to play at the big leagues. Most of all we wanted an overhaul in Operational thinking as well player development. These things are all happening. I'm seriously feeling optimistic about the path [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fansy the Famous Bard:
Seriously. The past 6 months has turned the Organization into what many wanted to see. We wanted GMDM gone, wanted Mathfucktard gone, wanted Eltard gone, wanted the expensive vets that were blocking players gone, wanted the young players opportunity to play at the big leagues. Most of all we wanted an overhaul in Operational thinking as well player development. These things are all happening. I'm seriously feeling optimistic about the path
They still have 1 huge issue though...all of those young players aren't gonna hit and they still won't move any of them because they afraid they'll trade the wrong one. It's been a problem forever that they live in fear they'll accidently trade a star and keep the wrong guy so they just keep all of them...when the law of averages says more top prospects fail than hit. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
They still have 1 huge issue though...all of those young players aren't gonna hit and they still won't move any of them because they afraid they'll trade the wrong one. It's been a problem forever that they live in fear they'll accidently trade a star and keep the wrong guy so they just keep all of them...when the law of averages says more top prospects fail than hit.
So let them play and sort it out. Keep rebuilding the developmental system and minors. Lay the foundation. We will probably suck this year, but how is that different than the past few years? Do it, but allow the prospects the chance to be evaluated.. Saying "It's been a problem forever that they live in fear they'll accidently trade a star and keep the wrong guy so they just keep all of them" isn't necessarily the end all now, seeing as it's only been this offseason with GMDM gone. Let's give it time and see if JJ does the same thing. Sure seems like he's trending towards it not being the same thinking (see Mondesi), but this process is in its infancy at this point without GMDM. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fansy the Famous Bard:
So let them play and sort it out. Keep rebuilding the developmental system and minors. Lay the foundation. We will probably suck this year, but how is that different than the past few years? Do it, but allow the prospects the chance to be evaluated.. Saying "It's been a problem forever that they live in fear they'll accidently trade a star and keep the wrong guy so they just keep all of them" isn't necessarily the end all now, seeing as it's only been this offseason with GMDM gone. Let's give it time and see if JJ does the same thing. Sure seems like he's trending towards it not being the same thinking (see Mondesi), but this process is in its infancy at this point without GMDM.
Once they play they lose value...for example there are people that think MJ Melendez isn't an MLB catcher. If you really believe that you are supposed to trade him before he ever touches an MLB game and attempt to rip off another team that thinks he can catch. You value your evaluation and win the deal. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
Once they play they lose value...for example there are people that think MJ Melendez isn't an MLB catcher. If you really believe that you are supposed to trade him before he ever touches an MLB game and attempt to rip off another team that thinks he can catch. You value your evaluation and win the deal.
And we should sign fringe middle-ing Free Agents to man the Majors, paying them Tens of millions to suck. Mecca... Are you Dayton Moore? :-) [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fansy the Famous Bard:
And we should sign fringe middle-ing Free Agents to man the Majors, paying them Tens of millions to suck. Mecca... Are you Dayton Moore? :-)
Never once have I said they should do that...I think they should be in play for actual guys who can be part of winning teams. [Reply]
