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 BWillie:
He's not really warranted much at this point. The guy has a career .724 ops and terribledefensive metrics. We act like he's a superstar because we are projecting but what if he's just Jeff Francoer?
Focus on locking up Vinnie, who for some reason will be much cheaper.
If I was Witt Id capitalize on this funny idea that for some reason ppl think hes an elite baseball player and accept whatever big deal I can get.
Focus should be on locking up both.
It’s only 25 games, but his defensive numbers are improved this year, and he’s pacing for a 25 HR/30 SB season.
His offensive numbers have paced up just slightly, but the version of him right now is similar to prime Ian Desmond, who was a valuable guy for the first half of his career.
I see a guy who, for the most part, is taking better at-bats and being more selective at the dish. I think there still is upside with the bat.
There still is potential for him to do more. There’s good reason for an extension for both sides. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Prison Bitch:
They just optioned Taj Bradley to AAA
And for good reason: he was only 3-0 with a 3.52 era in 15ip. Only has 23k
But leave it to the Rays to have a plan.
They're doing it because they intended to have him up at some point as part of a 6-man rotation. The Springs injury blew that plan apart. So with him presently being on a 6-day schedule, they're looking to get him back to 5 days. So he'll probably miss a couple of turns to make sure he can get his throwing program lined out and then be back by Mid-late May as part of the rotation.
Because the Rays are just pretty damn smart. [Reply]
Because they already had him in AAA long enough to retain the extra year of service time. So the only question would end up being if you could salvage a Super 2 season out of it and get a 4th year of arb.
And even THAT doesn't really matter for the Rays because they'll either extend him long-term prior to his arb years or they'll trade him with a couple years of service time left anyway.
It's always the gut reaction, but there's little practical reason to believe it's the case here. [Reply]
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho:
Focus should be on locking up both.
It’s only 25 games, but his defensive numbers are improved this year, and he’s pacing for a 25 HR/30 SB season.
His offensive numbers have paced up just slightly, but the version of him right now is similar to prime Ian Desmond, who was a valuable guy for the first half of his career.
I see a guy who, for the most part, is taking better at-bats and being more selective at the dish. I think there still is upside with the bat.
There still is potential for him to do more. There’s good reason for an extension for both sides.
Definitely but if we offered 40M for 10 years to Witt Jr wouldn't he sign it in a heartbeat? It would be a terrible move to turn that down and it would be terrible for the Royals to offer it. Maybe there is something much more reasonablein the middle which I would not expect Witt to sign.
400M for 10 is laughable at this point and if he is just Jeff Francoer would be the worst extension in the history of baseball. Such a contract would be one of the riskiest contracts ever.
If anybody has leverage to get a deal it is Witt Jr. He has all the advantages on his side, perception, youth despite proven results yet. Has all the potential in the world but will he ever get there?
On the flip side, Vinnie deal would be much easier and cheaper. Hes older, less perceived upside since he simply wasn't a big draft pick. While doesn't have defensive flexibility we know he will produce. And much less risky based on the dollars he would demand. [Reply]
:-) Holy shit, didn't even notice the As at first. But they are deliberately tanking so you kind of need to ignore them anyway when evaluating performance. Royals are just fucking trash this year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BWillie:
Definitely but if we offered 40M for 10 years to Witt Jr wouldn't he sign it in a heartbeat? It would be a terrible move to turn that down and it would be terrible for the Royals to offer it. Maybe there is something much more reasonablein the middle which I would not expect Witt to sign.
400M for 10 is laughable at this point and if he is just Jeff Francoer would be the worst extension in the history of baseball. Such a contract would be one of the riskiest contracts ever.
If anybody has leverage to get a deal it is Witt Jr. He has all the advantages on his side, perception, youth despite proven results yet. Has all the potential in the world but will he ever get there?
On the flip side, Vinnie deal would be much easier and cheaper. Hes older, less perceived upside since he simply wasn't a big draft pick. While doesn't have defensive flexibility we know he will produce. And much less risky based on the dollars he would demand.
It would make sense to do something like 6/$100 with incentives to $120M for Pasquantino.
Witt would probably want something north of that but south of JRod's extension. 6/120? 8/$160? [Reply]
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