ESPN insider grades Royals’ offseason strongly (but admits more work could be done)

Despite there still being around a month until spring training, with many of the big fish finally off the board in free agency and some high-profile trades already occurring, now’s a decent time to start getting some early grades in on the offseason that’s been.

That’s what ESPN insider Jesse Rogers did this week for every AL Central team, grading them 1 to 5 on a standard of what they’ve done to this point, but also what they still have left to do in the latter stages of the winter months.

A grade of one is what Rogers referred to as “their work is (basically) done”, while a five grade carried a lot more of a sense of desperation which Rogers described as “it has been a disaster. Can they turn it around?”.

For the Royals, he gave them a solid grade of two, acknowledging the productive business they’ve done so far, but leaving room for more business to be done.

“They’re having a strong winter, but more would help,” Rogers wrote on describing what a two ranking represents.

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers looks fondly on Royals’ current body of offseason works but leaves room for further improvement

So far this offseason the Royals have made notable additions to both their outfield and their bullpen.

In the outfield, it’s been headlined by the likes Isaac Collins and Lane Thomas, but they also added another 40-man depth piece in Kameron Misner.

Then, in the bullpen, the return of Matt Strahm is probably the most notable move of their entire offseason and Nick Mears will likely play a key middle relief role. On top of that, the early winter signing of former closer Alex Lange made their relief unit that much deeper.

Rogers highlighted three of these names as being “key additons”; Collins, Strahm and Mears.

“Adding Collins should help with production from the outfield, which was lacking last season,” Rogers wrote. “No matter the position out there, the Royals ranked near the bottom of the league in OPS.”

“Strahm and Mears fit in the bullpen, as the team traded Angel Zerpa for Collins (and Mears) but lost oft-injured reliever Hunter Harvey to free agency,” he also wrote.

The common theme amongst many people analyzing the Royals’ offseason though is that more work still needs to be done if they truly want to make a push to make their second postseason appearance in three years.

While utilizing their starting pitching surplus to land a major trade target like St. Louis’ Brendan Donovan or Boston’s Jarren Duran would have been nice, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic put a damper on any sort of deal of that magnitude last week.

Still, Rogers claims that the Royals goal hasn’t changed, even if perhaps they’re no longer in on some of the league’s top trade targets.

“The Royals’ task hasn’t changed: attempting to find more offense to put around all-world player Bobby Witt Jr.,” he wrote. “It’s likely to come via a trade rather than any of the free agents left on the market.”

Where a potential trade comes from remains to be seen, but there’s still no shortage of prospective suitors remaining that could be perfect fits. There’s ones that could use some of the Royals’ immense starting pitching surplus or one’s, like the Mets, that simply have a surplus of a certain position of their own that could be of real interest to the Royals.

Then, there’s the bullpen, which other insiders have tabbed the Royals with still having interest in further addressing, such as Anne Rogers of MLB.com earlier this month.

Jesse Rogers had the same sort of evaluation in his assessment of Kansas City, saying they “might still add to the bullpen”.

Royals fans are certainly breathing a little easier this time around than they were at a similar point last year – where they essentially did next to nothing to address some of their biggest issues, and it came back to bite them early.

That being said, Rogers’ evaluation seems spot on. There’s no reason not to be satisfied with the front office’s work so far, but it’s still seems reasonable to hope for more if they truly want to insert themselves back into the contender category in the AL Central and the American League as a whole.