The Kansas City Royals have a solid young core built around Bobby Witt Jr. and their loaded pitching staff. Witt is a superstar with the ability to be one of the best players of the era, but the Royals don’t have much around him at the moment.
Vinnie Pasquantino is one of the few bright spots on the roster, aside from Witt. Pasquantino is coming off a huge year in which he smashed 32 home runs and posted a 2.4 WAR. In arbitration, the Royals and Pasquantino were decently far apart on a deal. After a few weeks, they finally agreed on a two-year deal that will pay him $11 million over the next two seasons, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
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While this is a huge move for the Royals, they should begin working on a massive extension that keeps the slugger in town for the rest of his prime.
Royals should be looking to sign Vinnie Pasquantino to a big extension
Pasquantino is the kind of player that pairs perfectly next to Witt. Witt is the high average bat that can get on base and steal bases while he’s at it. Pasquantino is the big bat that can drive Witt in at any point in the game against any level of pitching.
If Pasquantino continues to take steps forward, he could be a 40-home run bat. His 32 home runs last season might just be scratching the surface.
Signing him to this two-year extension is a bit of a risk because there’s a chance that he drives his value up over the course of the deal. If he can combine for 60 or 70 home runs across these two years, his value will be much higher by the next time he hits arbitration.
Either way, it’s a good news for Royals fans that the front office is doing more than the bare minimum. They could have waited out arbitration, but they opted to avoid any potential conflict with one of their best players by signing him to this deal.
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