The Kansas City Royals have been no stranger to the offseason rumor mill at the early stages of the winter months.
And one position that’s been at the forefront of many insider’s minds when making free agent fits for the Royals has been the outfield, which had to be the most underwhelming position for Kansas City offensively in 2025.
While the Royals will certainly be linked to lower-end outfield free agents this winter, like they usually are as a small market squad, Jim Bowden of The Athletic got surprisingly bold with one of his Royals free agent fits.
He listed Kansas City as one of the “best fits” for Cody Bellinger in free agency, after the Yankees star and former MVP announced his intent to exercise his player option earlier this month and test the waters of the open market.
Royals Rumors: The Athletic lists Royals as surprise free agent fit for Cody Bellinger
There’s no denying that Bellinger would be a welcome addition to this Royals outfield unit that ranked last in MLB in wRC+ this season at 73 as well as their overall underwhelming offense as whole that sat tied for 22nd in wRC+ at 93. And as Bowden outlined, it’s more than just his bat that makes him an intriguing option.
“Bellinger’s ability to play above-average defense at all three outfield positions and first base increases his free-agent worth, although it looks like he’s found a home in left field,” Bowden wrote.
If the Royals somehow pull off a deal for Bellinger, he would not have much stiff competition for the starting left field spot, given how it rotated hands between multiple names this past season that only posted a collective .224 AVG and .639 OPS.
However, there’s several obstacles standing in the Royals way of making this rumor a reality.
First, the fact that as a Top 10 free agent, according to Bowden and The Athletic, the field vying for his signature is obviously going to be a robust one filled with big-market entities and other postseason contenders
Bowden’s list of “best fits” beyond the Royals include the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Guardians.
The other issue is going to be the financial side of things. As a small market team, handing out big money contracts in free agency haven’t been the Royals M.O.
Bowden’s prediction for a Bellinger contract was something similar to George Springer’s 6-year, $150 million contract with the Blue Jays, Teoscar Hernández $3-year, $66 million deal with the Dodgers or Brandon Nimmo’s 8-year, $162 million deal with the Mets.
Alex Gordon’s contract which he signed ahead of the 2016 season, still marks the Royals largest free agent deal in franchise history at 4-years, $72 million, but they already had the advantage of being his only major league home prior to that.
This means their last free agent contract with no prior experience on this Royals team was Seth Lugo’s $3-year, $45 million deal he signed ahead of the 2024 campaign.
That being said, since then, they’ve handed out some notable extensions, such as Lugo’s 2-year, $46 million extension, Salvador Perez’s 4-year, $82 million extension in 2021 and of course Bobby Witt Jr.’s mega 11-year, $288.7 million he inked ahead of the 2024 campaign. This show’s that ownership is willing to fork over more money than ever before on the right names.
Whether or not a union between Bellinger and the Royals is in the cards remains to be seen. However, the fact that insiders from major outlets are floating around the idea early is a promising sign for Kansas City and their hopes of improving this roster to get back to a real spot of postseason contention.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
