As free agency approaches, the Kansas City Royals have an obvious need: an impact, middle-of-the-order bat.
Pessimistic Royals fans aren’t used to seeing their favorite team spend top dollar in free agency in years past, though. The largest contract they’ve ever handed out to a free agent was $72 million to Alex Gordon, who’d already been in Kansas City for his entire career, with second place somehow belonging to starting pitcher Ian Kennedy at $70 million.
Will the tides change this offseason? Jon Heyman of the celebrity.land seems to be peddling some hope for those willing to be optimistic.
On Tuesday, Heyman named three free agents that he either expected the Royals to pursue or thought would make sense: third baseman Alex Bregman of the Boston Red Sox, and outfielders Kyle Tucker of the Chicago Cubs and Cody Bellinger of the New York Yankees.
“Look for the Royals to pursue a top hitter,” Heyman wrote. “They’ve been linked to Bregman. Tucker or Bellinger would fit, too, but Tucker is likely too pricey for them. Bregman could also work.”
Hearing that the Royals are going to make honest pursuits of any big-name free agents is obviously a good sign for those hoping for action. But the unfortunate truth is that even if the Royals pony up every dollar the incumbent teams do in each of these cases, the players still have to choose Kansas City.
Bregman is well-known to have a preference for teams with a sustainable young core of talent, and it’s unclear whether the Royals’ core meets that threshold (it very well might). Bellinger is a great fit for this Yankees team, and with Aaron Judge around, it’s hard to argue New York isn’t better-positioned to win now.
The risk here is that the Royals might give a big contract to someone with more red flags than one of these three as a backup plan. Think Trent Grisham, Eugenio Suárez, etc. If the Royals are going to swim in these waters, they have to pick their targets and refuse to lose.
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