Like I said when I wrote<\/a> about the infielders, the free agent outfield class is really thin. But that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t any guys worth targeting. Outfield is the more obvious concern, especially if they decide that some combination of Adam Frazier, Jonathan India, and\/or Michael Massey makes sense at second base after all. That\u2019s not the decision I would make, but it\u2019s possible they go that direction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As I did last week, we\u2019ll break the targets down into tiers. Here\u2019s the criteria I laid out last week:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tier S would be an amazing signing that instantly makes the Royals a strong playoff contender. Tier A would be a guy I would be perfectly content to see as the primary free agent addition this winter. Tier B includes guys I would be excited about, but wouldn\u2019t want to see as the only addition. I will use the indicator (C) to show that the player\u2019s current team has a club option for that player, so he might not be a free agent. Similarly, (P) will indicate that the player has an opt-out or player option. I\u2019m not going to bother marking mutual options because those are never picked up.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Luis Robert Jr. (C), Tyler O\u2019Neill (P), Lane Thomas<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Of these three guys, Robert is the only one who really does much for me, and only because of the combination of a history of playing really well once upon a time, relatively young age, and what we saw happen with Andrew Vaughn once he finally got out of Chicago. It just seems like that is an exceptionally toxic place to play baseball. Tyler O\u2019Neill was fantastic <\/em>two years ago, but a below-replacement level guy last year; I don\u2019t see any way he actually opts out of that contract. Even as a bounce-back guy, Lane Thomas\u2019 credentials are as a lefty-masher who can play center. You can try him as a platoon partner for Kyle Isbel, but there are better options to attempt to fill that role.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kyle Schwarber, Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger (P)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n As unlikely as the Royals are to be playing in the S-tier of infielders, it feels even more unlikely they\u2019d go after any of these outfielders. For one thing, Schwarber seems incredibly likely to return to the Phillies. I\u2019d be at least a little shocked if the Yankees didn\u2019t bring back Bellinger, though I suppose they could choose to go after Tucker instead. They\u2019re also all left-handed, so it\u2019s unclear if they would really fit with how KC\u2019s roster works. But if the team wanted to go S-Tier Outfielder, Witt, Pasquantino, Garcia, and Perez, they\u2019d still have three righties in the top five. Actually, having said that, I\u2019m starting to think a lefty works out just fine, no matter what the general consensus has been.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Anyway, Schwarber might be the best hitter out of these three, but he\u2019s also easily<\/em> the worst defender. He barely played in the field last year, and the Royals don\u2019t appear to have an opening at designated hitter while trying to find playing time for Carter Jensen, Salvador Perez, Vinnie Pasquantino, and Jac Caglianone. As I noted earlier, it\u2019s going to be really hard to pry him out of Philadelphia, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kyle Tucker is a really interesting case because after a monster 2023 season with the Astros, he appeared to take a small step back with the Cubs last year. Even so, he\u2019s got a career 138 wRC+. But he\u2019s also struggled with injuries the last two years, missing half of 2024 due to a shin fracture and playing through a broken hand for a large chunk of 2025. I\u2019m old enough to remember the Bone Density Wars, so I won\u2019t get into all that, but ZiPS projects him to only play 120-130 games for the next three years. He\u2019d be hugely valuable in that limited playing time, but does it make sense for a team with depth concerns to guarantee the second-largest contract in team history to him? If he might find himself in a bit of a 2024 Pete Alonso situation where the deal he wants doesn\u2019t really materialize and he has to do something of a more prove-it situation, however, that could work. The Royals could potentially sneak in late in the offseason and offer him a guaranteed contract with opt-outs that convinces him to fix the outfield for a year or two to seek his maximum value while they work on more sustainable options?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Of these three, Bellinger feels like the most likely target for the Royals because he\u2019s probably the cheapest. That said, if he\u2019s available, it will be because he just opted out of a contract that was guaranteed to pay him more than $20 million in 2026, so cheapest doesn\u2019t mean bargain rates. Here, I will reiterate that the Royals were offering $22 million a year to Anthony Santander with opt-outs. If they were willing to do that, perhaps that means they\u2019d be willing to do something a little bit higher for a more proven player? Bellinger also offers a little bit more positional flexibility as he\u2019s played every outfield spot and first base consistently throughout his career. Tucker has been almost exclusively a right fielder, while Schwarber has played left on the rare occasion he isn\u2019t the DH.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I want to shout out my Royals Rundown podcast co-host, Jacob Milham, because the first iteration of this tier had no one in it.* I sourced my list from MLB Trade Rumors, and either they forgot to include Trent Grisham in the version I saw or I managed to miss him, but he is also going to be a free agent, and, upon review, he\u2019s a really enticing guy, and I think he might be the<\/em> target for the Royals this offseason.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Grisham will be entering his age-29 season, so he\u2019s not yet old, but he\u2019s also not so young with such a dazzling history that he can expect to be paid like a stud over a long contract. He\u2019s the same age as Tucker, but younger than Schwarber and Bellinger. Like Bellinger, though, he has positional versatility in that he can play any outfield position. Seeing a Yankee lefty crush a career-high in home runs, you might fear he\u2019s benefiting from the infamous short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium, but according to StatCast<\/a>, 25 of his 34 home runs would still have been out in Kauffman. More homer-neutral parks like Target Field in Minnesota or Wrigley in Chicago would have allowed him to still hit 27 of his bombs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He had a lot of red on his baseball savant page last year, and he\u2019s been a roughly 2-WAR player throughout his career; ZiPS thinks that will continue for at least the next three years. Unlike the three guys in the S-Tier above, he\u2019s unlikely to absolutely knock anyone\u2019s socks off, and he understandably doesn\u2019t carry the name recognition that they do, but that also means he should be significantly more affordable than they will be while still being a huge boost to one of MLB\u2019s worst outfields.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If the Royals signed him, I think I\u2019d have to be pretty excited. If they signed him and<\/em> someone like Gleyber Torres from last week\u2019s article on the infielders, I think I\u2019d have to consider them deep playoff favorites. That might be dreaming a little too hard, but wouldn\u2019t it be cool if the Royals could snatch up a couple of former Yankees and go to the World Series the way it felt like the Yankees were doing to them for so long?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Harrison Bader, Mike Yastrzemski, Ram\u00f3n Laureano (C), Rob Refsnyder<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Harrison Bader is a guy a lot of people wanted the Royals to consider in 2025, that I didn\u2019t like, and I seemed kind of foolish for it when all was said and done. Had the Royals signed him to the deal the Twins gave him, they\u2019d have at least been in the Wild Card round. It was also his first above-average hitting season since 2021. He\u2019ll be 32 next year, and the glove still plays, so you can add him as a weak-side platoon partner. That said, it\u2019s hard to see the money making sense for both sides on that after his 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yastrzemski is someone we\u2019re all very familiar with in Kansas City now, so I don\u2019t need to say much about him. If the Royals don\u2019t feel comfortable spending the money on a guy who can hit all-handedness pitching every day, he makes a ton of sense (for the right price) as a strong-side platoon player.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Laureano was better in 2024 than I realized and had something of a breakout season for Baltimore and San Diego this year. He doesn\u2019t have big splits, can play both corner outfield positions competently, and ZiPS thinks he\u2019ll be playable for at least the next three years. The biggest problem here is that the Padres have a club option for only $6.5 million next year. It\u2019s hard to see them not picking that up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Rob Refsnyder is a really interesting case. He was a top prospect for the Yankees that never worked out, but the Red Sox got their hands on him a few years ago and turned him into a really valuable weak-side platoon bat. So if the Royals wanted someone to pair with Yaz, he might be the best option. Unfortunately, if KC wants to do that, both of those guys are in the mid-30s, so KC needs to be able to convince them to come on short deals, or it won\u2019t make sense financially. And even then, you\u2019d be betting on both of them to at least be close to who they were last year in an age range when decline can come extremely rapidly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Free agency isn\u2019t the only place the Royals can look for batting help, but it is the one way they can add talent to their lineup without having to sacrifice anywhere else. Despite all the talk, including from yours truly, about trading from a position of depth, they\u2019re a team that is still working on rebuilding their farm system, and they showed us this year how quickly pitching depth can be tested. They\u2019d be in much better shape if they didn\u2019t sacrifice anymore.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n