{"id":2132993,"date":"2025-11-03T19:40:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2132993"},"modified":"2025-11-03T19:40:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:40:06","slug":"royals-all-star-heads-to-free-agency-after-12m-mutual-option-declined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/royals-all-star-heads-to-free-agency-after-12m-mutual-option-declined\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals All-Star Heads To Free Agency After $12M Mutual Option Declined"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"style_hfl21i-o_O-style_uhlm2\"\/>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_e2mmvb91n\">Some future roster decisions seem fairly obvious all season, but when the offseason begins, they still carry weight. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_1upe9bta5\">The Kansas City Royals held a $12 million mutual option for next season with starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen, who came over in a midseason trade with the Texas Rangers a year ago and then re-signed on a one-year deal. He had a fairly mediocre season, though, and Kansas City&#8217;s deep rotation is its greatest roster asset.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_fr8jyt9wl\">That&#8217;s why it was no surprise to learn that on Monday, Lorenzen officially became a free agent, according to the <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_1gn6yjz\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/transactions\" target=\"_blank\">official transaction log<\/a> of Major League Baseball, meaning his mutual option was declined.<\/p>\n<div data-mm-id=\"_74nramf9p\" class=\"\">\n<div class=\"style_120ff32\">\n<figure data-id=\"_74nramf9p\" class=\"base_1ruub6q\" data-mm-type=\"image\"><canvas class=\"style_1e28o3x-o_O-initial_9vayoh\"\/><picture class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\"><source\/><source\/><source\/><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Michael Lorenzen\" title=\"Michael Lorenzen\"\/><\/picture><noscript><picture class=\"base_1emrqjj\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_7126,h_4008,x_0,y_164\/c_fill,w_360,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01k95hfvg0v4fbf753t5.jpg 1x, https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_7126,h_4008,x_0,y_164\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01k95hfvg0v4fbf753t5.jpg 2x, https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_7126,h_4008,x_0,y_164\/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01k95hfvg0v4fbf753t5.jpg 3x\" media=\"(max-width: 719px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_7126,h_4008,x_0,y_164\/c_fill,w_620,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01k95hfvg0v4fbf753t5.jpg 1x, https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_7126,h_4008,x_0,y_164\/c_fill,w_1240,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01k95hfvg0v4fbf753t5.jpg 2x, https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_7126,h_4008,x_0,y_164\/c_fill,w_1240,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01k95hfvg0v4fbf753t5.jpg 3x\" media=\"(max-width: 1079px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_7126,h_4008,x_0,y_164\/c_fill,w_620,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01k95hfvg0v4fbf753t5.jpg 1x, https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_7126,h_4008,x_0,y_164\/c_fill,w_1240,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01k95hfvg0v4fbf753t5.jpg 2x, https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_7126,h_4008,x_0,y_164\/c_fill,w_1240,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01k95hfvg0v4fbf753t5.jpg 3x\" media=\"(min-width: 1080px)\"\/><\/picture><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<p><figcaption class=\"tagStyle_1ulimm5-o_O-text_1j8vahs\">Sep 25, 2025; Anaheim, California, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen (24) delivers during the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium. Mandatory Credit: William Liang-Imagn Images \/ William Liang-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_kzd7e9za2\">According to the Associated Press, it was the Royals who <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_1gn6yjz\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/articles\/mlb\/michael-king-michael-lorenzen-and-mitch-garver-become-free-agents-after-mutual-options-are-declined\" target=\"_blank\">declined their end<\/a> of the deal, which always made more sense than Lorenzen turning down an extra $10.5 million in guaranteed money. Mutual options, as a general rule, are seldom picked up and exist mainly as a way to guarantee players more money without the full sum counting against the luxury tax.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_s97bk8god\">Lorenzen led the Royals with 127 strikeouts this season, which was mainly due to injuries across the rotation, namely ace Cole Ragans and No. 2 man Kris Bubic. He had a 4.64 ERA, surrendering a career-high 25 home runs, and ended the season with only 0.4 wins above replacement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_5zjj5olz6\">At this point in his career, Lorenzen is best served as a No. 5 starter. He has thrown 130-plus innings in each of the last three seasons after never doing so before, so he&#8217;s trending upward in terms of durability, and that should mitigate concerns about him entering his age-34 season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_3gok8wxoz\">The Royals&#8217; rotation options for next season currently include Ragans, Bubic, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Noah Cameron, Ryan Bergert, Stephen Kolek, Bailey Falter, and Kyle Wright. It&#8217;s easy to envision them trading from that mix to address the offense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_besf51hfh\">Meanwhile, as the former All-Star Lorenzen enters the open market, it will be intriguing to see which teams with less pitching depth start signing depth arms early.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_7k51w4i3b\"><em><strong>More MLB: <\/strong><\/em><a target=\"_blank\" class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_1gn6yjz\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/royals\/onsi\/news\/royals-snag-two-gold-gloves-prove-no-team-has-more-infield-stability-jackson3\"><em><strong>Royals Snag Two Gold Gloves, Prove No Team Has More Infield Stability<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.si.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some future roster decisions seem fairly obvious all season, but when the offseason begins, they still carry weight. The Kansas City Royals held a $12 million mutual option for next season with starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen, who came over in a midseason trade with the Texas Rangers a year ago and then re-signed on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2132994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2132993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Royals-All-Star-Heads-To-Free-Agency-After-12M-Mutual-Option.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2132993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2132995,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132993\/revisions\/2132995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2132994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2132993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2132993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2132993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}