{"id":2211282,"date":"2025-12-24T19:20:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T19:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2211282"},"modified":"2025-12-24T19:20:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T19:20:38","slug":"royals-still-interested-in-all-star-outfielder-but-probably-shouldnt-bother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/royals-still-interested-in-all-star-outfielder-but-probably-shouldnt-bother\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals Still &#8216;Interested&#8217; In All-Star Outfielder, But Probably Shouldn&#8217;t Bother"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div q:key=\"QW_4\"><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=6a q:key=vcaa:\n\n<p>The theme of the winter so far for the Kansas City Royals has been outfielders.<\/p>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=6b q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">The theme of the winter so far for the Kansas City Royals has been outfielders.<\/p>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=6d q:key=vcaa:\n\n<p>Earlier this month, the Royals signed right-handed hitting outfielder Lane Thomas and trade for switch-hitting outfielder Isaac Collins. Adding those two to a mix that already included Kyle Isbel, Jac Caglianone, Nick Loftin, and a handful of others could help keep Kansas City out of the dead last spot for outfield fWAR this year.<\/p>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=6e q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">Earlier this month, the Royals signed right-handed hitting outfielder Lane Thomas and trade for switch-hitting outfielder Isaac Collins. Adding those two to a mix that already included Kyle Isbel, Jac Caglianone, Nick Loftin, and a handful of others could help keep Kansas City out of the dead last spot for outfield fWAR this year.<\/p>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=6g q:key=vcaa:\n\n<p>However, it appears that the Royals aren&#39;t done pursuing outfielders, as made evident by their pursuit of Adolis Garc&iacute;a, who eventually signed with the Philadelphia Phillies, and Boston Red Sox trade candidate Jarren Duran.  <\/p>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=6h q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">However, it appears that the Royals aren&#8217;t done pursuing outfielders, as made evident by their pursuit of Adolis Garc\u00eda, who eventually signed with the Philadelphia Phillies, and Boston Red Sox trade candidate Jarren Duran.  <\/p>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=6j q:key=vcaa:\n\n<p><em>If you like our content,&nbsp;<\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\"><em>choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=6k q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\"><em>If you like our content,\u00a0<\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\"><em>choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=6m q:key=vcaa:\n\n<h2>New Royals target: Austin Hays<\/h2>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=6n q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"scroll-mt-24 my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">New Royals target: Austin Hays<\/h2>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=6p q:key=vcaa:https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_3682,h_2071,x_0,y_55\/images\/ImagnImages\/mmsport\/inside_the_royals\/01kd8frh4m81yv8j6n4t--><!--qv q:id=6q q:key=VjqC:mL_1--><!--qv q:id=6r q:key=deAA:7d_2--><!--qv q:s q:sref=6r q:key=--><!--qv q:id=6s q:key=deAA:7d_1--><!--qv q:s q:sref=6s q:key=--><!--qv q:id=6t q:key=cHU9:7d_0--><!--qv q:id=6u q:key=deAA:e2_0--><!--qv q:id=6v q:key=B0c2:SZ_1--><\/p>\n<figure q:key=\"9m_3\"><!--qv q:s q:sref=6v q:key=--><!--qv q:s q:sref=6u q:key=--><\/p>\n<div class=\"overflow-hidden bg-lightGrey undefined\" on:qvisible=\"q-UW1W1W06.js#_hW[0]\" q:id=\"6w\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_55,w_3682,h_2071\/c_fill,w_360,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01kd8frh4m81yv8j6n4t.jpg 1x, &#10;    https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_55,w_3682,h_2071\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01kd8frh4m81yv8j6n4t.jpg 2x, &#10;    https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_55,w_3682,h_2071\/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01kd8frh4m81yv8j6n4t.jpg 3x\" media=\"(max-width: 719px)\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_55,w_3682,h_2071\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01kd8frh4m81yv8j6n4t.jpg 1x,&#10;    https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_55,w_3682,h_2071\/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01kd8frh4m81yv8j6n4t.jpg 2x, &#10;    https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_55,w_3682,h_2071\/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01kd8frh4m81yv8j6n4t.jpg 3x\" media=\"(max-width: 1079px)\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_55,w_3682,h_2071\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01kd8frh4m81yv8j6n4t.jpg 1x,&#10;    https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_55,w_3682,h_2071\/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01kd8frh4m81yv8j6n4t.jpg 2x,&#10;    https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_55,w_3682,h_2071\/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Finside_the_royals%2F01kd8frh4m81yv8j6n4t.jpg 3x\" media=\"(min-width: 1080px)\"><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><\/p>\n<p><figcaption q:id=\"6y\">Sep 8, 2025; San Diego, California, USA; Cincinnati Reds left fielder Austin Hays (12) celebrates after hitting a solo home run during the sixth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images | Denis Poroy-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=6z q:key=vcaa:\n\n<p>On Wednesday, Jon Heyman of the celebrity.land <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/2003824726070972579\" target=\"_blank\">provided an update<\/a> on another outfield bat the Royals were at least casually targeting: former All-Star Austin Hays, who played for the Cincinnati Reds this season and put up a strong platoon campaign with a .949 OPS agaisnt left-handed pitching.<\/p>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=70 q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"71\">On Wednesday, Jon Heyman of the celebrity.land <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/2003824726070972579\" target=\"_blank\">provided an update<\/a> on another outfield bat the Royals were at least casually targeting: former All-Star Austin Hays, who played for the Cincinnati Reds this season and put up a strong platoon campaign with a .949 OPS agaisnt left-handed pitching.<\/p>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=72 q:key=vcaa:\n\n<p>According to Heyman, the Royals were &#34;among other teams that remain interested in Hays&#34; as of Wednesday, as the insider also listed the New York Yankees and New York Mets as teams in his market.<\/p>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=73 q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"74\">According to Heyman, the Royals were &#8220;among other teams that remain interested in Hays&#8221; as of Wednesday, as the insider also listed the New York Yankees and New York Mets as teams in his market.<\/p>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=75 q:key=vcaa:\n\n<p>On one hand, players like Hays give the Royals the opportunity to win free-agent bidding wars against the New York teams, which they wouldn&#39;t be able to do in the cases of Juan Soto or Cody Bellinger. Just because they could potentially land Hays, though, doesn&#39;t mean they should.<\/p>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=76 q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">On one hand, players like Hays give the Royals the opportunity to win free-agent bidding wars against the New York teams, which they wouldn&#8217;t be able to do in the cases of Juan Soto or Cody Bellinger. Just because they could potentially land Hays, though, doesn&#8217;t mean they should.<\/p>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=78 q:key=vcaa:\n\n<p>With an abundance of righties already in the lineup, the Royals need a left-handed outfielder who can provide real offensive impact. There&#39;s also no guarantee at all that Hays will be better than Thomas this year, and their spots on the roster would be relatively redundant. <\/p>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=79 q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7a\">With an abundance of righties already in the lineup, the Royals need a left-handed outfielder who can provide real offensive impact. There&#8217;s also no guarantee at all that Hays will be better than Thomas this year, and their spots on the roster would be relatively redundant. <\/p>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=7b q:key=vcaa:\n\n<p>Bringing in one more outfielder means that Caglianone or Isbel, and possibly both, will be out of most everyday lineups. So the Royals need to clear a high bar.<\/p>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=7c q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">Bringing in one more outfielder means that Caglianone or Isbel, and possibly both, will be out of most everyday lineups. So the Royals need to clear a high bar.<\/p>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=7e q:key=vcaa:\n\n<p>If they&#39;re not getting someone of Duran&#39;s caliber, or perhaps a half-step below, there&#39;s really no need for the Royals to keep poking around the outfield market hoping to hit singles.<\/p>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=7f q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7g\">If they&#8217;re not getting someone of Duran&#8217;s caliber, or perhaps a half-step below, there&#8217;s really no need for the Royals to keep poking around the outfield market hoping to hit singles.<\/p>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--qv q:key=QW_2--><!--qv q:id=7h q:key=vcaa:\n\n<p><em><strong>More MLB: <\/strong><\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/royals\/onsi\/news\/royals-gm-hints-kansas-city-already-has-solution-to-lackluster-offense-jackson3\"><em><strong>Royals GM Hints Kansas City Already Has Solution To Lackluster Offense<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n--><!--qv q:id=7i q:key=lY4S:mL_1--><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7j\"><em><strong>More MLB: <\/strong><\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/royals\/onsi\/news\/royals-gm-hints-kansas-city-already-has-solution-to-lackluster-offense-jackson3\"><em><strong>Royals GM Hints Kansas City Already Has Solution To Lackluster Offense<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><!--\/qv--><\/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>The theme of the winter so far for the Kansas City Royals has been outfielders. Earlier this month, the Royals signed right-handed hitting outfielder Lane Thomas and trade for switch-hitting outfielder Isaac Collins. Adding those two to a mix that already included Kyle Isbel, Jac Caglianone, Nick Loftin, and a handful of others could help [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2211283,"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-2211282","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\/12\/Royals-Still-Interested-In-All-Star-Outfielder-But-Probably-Shouldnt-Bother.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211282","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=2211282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2211284,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211282\/revisions\/2211284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2211283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2211282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2211282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2211282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}