Talkin Royals

Heading into the 2016 season, the Royals were hoping to make another run at a World Series title with Eric Hosmer and company.  Following the end of the 2015 season, Kansas City was looking to sign a top market type of starting pitcher that could eat up multiple innings for the team. Kansas City considered other arms before signing Ian Kennedy. Scott Kazmir and Yovani Gallardo were players Kansas City took a hard look at. The Royals interest in Kazmir was pretty high before the Dodgers swooped in and signed Kazmir to a three year contract worth $48 million. While many Royals fans were disappointed to see the team miss out on signing Kazmir; but looking back on Kazmir's time with the Dodgers, the Royals made the right decision to not sign the left hander. While with the Dodgers, Kazmir dealt with multiple injuries including a hip injury and a number of intercostal injuries.  Following Kansas City's missed opportunity to sign Kazmir, the team also showed interest in ...

Following the end of the 2017 season, the Royals saw the World Series team disband from Eric Hosmer signing with the Padres to Lorenzo Cain signing with Milwaukee. Kansas City searched for their replacements in free agency and failed multiple times, until finding a keeper in Michael A Taylor. Before signing with Kansas City, the outfielder was unable to find his footing in the outfield with Washington. During the Royals 2015 World Series Championship year, Taylor was handed the center field job in the state capitol. Taylor held down the starting job with Washington for about a year and a half before losing his outfield spot to Victor Robles. James Simmons of districtondeck.com in 2020 wrote that Taylor wouldn't be an everyday player for a big league team. "Taylor will sign a major league deal next year and provide depth for some team, leaving Nationals fans to wonder what could have been. The long awaited decision on the future of Michael Taylor has finally been m...

Following Eric Hosmer's departure for San Diego in 2018, the Royals have struggled to find a dependable first baseman until Nick Pratto made his major league debut earlier this year. Before the Royals gave Pratto the first base job on a regular basis, the team tried many different players at the position including Lucas Duda, Brandon Moss from time to time, Ryan McBroom, Ryan O'Hearn, and Carlos Santana. The team drafted O'Hearn in the eighth round of the 2014 MLB Draft. The 29-year old made his big league debut on July 31, 2018. O'Hearn's big league career started off like every big league player hoped it would—a home run in your first big league game. Following the end of O'Hearn's rookie season he took the majority of the reps at first base in 2019, playing in 105 games with 370 plate appearances. O'Hearn in 2019 hit 14 home runs with 38 runs batted in. Before reaching the big leagues, according to beyondtheboxscore.com 's Patrick Bre...

Kansas City this season has played worse than expected leading the team to sell off some players including long time Royal Whit Merrifield. The Royals drafted Merrifield in the ninth round of the 2010 MLB draft out of the University of South Carolina. Merrifield made his major league debut on May 18, 2016 after former Royals second baseman Omar Infante went down with an injury. Following Infante's injury, Merrifield ran away with the second base job and became a fan favorite. Merrifield's six years in Kansas City were some great ones. The two time all-star's career stats while in a Royals uniform included a .286 batting average with 74 home runs and 387 runs batted in. The Royals signed Merrifield to a four year deal worth $16.25 million in 2019.  In my opinion, Merrifield played better than his contract was worth, but the Royals had him on a very team friendly type of deal. Merrifield's 12 year tenure with the Royals organization came to an end on August 2,...

The Royals heading into the trade deadline for the most part will be looking to trade veteran pieces for young talent, but the team has recently added a few arms to a shaky bullpen by making trades with the Mariners and the Diamondbacks. Arizona and Kansas City both aren't looking to be heading to the playoffs anytime soon, so the Royals believe acquiring pitcher Luke Weaver could boost the young pitching staff for the next few seasons. The 28-year old the past few seasons has yet to return to his 2019 form. As the trade deadline nears, Kansas City has been fielding interest in some of their bullpen arms including Scott Barlow, Taylor Clarke, and others. The team is looking to build for the future by acquiring young talent in trades; but the Weaver trade is a bit of a head scratcher for me because of the team's young and talented pitchers in the big leagues and in the minors. Like I mentioned in the article earlier, the team has been looking for bullpen help the pas...