Did the Royals overpay for Lyles?


Entering the 2023 season, the Royals made multiple "big name signings" by bringing in Aroldis Chapman, Jackie Bradley Jr, Ryan Yarbrough, and Jordan Lyles. Kansas City entering this past off-season was looking to add a veteran starter to a youthful rotation, aside from Zack Greinke. According to MLB Trade Rumors, the right hander was able to stay healthy throughout his career before signing his deal with Kansas City, and he has continued to stay healthy in his first season with the Royals. In terms of a player that can stay healthy and make quality starts for the team, they made the right decision to sign him; however, they haven't been exactly great quality starts. During an interview with AP News before the season started, JJ Picollo said they had hopes Lyles could be an inning eater for the team: " The reason we’re excited about Jordan and Ryan,” Picollo said, “is when we look at their track record, they’ve been able to pitch significant innings. We’re going into this season thinking between the two of them we can secure or stabilize 300 innings, which is a pretty good chunk between two pitchers.” The 32-year-old this season has currently started all eleven games when it's his turn in the starting five. Lyles in his first eleven starts as a Royal, owns a 7.30 ERA; and in fact, the hurler hasn't been able to leave a start without an earned run given up this season. Fortunately for Lyles, it isn't all his fault for his stats with Kansas City as the team has failed to score runs during most of his starts not to mention the bullpen struggles from time to time. However, the veteran has gotten knocked around a bit while on the mound. According to spotract.com, Lyles was projected to get a 3-year deal worth $29-30 million dollars. Unfortunately for the right-hander, he didn't land the three year deal sportract projected; in fact, he landed a bit cheaper deal with Kansas City. The boys in blue and Lyles agreed to a two year deal worth $17 million. In an article from Royals Review by Matthew LaMar he said: "Will Lyles transform the Royals’ pitching staff into a winner? Most likely not. But this isn’t a team that needs to win. This is a team that needs to put outs into the volcano so they can go home at the end of the night. That is an area in which Lyles has special expertise, particularly in the past four years." The Lyles signing in my opinion was a bit of a surprising one for the Royals because the team had a pretty good surplus of young starting pitching options in Carlos Hernandez, Max Castillo, Angel Zerpa, and Jackson Kowar. Bubic was also in the rotation mix before he went down with the elbow injury only 20 games into the season. The team added Mike Mayers on a minor league deal earlier this season for veteran pitching minor league depth and the ability to make spot starts in the majors from time to time. The Lyles signing by the Royals was obviously made before the Bubic injury. Based on the right-hander's stats with the Orioles, and with the Royals to this point season, his numbers aren't getting any better, they’re getting worse.  According to SportsLine.com: "It's the first time the Royals have ever lost a pitcher's first 10 starts of a season in franchise history (the team had never lost a pitcher's first eight)." Lyles certainly isn't playing like a guy that signed the two year deal with Kansas City this past off-season.  Again, did the Royals overpaid for Lyle's services? The Royals poor record isn't all the right hander's fault with the lack of run support and a shaky bullpen from time to time and a very youthful group of players around him. I mentioned earlier in the article that in his past three games he started, he has given up a combined 16 runs. Lyles has many more games left to play this season and next season, and hopefully his luck will change and make his contract with the Royals worth the salary. 


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