Talkin Royals

Since signing with Kansas City this past offseason, Jordan Lyles has had a pretty bad start to his Royals’ career. According to Joseph Summer's of Kings of Kauffman: "Thus, these are not opponents of the same quality. Lyles, for his part, has held his opponent to three or fewer runs just four times in his last 16 outings. The Royals lost 15 consecutive starts by Lyles before last week with 13 of those losses coming by multiple runs." Did the Royals possibly overpay for Lyles services? Yes, however, he is the type of starting pitcher that a team like the Orioles and Royals would sign if they are in the middle of a painful rebuild. Royals General Manager J.J Picollo said during an interview shortly after the Lyles signing: "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 stabili...

Heading into this past offseason, Kansas City looked to boost the bullpen, and they certainly did that by signing Aroldis Chapman. Kansas City signed the former all-star and flamethrower to a one year deal worth $3.75 million and $4 million in performance bonuses, and he has certainly earned every penny of the bonus. The Royals reasoning for signing Chapman was an obvious one. They  hoped for a bounce back year from the former Yankees closer and then flip him at the trade deadline. And that’s exactly what happened—the team traded Chapman before July 1st. Multiple teams were mentioned as possible suitors including the Rangers, Dodgers, Reds, Mets to name a few. The Rangers were the team to pull the trigger for Chapman. What did the Royals get in return for Chapman? The team got a pair of players from Texas—outfielder Roni Cabrera and left-handed pitcher Cole Ragans. Ragans looks to be the main piece heading back to Kansas City. Ragans was a former first round selection o...