Kansas City Royals Notes: Jason Donald, Eric Hosmer, New KC Star Beat Writer

Feb 16, 2013; Goodyear, AZ, USA; Cincinnati Reds shortstop Jason Donald (16) poses for a photo during photo day at the Reds Spring Training Facility. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

MINOR SIGNING

Matt Eddy of Baseball America has been gracious enough to inform us – because Deity knows no other Kansas City media outlet could have found out this information – that the Royals have signed Jason Donald to a minor league deal. An infielder, Donald is basically a filler guy who will be available in case of an emergency.

If you think you’ve heard that name before it is because you may be thinking about the four-player trade that sent Cliff Lee to the Phillies for the first time. Donald was traded with Carlos Carrasco, Lou Marson, and Jason Knapp to the Indians from Philadelphia in the first Lee trade. He was then a piece of a trade last season that sent Shin-Soo Choo to the Cincinnati Reds, Trevor Bauer, Drew Stubbs, Bryan Shaw, and Matt Albers to the Indians, and Didi Gregorius, Lars Anderson and Tony Sipp to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Oh, and there was cash in there somewhere. Follow all of that?

In 603 career MLB plate appearances, Donald is batting .257/.309/.362 with 7 homers and 12 stolen bases. He’s logged innings at second base, shortstop, third base, leftfield, and rightfield. in his career, with the majority of those innings being a second base and shortstop. UZR is not a fan of him, giving him a -2.2 at second base and -9.8 at shortstop.

He hasn’t played in the majors since 2012.

MOORE WON’T COMMENT ON A HOSMER EXTENSION

Kansas City has seven unsigned arbitration eligible players remaining on their roster, one of which is Eric Hosmer. Hosmer is Super Two eligible, so he’s hitting arbitration a year earlier than the majority of players on their rookie contracts. MLB Trade Rumors has him pegged to make $4.1 million for the 2014 season.

So it would seem then that Hosmer would be a good candidate for a contract extension or at least contract that buys out his remaining arbitration eligibility. According to Pete Grathoff of the Kansas City Star, none of that seems to be in the works.

“There’s nothing I would say on that other than we’re very proud of Eric and we’re pleased with where he is as a player, as a contributor and as a great teammate,” Moore said. “I’m just proud that he’s with us and all those discussions will remain very private.”

In short, Dayton Moore is proud. Pride cometh before the fall, sir.

If anything is being discussed, Moore isn’t planning on letting us know. For now we’re here to sit and wonder whether or not it was a wise idea to bring Hosmer up in May of 2011 instead of June 2011. Had the Royals waited the extra month they could have saved $3.5 million on this year’s payroll, which, when combined with Guthrie’s contract restructuring, may have been enough for the Royals to sign one more player for this season. But, hey, it’s not like the Royals could use another starting pitcher or anything.

NEW KC STAR BEAT WRITER COMING SOON?

A tweet from former Kansas City Star Royals beat writer Bob Dutton suggests the newspaper is close to filling the position left open by Dutton.

Dutton publicly announced he was leaving The Star on November 26 via Twitter.