KC Royals: Top Five Highest Paid Players In 2014
By Joel Wagler
Texas Rangers right fielder Alex Rios (51) – Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
According to Spotrac, the Royals have six players right now scheduled to make more than $7 million. This does not include whatever players like Eric Hosmer and Greg Holland, both arbitration eligible, will end up earning in 2015.
- Alex Gordon – $14 million
- Alex Rios – $11 million
- Jeremy Guthrie – $9 million
- Jason Vargas – $8.5 million
- Omar Infante – $7.5 million
- Wade Davis – $7 million
Hosmer may not reach that level, but Holland most likely will. The Royals will certainly have a payroll over $100 million for the first time ever. Will it translate into a second straight playoff berth? That will be tough.
The American League Central has been very active this off-season. It will be a tough road for the Royals. Newly signed Kendrys Morales and Alex Rios will need to have good seasons. Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Salvador Perez, and Lorenzo Cain need to take the next steps forward.
Yordano Ventura and Danny Duffy need to continue to develop and stay healthy. Edison Volquez has to pay off for Dayton Moore, and Kris Medlen needs to get healthy, and return to his former self.
That is a lot of things that need to go right for the KC Royals just for them to have a chance to compete in a very talented AL Central.
James Shields will be missed, and in his own way, so will Billy Butler. Even Nori Aoki made some nice contributions down the stretch. Dayton Moore is starting to show results that indicate he can be trusted to make the right decisions.
He has made several this off-season. As this list showed, so far, many of his signings and trades have been worth the money. Now we will see if his moves will continue to be astute.