James Shields: Should the KC Royals Have Re-signed Him (Poll)

By John Viril | Feb 9, 2015

Former Kansas City Royals ace James Shields agreed to a 4-year, $75 million contract Monday morning with the San Diego Padres, according to ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick. The deal also is said to include a team option for a 5th year.

Crasnick reported on ESPN:

"Although the Padres and Shields have nothing official in writing, the pitcher and his representative, Page Odle, verbally agreed to the team’s offer late Sunday night.SB Nation earlier reported that the two sides had reached a deal."

I suspect if KC Royals general manager Dayton Moore knew Shields’ could be signed for less than $80 million, he would have brought back his clubhouse leader. Instead, Moore opted to bring in Edinson Volquez on a 2-year, $20 million deal and the recovering Kris Medlen on a 2-year deal with only $8 million in guaranteed money.

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Think about it, Moore could have passed on Volquez and brought back Nori Aoki on a 1-year deal for $4.7 million instead of the $11 million he spent on Alex Rios. That takes you to $16.3 million on the 2014 payroll. Pass up a reliever like Jason Frasor, and you now get to $18.3 million—while still taking a flyer on Medlen. If you still want to sign Frasor, you can backload the deal.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Seeing the future is hard, no matter if you’re in baseball, business, or politics. Yet, Moore shows once again that he doesn’t have a great feel for projecting the free-agent market.

In Moore’s defense, Shields would have tied up significant long-term money. Moore has avoided cutting those kinds of deals all off-season, restricting himself to no more than 2-year contracts with free-agents. It’s clear that Moore is protecting his future cash against the increasing costs of the Kansas City Royals’ youthful core .

Beyond 2015, the Royals have a relatively trim $56 million committed for 2016 and only $22 million in 2017. That number declines to a mere $2 million in 2018 and $0 in 2019.

Moore has done a great job giving himself room to make decisions in the future. This flexibility recognizes that player evaluation is a constantly changing art. Today’s superstar can become tomorrow’s albatross contract. Just look at the wax figure that is pretending to be Josh Hamilton in Texas. Refusing to commit to long-term deals prevents costly mistakes the small-market Royals cannot afford.

Perhaps Dayton Moore still would have passed on James Shields, even if he had known the price. Moore clearly is managing the Royals payroll in a way that keeps their options open in the future.

What do you think, KC Kingdom? We’d love to hear from you.

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