KC Royals: Pitchers To Target In Free Agency

Sep 25, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Mike Leake (13) throws to the Oakland Athletics in the first inning of their MLB baseball game at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA

Mike Leake is a 27-year-old, right-handed starting pitcher who was traded from Reds to the Giants during last season. The Reds was the only team Leake had been on in his MLB career before the trade to the Giants.

Leake isn’t a guy that is suited to be toward the top of a rotation, but he has the ability to be a very good mid-rotation arm like Wei-Yin Chen from the previous slide. He’s a pretty good bet to take the ball every fifth day and keep his team in the game, which is exactly what the Royals want with their bullpen who has proven to be one of, if not the best in the MLB.

The Royals were very interested in drafting Leake when he went four picks ahead of the Royals to the Reds back in 2009. If you remember back to the trade deadline, there was some talk that Dayton Moore had some interest in acquiring Leake if they couldn’t get Johnny Cueto, so there has been multiple instances where the current regime has liked him.

The Royals were very interested in drafting Leake when he went four picks ahead of the Royals to the Reds back in 2009.

In the Royals 2016 rotation, Leake would fit in at about the same place as Chen would, around the #3 or #4 spots. This means that the Royals would most likely not go after both of these guys, but could go after one.

With how much the Royals seem to like Leake, I would be pretty surprised if we didn’t hear that they didn’t pursue him at all whatsoever.

Next: The Side-Arm Wonder