Royals Rumors: Is Ian Kennedy A Good Target
By Scott Dillon
Cons
There are a couple of cons with Ian Kennedy.
Because he was issued a qualifying offer by the Padres, signing Kennedy comes with an immediate problem. Kansas City would lose their first pick in the draft if we signed him, or any free agent attached to a qualifying offer for that matter.
The Royals draft pick isn’t going to be very high, but there is more and more value being placed on building from withing, due in large part to the Royals recent success. Is Ian Kennedy worth losing a draft pick who may or may not turn out to be an MLB quality player?
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The other downside to Ian Kennedy is that he’s mostly untested in the American League. He got a taste of the AL in his early days with the Yankees and put up less than stellar numbers with a 6.03 ERA and about two strikeouts less per nine innings than he has averaged in the National League.
Those numbers come from only 14 games in which he was on an AL club and they were pretty much exclusively in his rookie year. While there shouldn’t be a lot of stock in those numbers, they should be evaluated.
We got a taste of what an exceptional NL pitcher could do in the American League last year with Johnny Cueto, and Kennedy hasn’t even been exceptional.
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So what do you think? Do the pro’s outweigh the con’s? Is Kennedy worth losing a draft pick? What free agent pitchers would you like to see the Royals target? Let me know if the comments below.