KC Royals: Ian Kennedy and the Win-Now Royals

Well folks, the free-wheeling, throw caution to the wind KC Royals are at it again.

Just weeks after signing Alex Gordon to the richest contract in the club’s history, they shell out $70 million to Ian Kennedy, generating as much, er, excitement, since the previous record-setting pitcher’s contract with Gil Meche.

Yay? Ugh? It’s tough what to make of this.

When news started to trickle in that the Royals were in serious talks with Kennedy, I was a little surprised, but based on the fairly weak market, I figured that if we could work out some sort of “cheap” deal (maybe three years, $36 million), it would be worth shedding the draft pick.

We did not do that.  Not only did we give him two years and two million more per season than I hoped, but he has a player opt-out after the 2017 season.  Yikes.

This is a man who lost 15 games last season, gave up on average more than one home run per start (newly signed Royal Chien-Ming Wang averages just one every 13 innings!), and had a 4.51 FIP that ranked 71/78 for qualified starting pitchers.

Of course, there’s more to it. What can we really expect from Kennedy? And what does this mean for the Royals going forward?

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