Royals Rumors: Royals Lose James Shields To The White Sox
By Charles Lam
The latest Royals Rumors are that the Royals had interest in re-acquiring, James Shields according to MLB Trade Rumors. The San Diego Padres accepted the White Sox trade offer over the Royals, making Shields a White Sox. Is Kansas City fortunate not to get Shields?
It’s not surprising that the Kansas City Royals were in on Shields. He played for Kansas City for two seasons back in the 2013 and 2014. Scott Miller of Bleacher Report reported the Royals were interested in Shields on Twitter.
#Padres moving close to dealing RHP Shields to #ChiSox, as @Ken_Rosenthal & @sdutdennislin reported. #KCRoyals among inquiring teams too
— Scott Miller (@ScottMillerBbl) June 4, 2016
James Shields had an earned run average (ERA) slightly more than 3.00, while being an innings eater accumulating 455.2 innings for the Royals. Since then his stats have not been so great. His ERA came up .7 more than his 2014 ERA to 3.91 last season.
This season his ERA was a 3.06 but he gave up 10 earned runs in his last start versus the Seattle Mariners, bumping his ERA up to 4.28 through 11 games. His walks plus hits/innings pitched (WHIP) has gone up to 1.426 this season or .245 more than his last year with the Royals.
His strikeout to walk ratio has gone down as well from 4.09 with the Royals in 2014 to 2.11 for the Padres this season.
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Shields is a fly ball pitcher which means home runs are a factor for him. So far this season he’s given up nine home runs. One of those home runs came against Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon.
He’s given up 20 or more home runs in every season since 2007. In 2010, Shields allowed 34 home runs as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays.
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It’s interesting that the White Sox got Shields. U.S Cellular Field is a small ballpark. Small ballparks are normally a disadvantage for fly ball pitchers like Shields.
The dimensions of the park are: left field 330 feet, left center field 377 feet, center field 400 feet, right center field 372 feet and right filed 335 feet. Count on a lot of home runs being dealt on behalf of Shields as a member of the White Sox.
Shields has pitched well at U.S Cellular Field but it’s been a while, according to 610 Sports Josh Vernier.
Shields has a 3.00 ERA in 11 starts The Cell. He hasn't pitched there since the season-ending, wild card-clinching series in '14 w/ #Royals.
— Josh Vernier (@JoshVernier610) June 4, 2016
The White Sox may have got a good deal. The Padres will eat 29 million dollars left on his contract to help the trade go through, according to Bob Nightengale.
The #Padres will pay $29 million and #Whitesox pay $27 million left in James Shields deal
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) June 4, 2016
That’s still a lot of money to pay to a guy like Shields. The White Sox will have him for this season and 2017 and 2018 with a team option for 2019. Shields does have an opt out clause after this season which he likely will not use.
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It’s a good thing the White Sox took Shields and the Royals Rumors were just that. They will have to pay him a lot of money and deal with all the home runs he will give up. The Royals should be able to take advantage of some of these home runs as well. Welcome back to the American League Central, James.