KC Royals: Cutting Omar Infante Proves Team Has Changed

The KC Royals designated Omar Infante for assignment this past Thursday, a decision that surprised many. The move shows that the Kansas City Royals are no longer the same team that many of us came to know throughout the years.

Hey, you can’t win all of the free agent deals, right? At least that’s probably what Dayton Moore was telling himself when the team decided to (finally) part ways with second baseman Omar Infante after years of not living up to the contract given to him during the 2014 offseason.

Infante, who inked a deal worth $30 million over the span of four years, has underperformed since his time in a Royals jersey. It wasn’t too tough to blame Moore for giving Infante this kind of contract though, given how well his 2013 campaign with Detroit had gone and the fact that the Royals desperately needed a second baseman.

While Infante proved to be a decent defensive player in his first two years in Royal blue, his offense wasn’t worth what the team was paying him. His 2014 season saw him batting .252, which winded up being his best year offensively for the team. He had six home runs that year and batted in 66 RBI.

The truth of the matter is that the Royals were paying Infante to sit on the bench.

That same season saw Infante being hit in the jaw with a pitch and he was never quite the same after that occurred. Some hoped that 2015 would bring a better Infante to the plate, but he finished the year on the disabled list after only having a slash line of .220/.234/.318. Eek.

The biggest moment of the year for Infante was when Royals fans continued to show him love by giving him their votes for the All-Star Game. Infante at one point led all American League second basemen and would have been the starter in the All-Star Game. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, as he would have been owed more money as a result of making it to the big game.

Finally, we come to Omar’s 2016 season, his last as a member of the Kansas City Royals. Infante was only batting .239/.279/.321 in 39 games and was riding the bench for a large part of the past few months.

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The truth of the matter is that the Royals were paying Infante to sit on the bench, and he was taking a roster spot. A valuable roster spot mind you, with all of the injuries this club has had recently.

While many might have been surprised about the Royals’ decision to designate Infante for assignment, it was the right move. Yes, the team will still have to eat some of the money from his contract, but this was definitely the right decision for the team.

Max Rieper at Royals Review said it best,

"The old Royals might ride out the contract, hoping to extract some value from whatever is left of Omar Infante. The new Royals need to squeeze every ounce of talent from their 25-man roster to win a pennant race, and that means going with younger players like Whit Merrifield and Christian Colon, and leaving Omar Infante behind."

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This is so true, as Whit Merrifield stepping up in the way he has pretty much sealed Infante’s fate. Colon is still a young player also and it’s time to see what he can do rather than keep him in Omaha because of Infante needing to be on the big league roster.

It wasn’t all bad with Infante. He had that incredible defensive play with Alcides Escobar last season and for awhile, was great as a defensive player. Once that dropped off, however, there was no way the KC Royals could afford to pay him what they were paying him for bad offensive and bad defensive play.

Again, you can’t win all of the free agent signings in sports, and the Royals have been pretty fortunate as of lately. Sure, Kendrys Morales is struggling a bit this year, but the Royals would not have won the World Series without him last year.

Next: Best Second Basemen in Royals History

Don’t be too depressed about Omar leaving, Royals fans. We can still “Vote Omar” for the All-Star Game just like old times. For now, though, we need to enjoy the fact that our favorite baseball team can move on from contracts like these.