Royals Rumors: Kendrys Morales Signs with Toronto
Royals rumors are officially beginning and the Kansas City Royals have lost their first free agent to another team, as Kendrys Morales has signed a three-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Well, poop.
After two impressive seasons as the KC Royals‘ designated hitter, Kendrys Morales is packing his bags and heading to Canada. The Blue Jays inked the designated hitter to a three-year deal worth $33 million on Friday afternoon.
This is a huge blow to the Royals. Morales was their best hitter on offense and had crazy good years in 2015 and in the later half of 2016. He smashed 30 home runs during the 2016 season, which hadn’t been done by a Royals player since 2000.
When the Royals decided not to extend a qualifying offer to Morales, many assumed it was because they were afraid he’d accept it. That $17 million contract for just a year would have put a huge dent in the Royals payroll.
Now seeing that Morales signed for basically $11 million a year doesn’t look so bad. Perhaps the Royals didn’t feel comfortable giving a 33 year old career DH a three-year deal.
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Morales did, after all, look pretty bad to start off this season. He ended the year with a batting average of .263, but that was after struggling throughout the early part of the season.
Toronto now becomes a tougher team. They signed Kansas City’s best offensive player and I can only imagine the amount of home runs he’ll crush in that stadium.
With Morales off to Canada, the Royals will now likely be turning to a rotating designated hitter. Perhaps Salvador Perez and Mike Moustakas will spend some time in the DH spot, but it won’t be a consistent guy like it has been for the past few years with Morales and Billy Butler.
Hey, maybe this will pave the way for Butler to return to Kansas City (doubtful) or even Carlos Beltran to return to the place where his career started (even more doubtful).
It’s nice to dream, but I honestly think whoever jumps into that designated hitter spot will come from within the organization. Dayton Moore has mentioned on several occasions that the Royals won’t be aggressive in free agency, and now their biggest hope to re-sign has departed for greener pastures.
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This will most certainly affect the Kansas City Royals moving forward, but we’ve seen them rise up and win games despite big names leaving. Hopefully this becomes no different.
Good luck in Toronto, K-Mo. We’ll miss you here in the Midwest.