KC Royals: Letting Kendrys Morales Leave Was Right Decision
The KC Royals let Kendrys Morales get away from them when he signed a three-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday. The Royals made the right decision with this one.
It’s weird to say it, but letting Kendrys Morales depart in free agency was actually the right move for the Kansas City Royals.
Morales, who hit 30 home runs in 2016 and the year prior had a batting average of .290, inked a three-year deal with Toronto on Friday worth $33 million. The deal seems manageable, but the Royals are in a tough spot with their funds this offseason.
General manager Dayton Moore has remarked several times since the end of the regular season that the Royals would be pretty low key in free agency this winter. Royals fans should be used to this, as it’s the way the team used to always roll back in the day.
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Morales seemed to be one of the team’s biggest priorities this offseason, but they never extended a qualifying offer to the former Silver Slugger winner. That meant that Morales was free to sign with whoever he wanted and the Royals wouldn’t get a draft pick in return should he have picked another team.
Instead, Morales departed to Canada with a three-year deal in his pocket and the Royals were left with nothing.
So, how was this the right move for the Kansas City Royals, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you.
For one, Morales struggled for the early part of the 2016 season. He didn’t get his batting average over .200 until early on in June and continued to struggle until after the All-Star break.
Fans were calling for Morales to be released and it appeared that the honeymoon phase with him and the Royals was over. Amazing how quickly opinions can change, huh?
The second thing to take into account here is that Morales is 33 years old. This contract guarantees that he will play until he’s 36. A 36 year-old designated hitter could be a tricky situation for the Blue Jays and they likely overpaid for K-Mo.
While having a hot hitter in the lineup is obviously important to any team, the designated hitter position just isn’t one that is going to make or break a team. He doesn’t play defense (at least not often), so if he can’t hit, then the DH is useless and certainly not worth a lot of money.
Woof. The Kendrys Morales deal eems like a not great contract for the Blue Jays. Very Billy Butler-esque pic.twitter.com/Y3qxgB5Jc7
— Shaun Newkirk (Soros funded blue checkmark) (@Shauncore) November 11, 2016
The Royals are going to miss Kendrys Morales, that’s for sure, but I was actually kind of glad to see that they didn’t overspend on him. They also made a similar decision after the 2014 season when they let Billy Butler walk and that worked out pretty well, right?
Next: Ten Worst Royals Contracts EVER
Have faith, Royals fans. I know this sucks right now, especially since we despise the Toronto Blue Jays, but in the end, this was a good decision by the Kansas City Royals.
In Dayton, we trust.