Kansas City Royals 2017 Payroll Still Extremely High
By Joel Wagler
ROYALS PAYROLL 2017: THE INFIELD
Most of the infield looks to be locked down for 2017, barring injuries or trades. Only second base is unsettled going into Spring Training.
Eric Hosmer will man first, Salvador Perez is not going to be unseated t catcher. Mike Moustakas should be healthy at third, and Alcides Escober has been a fixture at shortstop.
So, what will they do at second? From a purely speculative perspective, you have to think the Royals want Cheslor Cuthbert to be good enough defensively to be able to be the regular second baseman.
He is the most accomplished offensively of the candidates but he hasn’t played the position much. If the Royals are comfortable with Cuthbert at second, it would free up Whit Merrifield to be a super utility player for them.
In a perfect world, the position would be handed to Raul Mondesi, but the 21-yeard old prospect was completely overmatched in his 47 games last season. In 149 plate appearances, Mondesi produced an alarmingly awful slash – .185/.231/.281/.512.
Even more frightening was his strikeout rate. The youngster whiffed nearly a third of the time. He had 48 strikeouts in those 149 plate appearances. Despite being ready defensively, Mondesi needs more seasoning in the more time in the minors to work on his hitting.
Christian Colon is still around and it is possible he fills the utility role instead of Merrifield but he isn’t quite as versatile or fast.
So, if the above scenario plays out with Cuthbert taking over second base, here is how the payroll will be divided in the infield:
- Catcher – Salvador Perez – $4.2 million
- First Base – Eric Hosmer – $12.25 million
- Second Base – Cheslor Cuthbert – $535,000 (pre-arbitration league minimum, per Forbes)
- Third Base – Mike Moustakas – $8.7 million
- Shortstop – Alcides Escobar – $6.5 million
- Utility – Whit Merrifield – $535,000
- Utility – Brandon Moss – $3.75 million
- Backup Catcher – Drew Butera – 1.5 million
- TOTAL – $37,970,000
Unless another candidate emerges or injuries hit the club, this very well could be how the infield will look when the season starts.