Kansas City Royals: Mike Moustakas is proving worthy of big contract
The Kansas City Royals are going to have a lot of tough decisions to make this offseason. One of them involves third baseman Mike Moustakas and if the team wants to make a major push at re-signing him. They’d be wise to re-sign Moose.
In 2014, Mike Moustakas was struggling so bad offensively for the Kansas City Royals that he was sent to Triple-A Omaha for a little over a week. Three years later and he’s on the verge of being paid like one of the best third basemen in the entire league.
Moustakas is on fire this season, smoking 22 home runs after only 73 games. Those 22 home runs tie his career high from the 2015 season and we’re not even at the half way point yet. In other words, Moustakas is kicking ass and taking names.
Dayton Moore will have some tough decisions at both the trade deadline and this offseason. He could do the easy thing and stand pat, keeping all of his free agents. He could decide to sell the big name free agents off if the team starts to slack in the coming weeks or he could add weapons to the team.
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With the way the Kansas City Royals have been playing as of lately, my bet would be on Moore to at the very least stand pat with this current team. He’s not going to be trading off Moustakas or Eric Hosmer because they’re both playing key roles in why this team is so hot.
Mike Moustakas’ red hot season will make him extremely difficult to retain though. Sure, everyone loves to say he’s “raised Royal” and “Forever Royal” and blah blah blah, but sports is a business. Moustakas deserves a big contract and if the Kansas City Royals aren’t going to pay him what he deserves, then he’ll likely be taking his talents elsewhere.
Before the season began, there was talk that the Royals had been having extension talks with Eric Hosmer. There was no mention of them having the same kind of talks with Moustakas. Between the two guys, Moustakas is making his case to be the one to keep if it came down to that.
The only reason it’d be easier to let Moose walk is because the Royals have Cheslor Cuthbert on their team. Cuthbert relieved Moustakas when he went down in 2016 and played pretty well. Hunter Dozier is someone who can also play third base.
Perhaps if the KC Royals decide to trade for someone at the deadline, they’ll use Cuthbert or Dozier as trade bait. That’d be a great sign for Royals fans because it’d show that Dayton Moore is serious about keeping Moustakas in Kansas City.
At the end of the day, I don’t see the Royals being able to compete for Mike Moustakas’ services in 2018 and beyond. I did say the same thing about Alex Gordon after 2015, however, and look how that ended up. In other words, anything is possible.