Royals Rumors: KC could end up with a lot of rebuilding pieces

There is no doubt that the Kansas City Royals are staring down a big rebuilding process. However, the latest Royals Rumors say they could have the pieces for it.

Kansas City Royals fans have largely resigned themselves to the fact that the team is about to undergo a big rebuilding process. Sure, there is still the outside chance that the KC front office ponies up on their big free agents. However, the latest Royals rumors suggest the team will likely focus on their compensating draft picks.

The Royals have already extended qualifying offers to Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, and Lorenzo Cain. A qualifying offer is a one-year, guaranteed, contract of $17.4 million. However, each of those players is likely to make a lot more money on the free agent market, and will turn down the qualifying offer.

In cases like that, Major League Baseball extends compensatory picks to teams that lose their qualifying free agents. If that free agent signs for over $50 million in guaranteed money, the former team will get a non-first round comp pick. That should be the case for the Royals with all three pending free agents.

Early Picks Help A Lot

With all three high profile free agents likely to leave, the Kansas City Royals could be looking at as many as four picks in the top 40. That is not a bad set of building blocks at all. Of course, the MLB draft is generally a crap shoot, with few guarantees. However, having that many early picks increases the chances of hitting big.

The Kansas City farm club system is currently in shambles. While that’s frustrating, we should all remember the reason why. The Royals made some moves to get some key members of their 2014 and 2015 World Series teams on the roster. This is now the fallout from that. How do you rebuild that farm system? Draft picks.

Related Story: Royals Rumors: Hosmer and Moustakas Could Be Brought Back

Now, none of the players the Royals draft should be expected to help out in the near future. Sure, some may make a pretty seamless transition…possibly. However, most major league players take years to develop. These added draft picks are not about 2018.

Royals Could Look For More Prospects

Another story on the Royals rumors horizon that has yet to have been seriously talked about is the potential of KC trading away some talent. While players like Whit Merrifield, Danny Duffy, and Salvador Perez are fan favorites, they also have a lot of value.  If Kansas City is serious about a rebuild, they would be foolish to not explore this option.

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Quality players with a lot of years on their contract will be a hot commodity ahead of the 2018 season, and at the trade deadline. That means the Royals could reap a ton of quality prospects in return for some of their current name players.

Obviously this will be a less than appealing idea to most Royals fans. I’m sure many of you reading this right now are already seething at the idea. Frankly, I’m not a big fan of it either, but if KC is truly going into rebuild mode, then it has to be considered.

If the latest Royals rumors are to be believed, then we are in for a frustrating offseason. The Kansas City Royals simply have far too limited a payroll to compete for the big name talent in Major League Baseball. That’s the down side to being a small market team. Hopefully the next rebuild won’t take 25 years.