Royals Rumors: Royals sign Wily Peralta to one-year contract

The Royals rumors are officially swirling, folks! The Kansas City Royals have signed pitcher Wily Peralta to a one-year deal worth $1.5 million and can provide either rotation or bullpen help for the Royals.

After losing Mike Minor in free agency on Monday, the Kansas City Royals have added a pitcher. Well, Wily Peralta isn’t going to provide quite what Minor did last year, it’s still a decent signing for a team that is kind of up in the air as far as the future goes.

Peralta isn’t a superstar, but he is a veteran in the league and might help out a young Royals team moving forward. This isn’t a move that’s going to pump everyone up, but not many made this offseason likely will, assuming that the Royals do, in fact, rebuild.

Wily Peralta spent his entire career up to this point with Milwaukee and was designated for assignment in August. He chose to become a free agent at the end of the season and now, here we are.

Peralta’s 2017 campaign was atrocious, as the Brewers pitcher started just eight games and appeared in 19 total. He had an ERA of 7.85 in just 57.1 innings pitched and allowed ten home runs while walking 32 batters.

Prior to 2017, Peralta was used as a starter in Milwaukee and had pitched as high as 198.2 innings in 2014. He has the ability to be an innings eater, but with the Brewers contending for the postseason last year, the team couldn’t continue throwing him out there every five days.

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According to Jeff Todd of MLB Trade Rumors, Peralta could be on the verge of a bounce back year.

"It has been some time since he was an effective starter, but he did spin 198 2/3 frames of 3.53 ERA ball back in 2014. And Peralta still brings the heat: in 2017, he averaged 96.5 mph with his four-seamer, matching a personal high. An optimist would surely point to Peralta’s meager 59.8% strand rate and lofty .362 BABIP in his most recent season."

Todd also writes that signing Peralta is a good move for Kansas City due to being able to use him either as a back end of the rotation guy or a late innings reliever. If the team does decide to rebuild, then they could try to trade starters like Danny Duffy, Jason Hammel, and Ian Kennedy, though Kennedy’s deal is ridiculous.

Wily Peralta isn’t a name that’s going to make Royals fans jump for joy, but he’s had success in the past. He had a 3.53 ERA in 2014 and threw just shy of 200 innings that year. He’ll fit in well with what the Royals because he provides options for them as far as where to put him. Peralta is also just 28 years old, so the mechanics could surely still be improved.

Dayton Moore has worked magic by signing lesser known guys like this in the past and it’s worked out for the Royals. Let’s see if Wily Peralta has anything left in the tank and if he does, great! If not, it’s just a one-year deal and the Royals probably aren’t going to the playoffs in 2018 anyway.