Kansas City Royals: Expect a slow offseason for Royals
The World Series has concluded and the MLB offseason is officially underway! Don’t expect the Kansas City Royals to do much though.
The offseason is a time for Major League Baseball teams to sign free agents and look toward the future of their organization. The Kansas City Royals are certainly looking toward the future, but their 2018-2019 offseason will be slower than fans would like.
When looking ahead to the 2019 season, the Royals aren’t going to be contending for the postseason. That means this season and the 2020 season are continuing to be rebuilding years for the Royals.
With that said, the Royals likely aren’t going to add many free agents this winter and they definitely won’t be shelling out big bucks for any big names. Yeah, sorry to disappoint you, but Bryce Harper and Manny Machado aren’t coming to Kansas City.
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Looking at the Royals’ current roster, they have a lot of their positions filled (at least for the time being), so spending a lot on the free agent market wouldn’t make much sense. The starting rotation is also pretty booked up, so spending dough there is pointless.
The positions should look something like this for the 2019 Royals:
- Catcher – Salvador Perez
- First Base – Ryan O’Hearn
- Second Base – Whit Merrifield (potential trade candidate)
- Third Base – Hunter Dozier/Cheslor Cuthbert (they should look to move on from Cuthbert)
- Shortstop – Adalberto Mondesi
- Left Field – Alex Gordon
- Center Field – Brett Phillips
- Right Field – Jorge Bonifacio
- Designated Hitter – Jorge Soler
Bench players could be Rosell Herrera, Brian Goodwin, Cam Gallagher, and then there will surely be a surprise call-up from the minors to start the season. Starting pitching will be Danny Duffy, Ian Kennedy (both trade candidates this offseason), Jakob Junis, Brad Keller, and Eric Skoglund, but guys like Heath Fillmyer and Jorge Lopez could compete for the rotation as well.
The bullpen is where the Royals should look to spend a little bit of cash this offseason. Yes, there are viable relievers, but that was definitely the weakest area for the team in 2018. They’ll need at least a veteran reliever or two for 2019 just to have some stability in there.
Wily Peralta was the team’s closer after Kelvin Herrera was traded, but he has just a year left on his deal. It might make sense to look to trade him this winter and get a player or two in exchange for his services.
The Royals will sign free agents and probably will make some trades, but this isn’t going to be like last offseason. Last winter we waited for months to see if any of the fan favorites would re-sign in Kansas City. This year won’t be like that.
Expect a sloooow offseason for the Kansas City Royals leading up to the 2019 season.