Kansas City Royals: 2020 free agent options, Part I: Pitchers

For yet another year, the Kansas City Royals are out of the playoff hunt before even the dawn of September. While it’s worth keeping an eye on the team to see how the younger players progress, it’s also a great time to look ahead to some players that Royals could pick up before this upcoming March.

As has been the case the last 25 years, with some rare occasions, the Kansas City Royals won’t be big players in this upcoming offseason’s free agency frenzy, but the team will still make some moves.

But which players will general manager Dayton Moore target? Will the franchise target players other than those who were non-tendered? Does it make sense aiming for players who will demand multi-year contracts?

The first step in answering those questions is to first take a quick look at the state of the current Major League roster. Only after doing that can one then determine what the team’s most glaring holes may be. And only after can one then decide which of the hundreds of players set to test the free agent market will make sense for the Kansas City Royals in 2020.

In this first of two articles, I start by taking a look at the current Royals pitching staff before moving on to examine which free agent pitchers make sense to target once the World Series concludes.