Kansas City Royals: 2020 free agent options, Part I: Pitchers
By Cullen Jekel
Pipe Dream Pitchers
Recall pitcher Mark Davis. In 1989, Davis won the Cy Young Award as a member of the San Diego Padres. After the season, he entered free agency, and signed with, of all teams, the Kansas City Royals, on a four-year, $13 million deal.
Now, Davis was, to put it nicely, not good* with the Royals. But that’s not the point. The point is that, once upon a time, the Kansas City Royals outbid the rest of the Majors to land a prized free agent. The notion boggles the mind.
*He was , to put it appropriately, atrocious.
More realistic free agent targets start on the next page (cleverly titled “Realistic Targets”), but for a moment, I want to take a look at four top-tier free agent pitchers who make too much sense for the 2020 Kansas City Royals. The likelihood that the Royals sign any of these four is slightly larger than a quark.
The mind may boggle, but is also dreams, even if it’s just of the pipe variety.
Gerrit Cole, RHP (29)
Cole’s a frontline starting pitcher, a true ace in the Majors during a period that the league lacks them. His arrival would be akin to the Royals’ acquiring James Shields several years ago: a veteran shows up to show the young guns how it’s done. Except a) Cole is better than Shields was, and b) the Royals’ young guns still haven’t even reached Omaha.
Signing Cole would be no coup, as he would cost a ton of money for a ton of years. Still, he’s a game-changer, enjoying a second quality season in the American League after five good ones in the National League.
Zack Wheeler, RHP (30)
About six months older than Cole, Wheeler has 400 fewer innings on his arm that the Houston Astros ace. At the trade deadline, the New York Mets nearly dealt away Wheeler, but hung on to him in hopes that the team could get back into contention. So far, so good.
He’ll get a qualifying offer this offseason, and while he may re-sign, he’ll probably leave. He’d make sense in Kansas City for all the same reasons as Cole, but would undoubtedly come cheaper–but he still wouldn’t come cheap.
Jake Odorizzi, RHP (30)
Another farmhand returning to the Kansas City Royals? Let’s do it!
Odorizzi’s enjoying the most successful season of his career right now as he’s 13-5 with a 3.50 ERA, 131 ERA+ and 3.85 FIP for the first-place Minnesota Twins. He will also land a QO but may be priced out of the Twins’ future. That probably means he’ll also be too expensive for the Royals.
Madison Bumgarner, LHP (30)
Can you believe Mad Bum is only going to be 30 at the start of 2020? I feel like the dude’s 45. Could be that way because he’s pitched over 1,800 innings during his career, which is more than twice that of Wheeler and over 650 more innings than Cole.
Anyway, I’m a big fan of Bumgarner (not as much as Joe Buck, obvs), but I would be wary of signing him to any sort of long-term deal. Before this season, he’d missed large chunks of the previous two. He’s a hero with the San Francisco Giants, and rightfully so. Much like the Mets with Wheeler, the Giants hung on to Bumgarner at the deadline. It makes sense for him to stay there.
It doesn’t make sense for him to join the team he almost single-handedly beat in the World Series five years ago as it continues its rebuild
But it would sure as hell be cool.