KCKingdom
Fansided

Kansas City Royals need to consider signing reliever Blake Treinen

By Cody Rickman

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 30: Blake Treinen #39 of the Oakland Athletics in action against the New York Yankees during a game at Yankee Stadium on August 30, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 30: Blake Treinen #39 of the Oakland Athletics in action against the New York Yankees during a game at Yankee Stadium on August 30, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Blake Treinen is a candidate to be non-tendered a contract by the Oakland Athletics this offseason. The Kansas City Royals are in a prime position to sign the 2018 All-Star to a free agent contract if he hits the market.

There’s no doubt the Kansas City Royals are in dire need of bullpen help and need to start addressing the need this offseason. According to MLB Trade Rumors, Blake Treinen is a likely to be a non-tender roster casualty of the Oakland Athletics.

The former All-Star was a dominant reliever for the Athletics during the 2018 campaign, which he used to obtain a dramatic raise in salary via arbitration during the 2019 offseason. Treinen suffered thru injuries to his back and right shoulder this year and his numbers fell off a cliff.

In Treinen’s All-Star season of 2018 he put up eye popping numbers with a 0.78 ERA, 0.834 WHIP, and 100 Ks in 80.1 innings of high leverage relief for the Athletics. Treinen also finished third in the American League in saves with 38 in 2018.

More from Kansas City Royals

Treinen was unable to return to that elite form in 2019 putting up a 4.91 ERA, 1.619 WHIP, and 59 Ks in 58.2 innings. Treinen lost his closer role early in the 2019 season and was unable to recover the role as the season progressed. The precipitous drop in his numbers can be attributed to his suffering from injuries to a stress reaction in his back and right shoulder strain.

If Blake Treinen is healthy in 2020, he will be an excellent free agent signing. The fall-out from his injuries may have affected his ability to consistently get behind his sinker and his wipe-out slider causing his BABIP and groundball rate to drift back to less extraordinary rates.

Treinen earned $6.4 million in 2019 and would be entering his third year of arbitration with the Athletics. If he is non-tendered, then he will be a free agent and would likely be looking at proposed contracts in the three-year range for $6-8 million per season.

A one-year contract signing is also an option for Treinen to prove he’s healthy and back into form to gain a much larger pay day following the 2020 season in free agency.

This would be a great move by the Kansas City Royals because their bullpen was atrocious in 2019, sitting with the fourth worst ERA in the entire league. Treinen could not only help them have another solid reliever, but could serve as trade bait if he ends up having another good year.

Hopefully the Royals give Blake Treinen a long look this winter and end up bringing him in.

Home/Kansas City Royals