For me it’s about hitting that $100M payroll mark. And because this team got so young during the season, there’s a lot of room to add and make moves. I’m with you. It’s not going to be completely quiet.
How is it the Guardians continue to keep churning out good pitching, while the Royals continue to draft many pitchers but find most to be duds. Is it because of lack of seasoning? Bubic went from A ball to the majors. Lynch went from A ball to AAA ball, where he was hammered, to the majors. Heasley went from A ball to AA (pitched well) to the majors. It seems a familiar theme. It seems the Royals have no other choice as their minor league rosters are full of pitching flops. What is it the Guardians do that the Royals don't? It is a good question the front office should take a look at it.
I think this is at the heart of what Sherman is trying to do. Two words: Pitching. Lab. The Royals need to get better at developing pitchers. Like that article in the Athletic last month...If Cleveland had drafted those guys in ‘18, they’d be thriving. At least more than just Singer. There’s going to be a total rethink on how the Royals develop pitching and it will follow the same kind of structure as what they’ve done with the hitting.
What I take away from - may not be the right time - is that the Royals do not believe they have or have identified their redundancy and talent level without giving the new coaching and development staff a chance. Basically let the new guys tell us who they believe are part of the future and go from there.
If they thought BWJ was a SS going forward they would have overlap with Mikael Garcia and could use Garcia in a trade package. Maybe they are convinced our future outfield is Melendez in RF, Waters in CF, and Pratto in LF. If they were convinced neither Pratto or Melendez is a OF then maybe one of them would be a trade piece. Same with the pitchers which is where I think the majority of free agent spending would take place. Get someone from the outside to see if they can fix Bubic, Kowar, Lynch, Singer, Hernandez, Staumont, Heasley, Brentz, at the MLB level and our minor leaguers that struggled this season - read Alec Marsh.
Fix our current players, if they can be fixed, and build from there. One year from today if we aren't making big moves to fill the discovered holes, I will be disappointed.
I do think we’ll see some movement in that direction this winter. We know that was a criticism of how Moore operated: He was too slow to make a move. If we learned from Picollo’s action at the deadline, that’s not going to be an issue going forward.
I’m most curious to see how they work with Melendez and Pratto. I expect one to be featured in trade discussions this winter.
After a season that came nowhere close to meeting expectations, it’s good they’re trying to figure out what went wrong. But they have to move quickly. The rest of the division isn’t going to wait around. (Although the other four teams success is far from guaranteed. That’s another reason for the Royals to get cracking.)
The last paragraph made me feel better - did not realize the Sox and tigers spent so much to be so bad.
Almost 40% of the Tigers payroll went to Cabrera and Báez. The Sox payroll was 7th highest last year. Uhhh...
I dunno if anything made me smile as much last offseason as the Tigers giving Baez that kinda scratch.
I'll be very unsurprised when the Royals are aggressive in the trade market and middle tier of free agency anyway. Nice try, JJ.
Ron-Burgundy-I-Don't-Believe-You dot gif
For me it’s about hitting that $100M payroll mark. And because this team got so young during the season, there’s a lot of room to add and make moves. I’m with you. It’s not going to be completely quiet.
How is it the Guardians continue to keep churning out good pitching, while the Royals continue to draft many pitchers but find most to be duds. Is it because of lack of seasoning? Bubic went from A ball to the majors. Lynch went from A ball to AAA ball, where he was hammered, to the majors. Heasley went from A ball to AA (pitched well) to the majors. It seems a familiar theme. It seems the Royals have no other choice as their minor league rosters are full of pitching flops. What is it the Guardians do that the Royals don't? It is a good question the front office should take a look at it.
I think this is at the heart of what Sherman is trying to do. Two words: Pitching. Lab. The Royals need to get better at developing pitchers. Like that article in the Athletic last month...If Cleveland had drafted those guys in ‘18, they’d be thriving. At least more than just Singer. There’s going to be a total rethink on how the Royals develop pitching and it will follow the same kind of structure as what they’ve done with the hitting.
What I take away from - may not be the right time - is that the Royals do not believe they have or have identified their redundancy and talent level without giving the new coaching and development staff a chance. Basically let the new guys tell us who they believe are part of the future and go from there.
If they thought BWJ was a SS going forward they would have overlap with Mikael Garcia and could use Garcia in a trade package. Maybe they are convinced our future outfield is Melendez in RF, Waters in CF, and Pratto in LF. If they were convinced neither Pratto or Melendez is a OF then maybe one of them would be a trade piece. Same with the pitchers which is where I think the majority of free agent spending would take place. Get someone from the outside to see if they can fix Bubic, Kowar, Lynch, Singer, Hernandez, Staumont, Heasley, Brentz, at the MLB level and our minor leaguers that struggled this season - read Alec Marsh.
Fix our current players, if they can be fixed, and build from there. One year from today if we aren't making big moves to fill the discovered holes, I will be disappointed.
I do think we’ll see some movement in that direction this winter. We know that was a criticism of how Moore operated: He was too slow to make a move. If we learned from Picollo’s action at the deadline, that’s not going to be an issue going forward.
I’m most curious to see how they work with Melendez and Pratto. I expect one to be featured in trade discussions this winter.
After a season that came nowhere close to meeting expectations, it’s good they’re trying to figure out what went wrong. But they have to move quickly. The rest of the division isn’t going to wait around. (Although the other four teams success is far from guaranteed. That’s another reason for the Royals to get cracking.)
I agree. And just my opinion but I believe they will keep Melendez and look to move Pratto. Catchers are just too hard to find at the MLB level.