Winter Meetings Day Three: Shifting to trade mode

The Royals are looking at trades to bolster their roster, Quatraro speaks, there's movement on the stadium location (!) and some AL Central teams make some deals.

When the Winter Meetings are underway, it pays to hit that “refresh” command while parked on MLB Trade Rumors.

Early this Wednesday, the first post up on the site is headlined “Royals receiving trade interest in Angel Zerpa.” Ohhh…OK…Interesting.

That information was pulled from an Anne Rogers piece on the Royals page that went up late last night where she noted the depth the Royals have with left-handed pitching.

The Royals’ left-handed pitching depth now includes Sisk, Sam Long, Angel Zerpa, Kris Bubic, Daniel Lynch IV and No. 12 prospect Noah Cameron, with the latter three also vying for a rotation spot next spring. That surplus creates some flexibility when it comes to trade talks with other teams.

So far, it hasn’t come of anything, although teams have inquired about Zerpa, who is only 25 years old and has settled into a high-leverage relief role (although there might still be an allure of starting for other teams).

Zerpa is a guy who has shown bits of promise in each season he’s appeared in Kansas City and always feels like he’s on the cusp of a solid run of appearances. He was decent in the first half of last season, but struggled with command later on and was ultimately demoted to Omaha for a couple of weeks. He was fantastic over his final seven regular season appearances, though and and aside from a disaster appearance in Game One of the ALDS, pitched relatively well in October.

I wouldn’t expect much in a straight up one-for-one trade, but if the Royals were to include him in a package with a few other players they’re looking to move, he could certainly sweeten the deal. Maybe in a package with an outfielder? Hmmmmm…

Within that article above from Rogers, she notes that the Royals have pivoted from free agency mode to trade mode, which confirms what we’ve been hearing all along. Free agency, especially for pitchers, has spiralled way beyond expectations. She notes that while the Royals are looking for improved production from their outfield, neither MJ Melendez or Hunter Renfroe have been inquired upon from teams in a manner that would indicate there’s enough interest to make a move.

Renfroe…not surprising after the season he had last year and the payroll bump that comes with him triggering his player option. It’s a bit more surprising there isn’t some traction on Melendez, especially among teams who think they could get him on track at the plate. Then again, maybe teams are seeing what we were seeing all summer long and have decided that it’s not worth the effort. I think it says something that Melendez’s name hasn’t “come up a ton in any talks the Royals have had” per Rogers.

Matt Quatraro met with the media at the Winter Meetings on Monday. Rogers highlighted five takeaways from his chat.

As is the case in these interview sessions, I’m not sure there was a lot of new ground broken. The Royals are seeking pitching depth and versatile players to play behind that depth. Q discussed the left field situation where both Jonathan India and Michael Massey figure to get some time. They don’t know what they’re going to get out of Kyle Wright who is returning to action after a year on the sidelines.

And Kris Bubic will slot into the rotation. Again, not exactly breaking news, but I thought the quote Rogers highlighted was worth discussing:

“We’re going to stretch out Bubic again. He’s been a starter. He adapted tremendously well to that reliever role last year. We couldn’t have anticipated that, but all along, the plan was for him to start.”

Last season, the Royals were clearly taking advantage of their solid starting rotation to ease Bubic back into a role in the majors while limiting his exposure and his innings. It’s something that teams don’t usually have the luxury of doing at that point in a player’s recovery and rehabilitation. Can you imagine what they would’ve done if the Royals had something like two decent starting pitchers, were throwing bullpen games out there every fifth day and then Bubic had come back in the midst of a push to October? Not that they would’ve pushed Bubic beyond his health and limits while coming back from Tommy John, but perhaps they would have used him with a bit more urgency. Instead, his workload was sufficiently managed to ensure he will be at the top of his game come Opening Day and he was an outstanding bridge from the starters to the back of the bullpen. It was the best-case scenario of injury rehab.

Bubic is ready to be unleashed. He’s conditioning this winter as normal and will arrive in Surprise in February expecting to build up to a role in the rotation. As Quatraro said, it’s all going according to plan. Personally, I’m excited to see Bubic back in the rotation. There’s some upside there.

Thomas Friestad of the Kansas City Business Journal is reporting that the Royals are potentially getting serious about the Washington Square Park location for a new ballpark.

As the Royals weigh where to build a new stadium, in Downtown or elsewhere, the team has taken part in at least one meeting — and potentially more — with VanTrust Real Estate LLC about a Washington Square Park ballpark project since the week of Nov. 18, several sources told the Kansas City Business Journal. VanTrust was a pivotal player in a previous stadium "finalist" site as master developer of the eight-block East Village area, before the Royals' ill-fated pivot to an East Crossroads location in late 2023.

VanTrust owns easement rights all around and within the area. As such, the Royals would need them on their side if they were to even begin to seriously consider Washington Square Park for a new home. As Friestad notes, they’ve worked together before, prior to the Royals losing their minds and shifting to the doomed East Crossroad location.

It seems as though some due diligence is being performed at the area.

More recently, utility locate requests have appeared to show someone studying Washington Square Park and Blue KC's property for a potential development. McClure Engineering in October submitted six such requests around the area on behalf of an unidentified client. Two requests were "preliminary design" tickets. The Missouri 811 system says these are to be requested so parties can determine "what facilities are present when planning a project."

The stadium project has gone somewhat quiet over the last several months. That’s probably because the Royals are finally taking this process seriously before presenting their next steps. They can get a second bite at the apple. There will not be a third.

They held the draft lottery on Tuesday. Kind of weird not to be focused on that. Thanks to a wildly successful 2024 campaign, the Royals’ first pick will be well outside the lottery—the 23rd selection overall.

The Nationals won the lottery and will select first. They only had the fourth-best odds of securing the pick heading into the lottery. We feel your pain Colorado and Miami.

The posting of Roku Sasaki, late of the Dragons of the NPB, finally happened on Monday. It’s a unique situation as Sasaki is still considered an amateur by Major League Baseball as he’s under 25. That means he can sign only for what teams can offer him from their international bonus pools. Even though he posted this week, he is not eligible to sign with a team until January 15 which is when the 2025 international signing period begins. However, he can negotiate with teams immediately.

The natural destination for Sasaki for a number of reasons would be Los Angeles and the Dodgers. But the rules governing the international bonus pools make that far from certain. The Dodgers have the least amount of money in their pool at $5,146,200, the result of signing Shohei Ohtani last winter. They can add to their pool via trades from other teams, but they’re capped at 60 percent, and obviously have to have a willing trade partner.

A cluster of eight teams each have pools of $7,555,500 to dole out, including the Mariners and the Nomadic Athletics, if Sasaki is looking to remain on the West Coast. The Royals are in the next tier at $6,908,600, along with the Baltimore Orioles, a team that Baseball America says has a true shot at Sasaki.

I’ve probably spilled a bit too much bandwidth writing about this as Sasaki in Kansas City is as likely as me getting a spring training invite from the Royals as a LOOGY. Still, I’m fascinated by this process and truly hope a team other than the Dodgers can get him under contract.

In other Winter Meeting news from Tuesday, Max Fried blasted past the $200 million mark when he signed a deal with the Yankees for eight years at $218 million. It’s the largest-ever deal for a left-handed pitcher. Fellow southpaws unite! Industry consensus was spot-on for the AAV just north of $27 million, but the years and the overall total are both really kind of shocking. Fried will be 31 next season and has had four separate IL stints over the last two years, including two for forearm issues. He features a ground ball rate of around 55 percent. As you know, keeping the ball out of the air in New Yankee Stadium is advised.

The Rangers re-signed Nathan Eovaldi to a three year, $75 million deal which is almost as surprising. A three-year contract wasn’t out of the question, but the money…Wow.

The Detroit Tigers spent a little less on their new addition to the rotation, going $15 million for one year of the services of Alex Cobb. Cobb missed most of last season with injuries. He made just five starts between the regular season and the post season for the Guardians who acquired him from San Francisco at the trade deadline. Going back to 2018, Cobb has topped 149 innings in a season just two times.

The Guardians were busy, trading their Gold Glove second baseman Andrés Giménez to the Toronto Blue Jays. Reliever Nick Sandlin also heads north of the border with infielder Spencer Horwitz and outfield prospect Nick Mitchell heading back to Cleveland. They then send Horwitz to Pittsburgh for some pitching help.

Jiménez was part of the return from the New York Mets for shortstop Francisco Lindor back in 2021. Jiménez broke out in a huge way in 2022 with a 141 OPS+ and finished with 6.1 fWAR and his first Gold Glove award. The Guardians rewarded him with their second-largest contract in franchise history, a seven-year, $106.5 million extension. Since then, the defense has remained golden, but the bat has regressed. With his salary due to surpass $10 million next year, the Guardians decided to get him off the roster and to Toronto.

I’m telling you, the AL Central is always up for grabs.