Splash Hits: Here comes Frazier

The Royals make the Adam Frazier signing official. Plus, a roster move, a payroll update and a Cookie Rojas mention!

The Royals made their signing of Adam Frazier official on Tuesday. I remain somewhat flummoxed as to how he fills a particular need, beyond having the left-handed bat that General Manager JJ Picollo coveted.

For a move that doesn’t really move the needle, there’s quite a bit to unpack.

Let’s start with where the versatile Frazier is going to play. As you know he’s primarily a second baseman but has spent time in both outfield corners. From Anne Rogers it sounds like he’s going to be spending much of his time on the dirt:

“I know it didn’t look right in the wins and loss columns last year for the Royals, but they really are a hard-nosed team and a tough team to compete against,” Frazier said. “You see the young talent that’s on this team and how tough they are to play against, it’s something I was interested in joining -- to go with the opportunity to be able to play a lot of second base, some corner outfield. With the offseason signings they’ve already had, I think this team is in a great position to compete. That was something I wanted to be a part of.”

You don’t even have to read between the lines to see this as bad news for Michael Massey. “A lot of second base” isn’t a specific amount of playing time, but I think it’s enough to answer the question as to who will be playing majority of the innings at the keystone.

To make room on the 40-man roster for the addition of Frazier, the Royals shipped Samad Taylor to the Seattle Mariners for cash considerations. Taylor had a cup of coffee in Kansas City last summer, hitting .200/.270/.267 in 69 plate appearances. He swiped eight bases and walked 10 percent of the time. On the flip side, he whiffed in almost 32 percent of his PAs. Taylor has always been a guy with solid plate discipline, but the elevated strikeout rate was a bit of a small sample red flag.

By basically exchanging Frazier for Taylor, the Royals have someone with a little more pop, but a lot less speed.  Plus, Frazier has what I’ll call a veteran’s eye at the plate. He will walk less than Taylor, but he will strike out about half as often. If we’ve learned anything over the years, there’s value in putting the ball in play. Defensively speaking, both bring versatility in being able to play myriad positions.

I’m not broken up over losing Taylor, who I’ve viewed as a fringe player, and will now join his fourth organization since being drafted by Cleveland back in 2016. I just remain confused as to why the Royals felt the need to sign Frazier.

ZiPS projects Taylor to hit .252/.334/.379 which seems to be a consensus among the projection systems. They give him 450 PAs, which translates to a 1.6 fWAR. That value is entirely based on his baserunning and his fielding as the batting line above would be under league average. That seems…optimistic.

Meanwhile, ZiPS gives Frazier 505 PAs and a batting line of .255/.315/.359, which would be worse than the projection for Taylor. ZiPS is a believer in Frazier’s glove, though, and he’s projected to finish with 1.2 fWAR.

I think both projections are a bit bullish.

Your favorite projection system, PECOTA, is in the neighborhood on both players. Although I will point out that they hung a Cookie Rojas (!!!) comp on Frazier. If I were a general manager and saw that, I’d probably take a $4.5 million fly on the guy as well. General principles, you know.

With the trade of Taylor to Seattle, we can trim the Whit Merrifield branch off the Royals family tree.

Merrifield, you will recall, was traded to Toronto for Taylor and pitcher Max Castillo. Castillo was lost to the Red Sox on waivers earlier this winter when the Royals signed Hunter Renfroe.

I think we all can agree the Royals held on to Merrifield for far too long. If you’re the kind to make a sweeping generalization of the Dayton Moore Era in Kansas City it would be that he was too slow to deal players with value.

Now that the Frazier signing is official, we can add his contract to the Royals’ guaranteed number for the 2024 season. By my napkin math (it’s really a spreadsheet), The Royals have committed around $108 million for the upcoming season. That includes a rough estimate of the pre-arbitration players making close to the major league minimum of $740,000. It also includes $9.25 million to Hunter Dozier.

It will be the first time since 2018 that the Royals have topped $100 million on Opening Day payroll. Perhaps most impressive is the fact the Royals have spent $109 million on free agent contracts this winter.

I did not see that coming. Read on…perhaps I should have.

On a totally related note, I have been lax in updating my thoughts on the ever-evolving stadium situation.

As you undoubtedly know, Jackson County Executive Frank White did veto the measure that put the extension of the sales tax on the ballot. That tax is meant to fund the stadium. The county commission did find the votes to override that veto. So the question will go to the voters in Jackson County.

I admire the chutzpah of the Royals on getting this before the voters without even having a site to, you know, put the damn stadium. Strong used car salesman vibes.

What this basically does is put the Royals on the clock. They now have to work like hell to convince the electorate that this is a good thing for the community. Never mind that this is assuredly not a good thing for the community, that’s never stopped a billionaire from asking for a public handout. Still, the Royals have about two months to sell this. Phase one has been underway for the last several months. That would be the aforementioned spending spree. Do not think that this hasn’t been done with the sales tax question in mind. With Opening Day payrolls in the bottom quarter of the league since 2019, John Sherman and his ownership group know they have to finally act serious about putting a half-decent product on the field.

Phase two? I imagine that would be picking a damn site. Then comes the razzle-dazzle of more renderings and such.

Of course, it’s probably a good thing the Chiefs will be campaigning for the tax as well. I imagine the cachet of four Super Bowls in five years will mean a few votes in favor.

The next two months will be very interesting.