The Sunday Ramble

The groundhog says baseball starts in a couple of weeks.

Welcome to February!

The Royals held their annual FanFest Rally on Saturday, Truck Day should be sometime this week, pitchers and catchers will report shortly after that and the Cactus League begins against the Texas Rangers in less than three weeks.

It won’t be long.

Let’s kill some time by rehashing some of what was said at the Rally, feel sorry for the Yankees and their inability to keep the pace with baseball’s big spenders and check in on some veteran presence.

The Royals were apparently in serious discussions with free-agent outfielder Anthony Santander before he signed with the Blue Jays. From Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic:

The Kansas City Royals made Santander a three-year offer and increased it to $66 million, according to sources briefed on the talks. But by the time they presented Santander with their enhanced proposal, which included an opt-out after the second year and deferrals that were still being negotiated, he had committed to the Blue Jays.

After failing to land Santander, the Royals pivoted by agreeing with free-agent right-handed reliever Carlos Estévez on a two-year, $22.2 million contract, sources said.

There are a couple of things to glean from this note from Rosenthal. One, for those of us who have been adamant that the Royals had more money in the budget to make a move for an outfielder, there’s a little bit of vindication. The money was obviously there to spend as the Royals and General Manager JJ Picollo decided to “pivot” to bolstering the bullpen once they were shut out of their pursuit of a corner outfielder on the free agent market. And honestly, it’s not a bad pivot.

The second thing to take from this is that since the Royals took their cash earmarked for the outfield and instead spent some of it on a reliever, that means the team is likely done in their pursuit of trying to improve either corner outfield spot. It’s not for lack of effort. More from Rosenthal:

The Royals envisioned Santander playing right field, his primary position the past eight seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, or possibly in left, with Hunter Renfroe and MJ Melendez platooning in right. The team also showed interest in Jurickson Profar, who signed a three-year, $42 million contract with the Atlanta Braves, but did not meet his desire for a third guaranteed year, sources said. With Santander, too, the Royals preferred a shorter contract, fearing — as some other clubs did — that he might be reduced to a DH in the latter part of a long-term deal.

Picollo isn’t willing to hamstring this team in the future to aid in the short term. That hasn’t always been his modus operandi (see Renfroe, Hunter), but when it comes to contracts like Renfroe’s the damage has been relatively minimized by the terms involved. Five years for Santander or even three for Profar feels a bit risky. Writing that the Royals fear Santander may be reduced to a DH role in the “latter part” of a deal actually flatters Santander. He’s already a candidate to play most of his games there. And Profar…I haven’t written much about him this winter because I honestly don’t know what to make of him. Two years? Probably. Three? That seems like a risk that teams like the Royals shouldn’t be making.

We have to be careful about getting hung up on these free agent misses. The Royals don’t want to be known as the Toronto Blue Jays of the AL Central.

Picollo addressed the current state of the search for an outfielder at the Royals FanFest Rally on Saturday at Kauffman Stadium. From Anne Rogers:

“But you would have thought, if that’s going to happen, those discussions would have taken place already,” Picollo said. “We certainly made our calls to teams we thought had the type of player we’re looking for, and we didn’t have a willing partner, so it made it hard. I think right now, if something were to change, it would probably be because those teams that had the players that we were trying to get sign somebody else, do something, and now they feel like they have depth. I don’t anticipate that happening, to be honest.”

I think Picollo addressed something we lose sight of when concocting our trade scenarios: It takes two to make a deal. Now the Royals’ GM is saying something I wrote about on Friday in that it seems like we’ve reached a stage of the winter where teams are largely set with their rosters. There may be additions here or there (there are certainly a few free agents still available), but for the most part teams are set. They’re past the point of looking to swing a trade and looking to the opening of camp.

That’s not to say trades can’t, or won’t, be made. Corbin Burnes was shipped to Baltimore in early February last year. It’s just that given the current state of things, in the next couple of weeks, it feels like the transaction wires will be a bit slow. Action will pick back up later in March. I would expect the Royals to keep their eyes peeled for opportunities. The door is never truly closed.

Speaking of depth, there’s now plenty of pitching on the roster, so that could be an area where the Royals look to deal from. They did it earlier with the Reds in their acquisition of Jonathan India.

Yes, I am aware of the list. No, I will not link to the list. The list is patently absurd.

You know what I’m talking about. Something called The Shredder and MLB Network and how Bobby Witt Jr. is the fourth-best shortstop in baseball RIGHT NOW. Whatever. It’s something the talking heads at MLB Network need to do to get through the winter while they’re not airing The Sandlot or Ken Burns’ Baseball for the millionth time. Lists like these are designed for clicks, discussion, outrage and outrageous discussion. My advice: Do not give them the satisfaction.

I’ve already written too much about this simply by acknowledging its existence, but here’s something…what an absolute wasteland the MLB Network is in the offseason. It’s just the same programs again and again and again. Every winter it’s tired lists and movies. Are you going to tell me there’s less interest in, say, airing every game of the 1971 World Series for a solid week? Get some of the guys who played in the series in the studio to set up the games and discuss some pivotal moments. I get that old baseball games aren’t for everyone, but they cannot draw fewer viewers than some inane countdown show airing for the 1,000th time.

They are showing La Serie del Caribe, which started last Friday, on the network. That’s something. And it’s a good something. At least for a week.

By the way, you can catch the next showing of The Rookie of the Year on MLB Network on February 11 at 8. If you miss that one, it’s also on February 13 at 8. And on February 17 at 7.

Spare a thought for Hal Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees as they can no longer keep up the fiscal pace set by the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Yankees owner was speaking to YES Network’s Meredith Marakovits on “Yankees Hot Stove,”:

"Well, look: It's difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they're doing. Now, we'll see if it pays off. They still have to have a season relatively injury-free for it to work out for them, and it's a long season, as you know, and once you get to the postseason, anything can happen. We've seen that time and time again."

I think it’s cute how Steinbrenner lumps himself in with the rest of the owner class. Poor guy. Let’s keep him and his Yankees in our thoughts.

It will also be exciting to “see if it pays off” as Steinbrenner says for those damn Dodgers. Although I seem to remember LA signing a couple of guys to large contracts last winter and then going on to win the World Series. Yes, let’s wait and see how it all works out for them.

The biggest names left on the free agent market won’t be landing in Kansas City, but there’s enough intrigue around them for it to be a nice distraction for the next couple of weeks. The will-they-or-won’t-they dance being done by Pete Alonso and the Mets should resolve itself. Has a market soured more on a subset of player than a slugging first baseman?

Alex Bregman allegedly has multiple six-year offers on the table to which my response is, “Bro, what are you waiting for?” The Astros have been in and out and are back in again with the Cubs and Red Sox in the mix with the Tigers thrown in there as well. This has been a free agent market light on impact infielders. The biggest contract went to Willy Adames for seven years and $182 million to the Giants. Christian Walker got three years and $60 million from Bregman’s Astros and then Ha-Seong Kim just signed a two-year pact with the Rays. That’s it for multi-year deals for infielders.

That’s not saying the infield market crashed. It’s that the infield market was thin. Bregman wants to get paid past his age 37 season. Not many teams willing to spend for that kind of decline.

Jack Flaherty is the best pitcher remaining on the market which makes me wonder if there isn’t some sort of red flag keeping teams at bay. Michael Rosen at FanGraphs speculated it is his fastball. And we should probably spare a thought for Nick Pivetta who turned down a qualifying offer from the Red Sox and has seen next to no traction.

One thing that’s been missing from the Royals’ offseason is an inexplicable contract to a guy who will bring the much-desired “veteran presence.” I thought about that the other day when I learned the Pittsburgh Pirates signed Adam Frazier to a one-year deal for $1.525 million. Consider this a reminder the Royals paid Frazier $2.5 million for the buyout of his mutual option at the end of last season.