Kansas City Royals Project

 

Kansas City Royals: The Revival

         Since the Kansas City Royals won a World Series in 2015, they have had a difficult duplicating success as they have been unable to replicate advancements in their minor league system through development and draft picks, sign valuable international born players, and compete at the Major League level for a free agent. With their recent lack of success, this does put them in a position to make power moves as their pool of money of international signings goes up and they will receive year after year of top draft picks.  While they are not currently playoff contenders, this will usually steer teams at taking younger and riskier prospects with their allotted money which in return can make enable them to sign players with a very high ceiling for less than market value. On the contrary, the lack of success at the big-league level does not provide any advantages as it means they are unlikely to resign any current players or attract other free agents from the market to sign with them. Although Kansas City as of now is not a hot destination for talent, there is room for lots of new acquisitions as we begin to weed out the elder players from their contracts and bring in new fresh blood.

         The Royals total salary cap at the Major League level is just over 84 million dollars a year dispersed between 25 players with the league minimum being $563,500 which comes out to an average of around $3,360,000 per player. In this era of baseball, most teams spend the bulk of their money on 2-3 starting pitchers and 2-3 powerful bats as starting pitchers eat up most of the innings and home runs account for most of the runs.  With the Royals not having any players that exceed in either of those categories, with exception of an aging Danny Duffy (left-handed starting pitcher) that is where the free-agent hunt begins.  The best thing that could happen to the Royals organization is the aging of Ian Kennedy, once a great pitcher, but now just a 35-year-old taking up salary cap and roster space.  As his career comes to an end, it frees up 16.5 million dollars, enough to sign an upcoming starting pitcher who is willing to avoid arbitration and test the free-agent market. In addition to Kennedy, Greg Holland, 34, and Mike Montgomery, 31, are both ending their contracts and we will not be resigning them which means a starting pitcher and a reliever who eats up massive innings will be needed with 4.35 million between their two contracts.  Three players who I think can complement Danny Duffy as number 2 and 3 starters as well as become a dominant reliever in place of Holland are Charlie Morton and Luis Severino in the starting roles and Blake Treinen to come out of the bullpen as a righty.  Charlie Morton is currently pitching in the World Series with Rays, but they have even less of a salary cap than the Royals which means there is a little to no chance of them resigning him.  He is an easy choice as a hard-right hander thrower to go along with Danny Duffy’s soft stuff from the left side. Luis Severino was a golden child in the farm system of the Yankees but continual injuries never kept him in the big leagues for long and as long as the Yankees keep signing big free-agent pitchers there will never be a spot for him in their rotation, leading him to test the free-agent market where we can scoop him up. He also plays as a high velocity right-handed except in this case he does not use control as much as Morton but relies on the movement of his fastball paired with his wipeout slider to induce ground balls out of right-handed hitters and back foot chases to left-handed hitters.  Blake Treinen is going to be the most difficult out of all of them as many of the big market teams will dish out hefty 2-3 year contracts of 8 figures or more when they feel they are ready to make a playoff push and need a high-end reliever such as Treinen. In conclusion, with three high-end starters and a big bullpen arm, the Royals will instantly be a playoff contender.

         The next topic of discussion at the big-league level is holding on to Salvador Perez and Jorge Soler while extinguishing Whit Merrifield and Alex Gordon.  While Salvador Perez is 30 years old, I feel he is the backbone of this team as well as provides above-average offensive and power production at the catcher position.  With all of our ambitious pitching signings, we need a catcher we can rely on to teach our system to the new guys. The next player we need to resign is Jorge Soler, the only true power threat on the team and for only 7.3 million a year he is a lock to resign.  When he became a free agent from the twins after not going into arbitration, he was seen as an afterthought of a power outfielder, but he is a stable middle of the order bat that is still not in his prime.  While I feel the need to mention Alex Gordon, it is an easy fix as the veteran outfielder is retiring, leaving us 4 million in extra cap space but also a starting outfielder to replace.  Lastly and probably the most crucial of all the deals with the position players, not pick up Whit Merrifield club option for another year and another 5 million down the drain.  Simple as that with Merrifield nothing else to say about his lack of production at the plate and defensive liability.  Although I did not mention any major league free agent signees, we have an abundance of planes to amplify the production of our offense at the major league level in the proceeding body of work.

Baseball has been a dream for many kids all around the world and my job as the international scout of the Kansas City Royals is to make sure I find the best prospects and make their dream come true. In the MLB today, international players make up 28.5% of all players on active rosters. That is not including the hundreds of other players in the minor leagues waiting for their chance. My job is to look at all prospects from other countries or other minor league teams that have international players.

The country that I tend to scout the most out of is the Dominican Republic because they have the second-most players in the league behind the US. The DR has a great reputation with baseball players, as that is the most played sport in that country. Some major league teams sponsor a team in the DR and have a lot of their prospects play for that team from a young age. Many of these teams do this so they can get young prospects to play other great players and the team can brand the players to how they want. Many kids in the DR sign to a team when they are 16 and develop with that team until they are ready for the big leagues. Juan Soto who plays for the Washington nationals made his MLB debut when he was 19 years of age, which goes to show if you are mature for your age you can compete at a high level. Since I have been doing this job, I try to find prospects that are 16 to 18 years old and are minor league ready right away and can be bi league ready when they are the age of 20. The work ethic of these athletes does not compare to American athletes. For example, many American baseball players go train in the DR during the offseason because these young men train from morning until night. Baseball is all they know, so while we Americans are going to school in the morning then training after they are training all day. This is why I believe these athletes are better developed at a younger age than other players around the world.

         Many other countries have great athletes that I scout from such as Korea, Cuba, Valenzuela, China, and Puerto Rico. Korea has a league that is a copier of the MLB but has many great athletes that would love to play in America. The great part about this league is they allow Americans to play on teams as well, so many players who are not good enough for the MLB just, yet they use the Korean league as a step to the MLB. This is different from the DR these players tend to be already fully developed and are big-league ready as soon as they sign. Eric Thames who came from the Korean league was picked up by the brewers and is now with the nationals who just won a world series. He is a perfect example for American athletes to never give up and find other ways to the big leagues rather than just play in the minor leagues. The Korean league has been known for having great pitchers who have funky styles that can ruin a hitter's timing at the plate. This is an advantage and is why I love to recruit pitchers out of this league.

         There are three prospects that I have brought to the table that can make us a team ready to compete for a world series. All three prospects come from different parts of the world, different ages, and play positions that are lacking on the team right now. Two prospects are MLB ready the moment we sign them and the other is young but will be ready in 2-3 years under our farm system. The first prospect is named Yoelqui who is an outfielder from Cuba who is 23 years of age and the younger brother of a baseball legend Yoenis Cespedes. He is 5’9 205 pounds and has played against or with big-league players since he was 19 years old. He played in the World Baseball Classic where he represented Cuba. Since that he played in the Can-Am League in New York and is now training six-plus hours a day in the Bahamas. He will be eligible on March 18 to sign during the international signing period. He is above average in every aspect of the game from throwing, running, hitting, fielding, and power. He is primarily known for being fast and having a strong presence in the batter's box. He has gained 15 pounds of muscle in the last year and a half and has been compared to his older brother many many times for the power he has developed. This is a player that has competed already at the major league ready and just needs a team to give him a chance. He can help in the outfield alongside our golden glove finalist Alex Gordon.

         The second prospect is also 23 years of age and is major league ready. Wan-tae Choi is a Right-handed pitcher from the Korean league who is 6’0 205 and has played in that league for the last five years. He is a developed pitcher who throws many strikes and knows how to command all of his pitches. Last season he went 11-5 with a 3.38 ERA with 105 strikeouts and only 36 walks. He has a very good lower half which allows him to be comfortable on the mound and allows him to command all four of his pitches. He throws low 90’s with his out pitch being a changeup, but his curveball is a great pitch that he uses to start hitters off with or finish them with it as well. With the command he has at such a young age he has plenty of room to still develop and start to miss more bats. He can be a great starter for us to get a couple of great innings every week and start the game showing other pitchers that throwing strikes is important. He is not making much money in Korea right now so we can work out a contract that he makes more but still fits in our budget.

         The last international prospect that I believe can be the next franchise player is a shortstop from Venezuela named Abel Bastidas. He is 6’2 160 at the age of 16 which is great for his age. He is a switch hitter who is strong from both sides and has power from both sides as well. Switch hitters are important to a team. They can play every day because no matter what pitcher is pitching, they can switch whereas players who hit from one side will not face certain pitchers. He is very young but is ranked as the 15 top prospects in the world. He is a very smooth infielder who makes little errors and has been talked about being able to compete in the minor leagues right now. He is very mature for his age and his baseball IQ is very high, scouts also love his makeup and believe he can still get a lot bigger. We have many infield prospects in our farm system but have not shown they can play in the big leagues, so I believe Abel can step up big for this team in about 2-3 years. As a hitter he has been known to hit for average which is important because he can be a top of line up hitter. Abel is very young but very mature for his age and can be the future for the Kansas City royals.

At the professional level of any sport, there is a common goal amongst the players, coaches, and the rest of the staff. That is to win a championship each and every year. Winning is the cure to all problems as it brings an organization joy and makes everything more enjoyable. Though, winning comes with a heavy price tag in most cases. Being a member of the Kansas City Royals organization, it is difficult since we are a small market team to win on a consistent basis. However, teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers dominate free agency and sign the top players when they are available. This is a substantial disadvantage to small-market teams, forcing them to focus heavily on the players they draft, developing players in their farm systems, and managing contracts that they can afford. 

In 2015, our organization won our second World Series, nearly sweeping the New York Mets. Since then we have drastically underperformed. Unfortunately, we could not afford our top performer Eric Hosmer and he left to go to the Padres. This along with losing some other key players has diminished our chances of being World Series contenders. However, last year we got a highly touted prospect in Bobby Witt Jr with the Number 2 pick in the draft. He is a solid shortstop who has many tools to make him almost big-league ready. In addition to this, we drafted Asa Lacy, a left-handed pitcher out of Texas a & m. He is big-league ready now and we expect him to be a frontline starter for us in the near future. Both of these players are integral parts of what we strive to accomplish as an organization, and we hope for huge futures out of them.

As a regional scout for the Royals, my job is to cover the western states and look for players to potentially play on our big-league roster. Often times, there is a misconception about what we as scouts are looking for. People tend to think that skill and talent are the top priorities in pursuing a certain player. However, a player’s character, the kind of teammate he is, and how projectable he is playing a significant role. Projectability in baseball terms is basically the idea of what scouts see in a certain player down the road. For instance, most pitchers in the MLB are tall and lengthy which allows them to efficiently create natural velocity on their fastball. With hitters, depending on their position scouts look for how the ball comes off their bat, their instincts whether it’s fielding, throwing, or running the bases. We use a term called “tools” for position players. There are 5 tools in baseball which include hitting, hitting for power, running, fielding, and throwing. Having a low salary cap, my main goal is to find players that fit into our system. This means finding players that do not come with a hefty price tag but can efficiently do the necessary things to win games. Throwing strikes, playing defense, and manufacturing runs are what defines our Royals organization. Though baseball has transitioned to the long ball, we must demand excellence with the little things in order to compete with teams that can afford to slack in that department. 

Currently, the Tampa Bay Rays are playing the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. Mookie Betts, a star on the dodgers makes $28 million per year whereas the entire Rays roster combined makes $27 million. This is a prime example that money does not necessarily buy victories and that teams with small markets can be just as successful. This makes myself and the rest of us working with the Royals hopeful that we will do the necessary things to get back to being World Series contenders in the near future.