Fastball

Kansas City Royals' Lefty Elects Free Agency, Will Try Open Market This Offseason

After spending time with the Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves and Kansas City Royals in 2023, left-hander Taylor Hearn has elected free agency and will hit the open market.
Brady Farkas|
Kansas City Royals' Lefty Elects Free Agency, Will Try Open Market This Offseason
Kansas City Royals' Lefty Elects Free Agency, Will Try Open Market This Offseason

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Kansas City Royals

After a dismal season on the mound, left-hander Taylor Hearn has elected free agency and will try his hand on the open market.

The following information comes the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:

Hearn cleared outright waivers Thursday and elected to become a free agent.

ANALYSIS
Hearn is off the 40-man roster in Kansas City and will head to the open market. The 29-year-old left-hander was lit up for 19 earned runs over 15 major-league innings this season while bouncing between three different organizations.

Hearn started the year in Texas for the American League Champion Rangers. He made four appearances there, pitching to a 10.29 ERA over 7.0 innings. He then made one appearance for the Braves, giving up four earned runs in 0.1 innings. Finally, he made eight more appearances for the Royals, surrendering seven earned runs in 7.2 innings.

His total ERA was 11.40 for the season. 

Given that he's just 29 years old and that he possesses a good mid-90s fastball, Hearn should get another look this offseason, if even just on a minor league deal.

He was actually an integral part of the Rangers in each of the last two seasons, serving as both a starter and a reliever. He went 6-6 over 42 appearances in 2021 and then went 6-8 over 31 appearances in 2022. He's made 25 starts in his career out of 101 games.

He's 12-15 lifetime with a 5.35 ERA.

The Royals couldn't fit him on the 40-man roster anymore as they needed to make room for injured players. There is no 60-man injured list until spring training.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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