Multiple Reports: Royals Reach Agreement to Re-Sign Zack Greinke
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At the conclusion of the 2022 MLB season, many expected the Kansas City Royals to reunite with right-handed pitcher Zack Greinke for another year if he decided to return to baseball. After some back-and-forth negotiating between both sides and the free agent pitching market inflating early in the offseason, that process was slowed down. As the month of January comes to a close, however, both sides have settled on a re-up.
Originally reported by Bob Fescoe of 610 Sports Radio in Kansas City and confirmed by multiple other reporters and outlets a few hours later, Greinke is set to sign with the Royals for the 2023 campaign. The deal is pending a physical, according to Anne Rogers of MLB.com.
Greinke, who joined the Royals very late in the offseason a year ago, had a solid return season in Kansas City. Making 26 starts and tossing 137 innings, the veteran's age-38 season saw him post a 3.68 ERA with a 4.03 FIP with just 1.77 walks and 0.92 home runs allowed per nine innings. Despite being on the back nine of his career, spending some time on the Injured List and also having his fastball velocity sit at 89 mph, Greinke was effective and worth 1.9 fWAR on the year.
Entering the 2023 season at 39 years old, Greinke is no longer able to generate strikeouts and whiffs like he used to. In fact, he ranked in the first and second percentiles in Baseball Savant's tracking for those respective metrics last season. His xERA of 4.78 indicates that some good luck could've been in play during his 2022 campaign, but Greinke is now a control and deception-based pitcher who mixes up his pitch usage and does a good job limiting baserunners despite contact being plentiful. This past year, he struck out just 73 batters with a career-low 4.80 K/9.
With Greinke back in the fold, Kansas City projects to boast a rotation featuring him, Brady Singer and Jordan Lyles for certain. Behind them, the likes of Ryan Yarbrough, Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic and others could compete for spots and reps during the spring and throughout the summer. Greinke doesn't offer the depth he used to in games and is no longer the same force to be reckoned with on the mound, but his ability to serve as a mentor of sorts and also still pitch at an adequate level as a reliable starter undoubtedly endeared him to the franchise that selected him sixth overall way back in the 2002 MLB Draft.
