Royals Criticized For Lack Of Offseason Spending At Critical Position
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Hindsight can be ideal in some situations, but for Major League Baseball teams, it's usually unwelcome, because it means they messed up.
The Kansas City Royals had an interesting offseason, and it was intriguing to find out how it would wind up being judged. The season is only a quarter over, so it's too early to fully assess what the Royals did, but their approach certainly was intriguing.
The signature move the Royals made was trading starting pitcher Brady Singer to land new leadoff hitter Jonathan India, who played a position (second base) where they already had a starter. They also signed All-Star closer Carlos Estévez and brought back veteran starters Michael Wacha and Michael Lorenzen.
However, one Royals writer's biggest criticism centers around what the Royals didn't do instead of what they did.
On Thursday, Jacob Milham of FanSided took the Royals to task for failing to sign another catcher with more offensive upside this offseason, causing a major black hole in the lineup thanks to the struggles of both Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin.
"If Kansas City wasn’t willing to pony up for one of the premier outfield bats in free agency, why not at least take a low-risk gamble on a veteran catcher?" Milham wrote. "Given Fermin’s limited track record, Salvador Perez’s age, and the sizable gap between the majors and the Royals’ catching prospects, adding a bridge option made sense.
"There were better bats than Luke Maile available for next to nothing. Even if the upgrade would’ve been marginal, the Royals should be taking every positive they can get—hypothetical or not—when it comes to adding offense."
Royals catchers (a.k.a. Perez and Fermin) have combined for 0.3 fWAR, the ninth-worst mark in baseball, and their 86 wRC+ is 10th-worst. It's definitely been bad, but most of that fault lies with Perez, who nearly everyone expects to pick it up eventually.
The other options out there weren't all that desirable, even with the benefit of hindsight. Carson Kelly of the Chicago Cubs probably would have panned out the best, but otherwise, you were looking at names like James McCann, Gary Sánchez, and Yasmani Grandal.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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