The Royals are looking into signing Erik Bedard, tweets Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star. The Royals need upcoming moves to be "payroll neutral," so the team will have to shed as much salary as it adds. Mellinger doesn't think the club is likely to sign Bedard.
The 30-year-old pitched just 83 innings last year, allowing 65 hits and 34 walks to go along with 90 strikeouts for a 2.82 ERA. Bedard hasn't had an ERA above 4.00 since 2004, but he's been slowed down by injuries.
Bedard's most often been linked to the Orioles this offseason, but earlier in the winter the Royals were reportedly pursuing the left-hander.
ryansiciliano
“0 comments” — quintessential Royals. No interest. The only things they have going for them are nice uniforms, Kaufman Stadium, and Billy Butler.
Colin
So…you’re saying 2009 Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke is nothing to write home about?
karte
Hey, the Royals have the best give-aways in all of baseball! So they have THAT working for them….
Am I the only one that thinks Erik BEDard needs to be in the same rotation as Ben SHEETS? They could slip someone in between them, of course! 🙂
karte
If only there was a player named Pillow…
r_ick
And a fellow that earned a Cy Young last year
Alldaybaseball
If he will be ready by mid-season, he should get at least half of what sheets got. He’s better and injuries and struggling always happen.
Moebarguy
Why not. Certainly better than signing some of the guys they usually do.
jim l
Coming from a Mets fan your remark strikes me as intriguing.
Moebarguy
Touche, though if you’ve ever caught any of my Mets-related comments, you’d see how happy I am with the Mets organization.And my Royals-related comment wasn’t supposed to sound sarcastic–I think it would be a savvy move, unlike most of the un-savvy minor signings they make.
jim l
I suppose as long as they don’t sign a bag of sh*t you have a good point. Never caught any of your posts before though I’ll keep an eye out in the future.
Moebarguy
;-). Sounds good.
k0o808
The Royals interested in another form Mariner? How surprising.
kphowes
he just gets hurt a lot…
Colin
I would think KC would be a perfect destination for the low-key Bedard. Not a lot of national media coverage, a town he can blend into, plenty of countryside outside of town for him to retreat to…this seems like a signing that would make a lot of sense for the Royals. And that is why I don’t think Dayton Moore will make it happen.
Mauerneau
That would give them a very good 1-2 punch if Bedard could stay healthy. Lets not get ahead of ourselves, but they would be tough to beat on 2 out of 5 nights.
iancahill
We could certainly use him. That will take some pressure off of Davies and Hoch. Maybe we could move one of the 3 to the bullpen or something.
KC_Chris
A guy coming off of labrum surgery probably won’t be ready until mid-year, and may never pitch the same. Yeah, Bedard was good. Was. He may get it back. But I don’t think those are the types of gambles the Royals should be taking. Especially since they’d have to trim payroll somewhere else to add him. Which I find ultra-amusing. How about don’t waste the $20M or whatever on Guillen, Farnsworth, Ankiel, Pods, Anderson, Kendall, other pieces of trash and use it to get actually good players.
Moebarguy
Good point. Guillen, Farnsworth, Ankiel, Pods, Anderson, Kendall, and others have been pretty pointless signings.
Zackkkk23
Yes them signings have not been very good to this point. But at least he is taking chances on players. I mean the player either plays good or bad, its an all or nothing. Your not going on other people’s boards and sayin this stuff. Do you think A-Roid deserves 33mill for hitting 30 hrs and a .286AVG?? No, does Beltran deserve 19mill for having an AVG of .281 with NY his 5yrs, especially when he only played 81 games last year. Do you think Zito deserves 18.5 mill?? No, people make mistakes. Players get overpaid, it happens. All of the owners have enough money to take over the yankees payroll, they just choose not to.
KC_Chris
I want KC to win as much as the next KC fan, but I think he’s taking the wrong chances. That’s the problem. I can’t argue about those players salaries. Rodriguez/Beltran earned high salaries through being dominating players. Zito was a bad deal at the time, and it was panned at the time. Additionally, guys like Rodriguez didn’t demonstrate that they were anywhere near their decline as players when they signed. The dogs that Moore has been signing are all on the wrong side of their development curves or have all demonstrated that they are not worth major league contracts before he signed them. Singing guys like Anderson (and to an extent Ankiel due to his not coming up as an OFer) is fine, but the other clowns… nope. Signing a guy like Bedard is grasping at straws. And he’s not likely to sign here for more than a year so he can rebuild his value. So it’d be pointless to sign him just to lose him at the end of the, especially when we’d have to clear payroll to obtain him.
Encarnacion's Parrot
It would be kind of funny if the jays signed him. I think they could then have a rotation comprised of 5 lefties (Romero, Rzep, Cecil, Bedard, ?). The Jays don’t need him, just food for thought.
Omazing
For some reason he has more strikeouts than hits surrendered. There aren’t a whole lot of pitchers that have that ability in the bigs. 801 K’s vs. 762 Hits in 822 IP.
If he returns to his past Oriole stats in 2010 he’s going to be signing for 12-19 million per year.
Highest Pitcher Salaries:
1. SP/LH Johan Santana, NYM $ 18,876,139
2. SP/RH Carlos Zambrano, CHC $ 18,750,000
3. SP/LH Barry Zito, SF $ 18,500,000.
When Bedard’s on the mound, he’s as good as the highest paid pitchers. He’ll be an Oriole tomorrow or Saturday. Then again, a torn labrum and inflamed bursa just doesn’t sound promising. Bottle him up for 2011.
ThinkBlue10
why doesn’t the headline read Dodgers Interested in Bedard? freakin dodgers better at least try to get this guy. We pretty much wasted 3 mil on carroll because we ended up re-signing belliard anyway.
kcmike11
I wish we could just trade Guillen for a pair of tube socks and sign Bedard. I am sick of Guillen and his laissez-faire attitude about playing defense, being in shape, and the list goes on.
We need a lefty till Mike Montgomery is ready.
melonis_rex
see, this would be a smart move by dayton moore right here.
Prime Time
THIS WOULD BE HIS SMARTEST MOVE YET!!!!!!!!!
Prime Time
If you wanna make money…. Gotta put butts i the seats. Royals fans will love the three pitcher combo.Thats something they’ve never seen; GIVE IT TO EM!!!!!!!!!!
Prime Time
and yes get Guillen out and that would make life easier. even if you cut him the fans will breathe a sy of relief, and i think you’ll find that marcus thames and johnny gomes are BETTER and duh, not to mention much cheaper options. expeciall gomes; fans would love a kid with his motivation and heart