1:45pm: Royals general manager Dayton Moore tells MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan that he has “definite interest” in re-signing Morales this winter as well (Twitter link). The Royals, of course, are facing some potential payroll constraints, so it’s not clear that they’d be able to fit Morales into the budget.
9:41am: The Yankees have reached out to the representatives of free agent DH Kendrys Morales, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The 33-year-old would be seen as an option for New York in the event that the club deals catcher and DH candidate Brian McCann this winter.
There’s more interest from the AL East, too, according to the report. Both the Blue Jays and Red Sox have also put out early feelers on Morales, who was not issued a qualifying offer by the Royals and can therefore be signed without sacrificing a draft pick. Those organizations have also been tied to Edwin Encarnacion, who’ll certainly require a much larger contract, so Morales looks to represent something of an alternative.
The lack of a qualifying offer certainly enhances the appeal of Morales, who is more or less a pure DH but does deliver some flexibility as a switch-hitter. Despite a lull early in 2016, he ended his two years in Kansas City with a robust .277/.344/.476 batting line and 52 home runs over 1,257 plate appearances.
While there are plenty of alternative sluggers available in free agency — some of a more premium variety, others on par, and still others with less appeal than Morales — it seems that he is a popular early target. That’s certainly a good sign for the veteran, who is expected to command a multi-year contract once again. MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes predicts that Morales will land at $26MM over a two-year commitment. That would represent a solid raise over his most recent contract, which was signed on the heels of a much-less-encouraging platform.
He also can play right field (I was pleasantly surprised with his outfield play during interleague play this year), and is easy to root for. I’d like him back in KC.
Kendrys Morales has a career -19.3 UZR/150 in RF and had a -32.9 UZR/150 in 2016 in RF.
Dumb. He is primarily a DH, and he doesn’t have a lot of experience in OF for years. I was, however, pleasantly surprised with how he did for a few games in OF this year. I doubt you were watching. Eyeball test works too #oldschool.
So we should go based on what You say? It’s not dumb of me to post numbers at all. Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t.
Over just a few game sample, I would tend to lean more on the eye test rather than UZR/150, which extrapolates a few games worth of data over a full season in this case
I watched all those games, as a Royals fan, and he was bad.
Also it was just a few balls in play. Not representative at all of what he’d see in more action out there. Likely more harder to field balls.
Inside Edge has him making 9/10 “routine” plays and 0/2 “impossible” plays in RF this year. Certainly not enough to mark him as bad as that UZR figure would indicate. I think, though, everyone in baseball agrees that Morales in RF wouldn’t end well.
He’s a DH: he was great. Not sure what you were expecting. You along with many who responded to my post clearly don’t understand that having a full time DH play OF for a pinch – successfully – is not, and should not ever be compared to, the same grading level as a full time OFer. Also, accept a complement for a player when you see it…
Those are Jeterian level bad.
Jeter’s career UZR/150 was -7.1. No where close
Another young and talented SS, Carlos Correa, actually has a -7.0 UZR/150.
and the only one who thinks Correa should be a SS and Bregman a 3B/LF is the Astros.
Doesn’t look to me like royalsfan4 was pitching Morales’s RF defense as a major selling point, though I do believe he’s passable for a few ABs in a handful of interleague games as he was for the Royals and as Carlos Santana was in LF during those Wrigley Field WS games.
I wasn’t sure about him but without the qualifying offer, I’d much rather have him than EE. He’ll get at least 50 million less and not cost a draft pick while providing a similar skill set
And his homer totals would almost certainly go up in the ALE after leaving Kauffman
Anything more than 2/$20m should be a pass and moving on to other targets.
He turned down an 11mil option so I would think he isn’t signing for an AAV of 10mil
When everything boils down, Years>AAV. Sacrificing $1MM to ensure an extra year of salary is a no-brainer..
He’s not signing in November for $10m AAV, but given his history, if he gets to January unsigned, I’m sure he’s really starting to look hard at a 2/$20m.
I wonder how different his career would have turned out if he never broke his leg/ankle. He just never looked the same when he came back.
He’s one of the guys I’d love to see what his career could have been without the major injury
I would think the Billy Butler 3/30M would be his floor
I could see 2 years with AAV around $15-16m or 3 years $12-13m. Only way he signs for $10m AAV is if it’s late January, he seems to have more interest than that though
Four sluggers: EE, Bautista, Trumbo and Morales. Interesting to see where they move in the AL. It is likely that ALE teams will sign these players.
Beltran too
I still consider the Angels’ letting Kendrys Morales go a few years ago a MAJOR mistake. Sure Pujols is now the everyday 1B ( at least currently) but Morales is a much better hitter than CJ Cron, plus he’s a switch-hitter that would have given the Angels another quality LH bat in their RH heavy line-up. Morales has some pop too and is a potential RBI machine when given the opportunity. He may not be a gold-glove defensive player, but as someone else mentioned in this comment section, he’s good enough defensively to play the OF as well as 1B (as he did for the Angels too). These types of head-scratching moves (like ridding themselves of Howie Kendricks with no one in line to take over the now black-hole at 2B) are why the Halos are sucking wind and potential long-term cellar dwellers in the AL West.
Hmm…Kendrick on final year of deal nets Andrew Heaney. I’d do that deal weekly if I could.
And if “Morales” and “RF” and paired in the same sentence, then Trumbo = Heyward. Morales had cement feet before he blew out in leg in the infamous walk-off celebration. He certainly didn’t improve after leg surgery.
Kendrys Morales’ wRc+ the last 3 years: 72, 130, 110.
CJ Cron’s: 112, 105, 115.
Morales is probably better, but not by all that much, and he’s not that preferable to Cron given the contract he’s going to get and the age discrepancy
I’m sure he can play a passable RF for a game or an emergency, but if a team is relying on him to be a part-time dh/of, then they’re in for a rude awakening. The guy is 225 and has bad legs. There’s no way he can be anything more than a full-time dh.
Why not just bring back billy butler?