The Royals are pushing to contend in 2017 but if the team is out of the race in July, GM Dayton Moore has told outside executives that impending free agents Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar will all be available, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports. Moore stopped short of completely confirming this report, though he did tell Sherman that “we would have to consider it [a fire sale] if things do not go right.” 2017 has long been seen as the last year of the Royals’ run of contention with this core group, though the team is considering pursuing a reunion with at least one or two of the quartet this winter once they hit free agency. As the Yankees did with Aroldis Chapman last season, K.C. could deal several of their free agents to reload on prospects or MLB-ready talent and then try to re-sign one or more of the traded players back onto the roster. Sherman figures the Mets will keep tabs on Cain and/or Moustakas given their uncertainty in center field and third base.
Here’s some more from around baseball…
- There’s no set timetable for when a rebuilding team should start trying to compete again, as C. Trent Rosencrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer hears from several general managers who have either led their teams through rebuilds or are currently within the process of building for the future. The Cubs’ blueprint for rebuilding seems to have worked perfectly, though GM Jed Hoyer noted that the team’s decision to spend on veteran talent following an 89-loss season in 2014 was made in part because too much losing would’ve been detrimental. “We were very concerned about a losing culture and bringing up our young players. If you bring your players up in a culture that accepts losing, at some point it’s going to have a negative impact on those guys,” Hoyer said.
- Now that he is finally healthy, Carlos Quentin felt he owed it to himself to give baseball one more shot, the veteran outfielder tells Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald. “I didn’t want to look back five years from now and say, ’I should have just picked up the phone and made a call and swallowed my ego and pride and done it the right way,’ ” Quentin said. The Red Sox signed Quentin to a minor league deal this winter, and at age 34 and having not appeared in a big league game since July 26, 2014, Quentin is comfortable with the fact that he faces a long road to crack Boston’s deep roster.
- The Dodgers have the more “dead money” on their payroll than any other team in baseball, Fangraphs’ Craig Edwards observes. Los Angeles has $47.4MM committed to players who are not on their 40-man roster (whether they’ve been traded, released or are still in the organization but just not on the 40-man) this season. The Padres ($35.1MM), Yankees ($26.5MM), Angels ($22.4MM) and Red Sox ($22.3MM) round out the top five, though San Diego is by far the leader in terms of dead money as a percentage of overall payroll. A whopping 54.8% of the Padres’ 2017 payroll is going towards players who are no longer on the team’s 40-man roster — Melvin Upton Jr., James Shields, Hector Olivera and Jedd Gyorko.
You forgot matt kemp, hes most of that money
Padres traded Kemp for Olivera, I don’t believe they owe Kemp any money (it’s all on the Braves).
I thought the Padres took on Olivera and his salary when they traded away Kemp. Pretty sure the Dodgers are still paying some of Kemp’s salary too. I think the Braves are on the hook for anything the Dodgers aren’t paying.
Yes the dodgers are on the hook for Kemp 3.5M until 19. The dodgers already paid Olivera’s bonus. They are still responsible for the threshold hit. San Diego is on the hook for Olivera’s salary which runs through 20. Braves are on the hook for Kemp’s 18.5M Salary until 19.
Either way the Dodgers have the more “dead money”
So the Royals are going to have a fire sale if they aren’t contending in July? Not that bad of an idea for a low revenue team. Quentin’s last good season was in 2010 or 2011. Did he ever play a full season? The Padres are paying more for players that are not on the roster than guys that are? That is insane.
The Royals fire-sale comment is interesting. If they really are out of contention, it will in part be because those four didn’t perform all that well. Hosmer, Moustakas, and Escobar were all 1BWAR or less players last year. There may not be as rich a market as they would like.
no way they resign Hosmer and Moustakas since they are both Boras clients
I’m not sure what either of those two players would be worth in a trade. You are right, they are pure rentals, but neither is the type of player who would be a difference-maker at the deadline.
hosmer no mustakes maybe if he’s healthy
Exactly, that’s hardly a murderers row, they could just go get better players either from the minors or sign someone new.
I’ll pass on those players. Their asking price will be way too high for rentals. More interested in Pollock for CF.
Pollock’s price tag is not even close to those players’.
Which makes sense since he’s better.
yeah if you want Pollock you better be ready to pay big
hope quentin makes it out of camp with the soxs maybe he’s got something left in then tank
Wish the best for Quentin but I don’t see him on the Sox MLB roster. Guy will be in the minors pending injuries to starters and backups. He needs to get ABs and prove he’s healthy. Could see the sox being in him up if they get any games against the d-backs though…
What if Hanley got hurt? He’d have a chance.
It’s possible, look at all the injuries in left last year, but think Sam Travis is in that mix also….so who brings the A game gets the job
Teams with dead money should get fined for making stupid decisions. Either force them to live with their mistakes or at least punish them for being erratic and trying to sign players just so other teams can’t have them.
Punish them? What’s worse than paying for a player that’s not on your team?
So just another fan, you think those teams then go and sign other players, not because they want them, but so other teams cannot have them?? Huh??
One could argue that having to pay money for a player not contributing to your team is a form of self punishment.
It isn’t though, there is no salary cap, the richest teams don’t care about wasting money.
So they should be forced to put an inferior product on the field?
Who signed what player so someone else couldn’t have him? Not sure I follow….
The Comment Committee awards JAF the #1 Seed in the Most Down Votes Region.
lol bring it, haters gunna hate because they fear being told the truth
I don’t hate. Just a neutral election marshal, observing the votes.
But feel persecuted if it makes you feel better….
Thanks for the laugh at your lack of self-awareness jaf
This is the stupidest comment I have seen in this page. Think about that for a moment.
Doesn’t really matter how much dead money the padres have. Fans know they’re going to suck in 2017 and 2018- might as well take on dead money the next 2 years and stockpile talent. By the time the padres need to lock up their young talent working through the minors the money will be long off the books. Of the teams listed in the dead money conversation the padres are the only ones who really dont have a realistic shot going for the playoffs and most likely dont have dreams of doing so- angels dodgers yankees red sox all have aspirations of playoffs.
But, personally, I’d like to see the padres take on more money to acquire young talent.
For instance, Solarte and some money to help cover pablos contract for castillo and groome and Shawaryn. Idk how realistic it is for the padres to get groome and shawaryn for solarte, castillos contract off the books, and say $20 mill to help with pablos contract, but if youre going to suck for next 2 years add dead money over the next 3 years to get more talent.
Id disagree, the Angels are pretty bad as well
I get where your head’s at, but a team with as much money as the Red Sox would only trade Groome to acquire Major League talent that will help them win a championship, not to shed costs. When they want to shed salary they dump a guy like Buchholz for a very average prospect.
The Padres tried to trade Solarte all off-season. He’s not a desirable player. He can’t really play defense at all, anywhere, can’t run and the bat really only plays at second.
Yeah! Who needs a third baseman with an .808 OPS?
Well, defense and baserunning count too. He’s just so slow the glove doesn’t even really play at the hot corner.
Why would the Padres trade Solarte for Rusney Castillo’s toxic contract!?!?!?!?!?!?
We’re SAN Diego, everyone overspends in SAN Diego and lives out of their means. Wouldn’t you???
wat
Yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous when it costs more to rent a place in San Diego than it does in Manhattan.
Boy those Padres under Preller … he destroyed that organization
No, Preller just painted the rubble that was already there. Now the paint is fading and exposing the mess once more.
The roster needs a complete rebuild, so Pads fans will be watching AAAA players come and go for at least two years.
But ticket prices shouldn’t go up, and the weather is unbeatable!
No, Preller did real damage. It was already a mess when he got there but he took a hand grenade to the roster when it called for slow and steady progress. Developmentally he probably set the Padres back 4-5 years while adding payroll..
Then weather is nice though.
He also turned yonder Alonso into Espinoza and rebuilt their farm. He had a great draft last year. The only really good players he traded was turner and Ross and he still got a good player back.
You can’t count the cost in only the players that became good (you forgot Grandal), you also have to count the prospect cost. Wisler, Mallex Smith, Jace Peterson, Dustin Peterson, and Max Fried. Those names in 2014 would have got you a ton. Then there’s the MLB talent Preller discarded for essentially nothing, Seth Smith and Cameron Maybin, in maybe the second wost trade of recent years. The Kemp trade is still by far the worst.
It seems like he’s working to turn it around and he has a reputation for player development, but claiming that he hasn’t done serious harm to the franchise is just completely false.
To be fair, guys like Smith and Maybin were not huge losses. Also, guys like Mallex Smith, Wisler, and Peterson have not really been very good at the major league level, though maybe that will change in the future.
Everyone knew that the team needed a rebuild when he got hired. He just changed things so that he can rebuild in his own way.
They didn’t end up being huge losses, but teams would have paid premium talent based on their potential. The return Preller got for that potential was anemic. He may be doing better now, but there’s no denying he was awful at the start of his tenure
Mallex Smith and Travis Jankowski are the same player essentially. Wisler has been awful for the Braves as well as Jace Peterson, we will see about Dustin Peterson and Max Fried.
It is funny you talk about prospects he gave up but fail to mention prospects he acquired through deals.
It has been well known for a long time the padres received more in the kimbrel trade than they gave up. The padres gave up quentin maybin wisler and a pick for kimbrel and upton jr. They have since turned those two into margot guerra asjuae allen and rodriquez.
Preller has also turned Justin Upton into a QO pick and turned that into hudson sanchez (a 2 million dollar savings in draft money) which he later used to sign reggie lawson and mason thompson to above slot deals to have them forgo going to college in favor of the deal.
All told Preller gave up Wisler, Maybin, Quentin, Peterson J, Peterson D, Fried, Smith for Asjuae, Allen, Margot, Guerra, Rodriquez, Sanchez, Thompson, Lawson.
Preller gave up talent in Grandal, Turner, and Ross(who is experiencing shoulder issues in DC and is gonna become the latest dusty baker casualty). But he also have up A LOT of pieces that were OVER and received decent returns for them.
Turner was the biggest mistake, of course, but don’t forget about getting rid of Grandal, who is one of the best catchers in baseball, for the right to, eventually pay 30 million dollars for a guy who never put on a Padres uniform.
The J. Upton trade was horrible. Max Fried is on the up and the other three guys could have been traded for something that wasn’t just going to leave at the end of the season. Preller also had a chance to undo the damage caused by that trade when the Mets offered him Michael Fulmer for Justin Upton and Preller said no. So ultimately the Padres got Eric Lauer out of all of this. I don’t hate Lauer but Fulmer and Fried are both more valuable. You are as wrong about this as you were about the Padres winning the Kemp trade and about how the rebuilding Phillies should trade for James Shields and try to attach Matt Harrison in order to cut payroll (despite the fact that adding dead money as a means of adding prospects has been part of the Phillies’ M.O. throughout their rebuild).
His big screwups were trading away Trea Turner, trading for Matt Kemp, signing James Shields to what was at the time the biggest contract in franchise history only to pay half his contract to get rid of him a little over a year later and failing to trade his expiring contracts at the 2015 trade deadline.
Thinking about a Matt Wisler for Danny Santana trade.
The last word on the Kimbrel trade is if Guerra continues to develop and Allen maintains his trajectory. Both a very young and still a long ways from threatening to help at the MLB level.
Both are nice pieces but you can’t validate the Kimbrel trade by pointing at two players in A ball when all you have to show for it right now is Manuel Margot, who may or may not be Billy Hamilton part deux, and a lot of dead money on Melvin Upton.
If Guerra doesn’t come around and Allen ends up in the bullpen or never makes it you guys got robbed buying and selling Kimbrel.
If you cant validate the trade until the pieces fit together at the MLB level then we really can’t say the Upton and Kimbrel trades were bad or good.
Justin Upton cost the padres Jace Peterson who is a platoon candidate at 2nd while Fried, Dustin Peterson are still working in the minors, and mallex smith is travis jankowski go look at their numbers, strikingly similar skill sets. So really it became Upton for Jace Peterson at this point cause the padres lost nothing by dealing smith as they have jankowski.
Kimbrel cost the padres Wisler, Maybin, Paroubeck, and Quentin. Since we know that Wisler has been an utter disappointment and Maybin can’t stay healthy despite being productive and paroubeck and quentin were wash aways. So if you look at the MLB side of things Kimbrel for Wisler, Quentin, Maybin padres won that trade.
Did they win the kimbrel to red sox trade- we will see. But if the margot allen guerra asjuae all wash out at the time the trade made sense for the padres- they acquired two top 100 prospects, a guy people were thinking of jon lester 2.0, and a solid 2B. It’s easy to look at where the trade winds up after the fact, but people forget they didn’t give kimbrel away for nothing at the time- it cost some nice looking piece.
Fried is going to be good and the other three could have been traded for something else. Would you rather have Fried, Smith and the two Petersons, Michael Fulmer or Eric Lauer?
And as for the Kimbrel trade, it could not have worked out much better in hindsight than it did. Kimbrel was flipped a year later for better prospects, Melvin Upton experienced somewhat of a career revival in San Diego and was ultimately able to be traded and Matt Wisler has struggled thus far in the Majors. That doesn’t mean the trade was good at the time. Kimbrel was acquired to close games for the Padres, not to be traded. The Padres are the least team that needs to overpay for an elite closer and the Braves were about to release Melvin Upton before the Padres traded for him.
The fact the Padres will be 2 years removed from their “all in” year, and still have dead money equal to more than half their payroll is really all one needs to know about how well AJ Preller did in his first year. Train wreck. Recovering from it with some solid moves, yeah, but suggesting his initial plan and implementation were not seriously flawed (or its all a wash at this point) is silly. Nobody acquires high priced talent (J.Upton) to get a compensation pick. His salary for one year (even putting aside the prospects they gave up for him) could have funded 3-4 elite IFAs with some to spare.
The Dodgers are not a model the Padres can afford to shadow. Honestly, AF isn’t impressing much either considering the resources he’s been given, and what he inherited.
To be fair, Preller’s “all in”year may have been dictated from above. His worst mistakes that year have been well-documented (Turner, Ross, Fulmer, Grandal) but his hands may have been tied.
That’s what I keep thinking as well. When it comes to moves like the Kemp trade, it would make a lot of sense if the higher-ups were the ones who influenced those moves. It would also help explain why guys like Mike Dee no longer work for the team. Thank goodness for that.
If the Pads higher-ups called those wacky moves, they were channeling their inner Larry Lucchino.
Always possible. Still, were the resources (which includes borrowing from future payrolls) used in the most efficient way? Most of the resources were put into three RH hitting corner OFs (Kemp, J.Upton, Myers, all really LFs at the time), another non-ace RHP in Shields and of course Kimbrel (the one that would make the most sense if they were otherwise a contender).. Then again it’s tough to use resources in the most efficient way longer term when they’re only made available for a limited purpose and for a limited time frame..
I could see the BoSox in on Moose or Hosmer if Dombrowski wants to go all in, or if the Artists Formerly Known As Fat Panda doesn’t have a bounce back year. Hate to lose them both, but it’s just not feasible for the Royals to spend a ton of money on one or two guys. Praying that we aren’t hovering around .500 at the trade deadline. If we’re in a playoff spot, we keep these guys but if we stink we ship them out for as much as we can get.