DEC. 1: It’s a two-year, $18MM guarantee with a $13MM club option or a $1MM buyout for 2023, Passan tweets. It will become a mutual option if the Royals trade Minor, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports (via Twitter). The deal includes salaries of $7MM for 2021 and $10MM for 2022, and Minor could make an extra $50K for 180 and 200 innings pitched in both seasons, according to Rosenthal (on Twitter).
NOV. 29: The Royals have agreed to a deal with southpaw Mike Minor, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link). The contract will become official when Minor passes a physical. Minor is represented by Jet Sports Management.
ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports that it is a multi-year pact between the two sides, with MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand adding that the contract is for two years. This tops MLBTR’s prediction of a one-year, $6MM contract for Minor, and he is now the first free agent of the 2020-21 offseason to sign a multi-year contract. We’ve already seen a fair bit of action within the pitching market, though Robbie Ray (Blue Jays), Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly (both Braves) all signed one-year deals, and Marcus Stroman (Mets) and Kevin Gausman (Giants) accepted one-year qualifying offers to remain with their former teams.
This will be Minor’s second time in a Kansas City uniform, as the left-hander previously pitched for the team in 2017. Minor actually signed with K.C. on a two-year deal prior to the 2016 season, though he missed all of 2016 recovering from the shoulder problems that also caused him to miss all of 2015. After those two lost years, Minor excelled in a relief role in 2017, posting a 2.55 ERA, 4.00 K/BB rate, and 10.2 K/9 over 77 2/3 innings out of the Royals’ bullpen.
From there, Minor went on to sign a three-year, $28MM free agent deal with the Rangers and resumed his career as a starter, displaying much of the same solid form that made him a valued member of the Braves’ rotation from 2010-14. Minor posted a 3.84 ERA over 365 1/3 innings in 2018-19, even finishing ninth in AL Cy Young Award voting during the 2019 campaign.
2020 was a much tougher experience for Minor, however, as he posted a 5.56 ERA, 3.10 K/BB rate, and 9.8 K/9 over 56 2/3 innings with the Rangers and Athletics, joining Oakland on a deal at the trade deadline. A career-high 15.7% home run rate was part of Minor’s problem, and his hard-hit percentage jumped from 30.4% in 2019 to 40.4% in 2020.
While Minor’s overall Statcast picture wasn’t pretty, he still boasted an elite fastball spin rate that put him in the 97th percentile of pitchers. ERA predictors were also a bit more sympathetic to Minor’s performance in 2020, with a 4.64 FIP, 4.50 xFIP, and 4.20 SIERA.
With those silver linings, Minor’s generally solid track record, and their prior relationship with Minor in mind, the Royals clearly felt comfortable in making a two-year commitment to a pitcher who turns 33 in December. The Royals haven’t had a winning record since their World Series-winning 2015 season, though GM Dayton Moore has stated that he expects his team to be competitive in 2021, perhaps indicating that the Royals are planning to turn the corner from their latest rebuild.
Minor will now join Danny Duffy as the veteran staples of the K.C. rotation, with Brad Keller entering his fourth MLB campaign and youngsters Brady Singer and Kris Bubic looking to build off respectable rookie seasons. Jakob Junis and Carlos Hernandez are also on hand as depth options, and noted prospects Daniel Lynch and Jackson Kowar are also likely nearing their big league debuts, so the Royals have quite a few interesting rotation options on hand. MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan also raises the intriguing possibility that Minor could be a fallback plan for the Royals at closer, since Minor performed well as a ninth-inning option for Kansas City in 2017.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Welcome back!
Reliever o starter?
my guess is they pencil him in as a starter to start and then see how their prospects do in the spring.
Yeah I assume he’d be expected to start. Him and Duffy seem like guys who could get shifted to the pen eventually. Maybe once a prospect is ready whoever is pitching better between the two stays in the rotation and the other gets shifted.
Duffy makes a ton of sense in the bullpen and has been very successful there when he has pitched in that role but doesn’t want it and Moore has shown no signs whatsoever of that being part of the plan. So we’ll continue running him out there and he’ll continue nibbling and running his pitch count up while shutting a team out through 5 and then fall apart third time through the order. Love the “bury me a Royal” attitude, but Duffy is a textbook head case lefty with nasty stuff who needs to be a high leverage reliever.
We have one of those in Philly, his name is Vince Velasquez. Why he hasnt been converted into a high leverage reliever playing off that power fastball, is prob the same reason the Phillies dont have a competent President or GM.
Considering that it’s the Royals, I’d have to assume he will be a starter.
@PapiElf
Your comment makes no sense, since the Royals are the ONLY team that has used him as a closer.
braves25
When the Royals had him in 2017, they were a decent team (80-82) but now as a 4th or 5th place team, I think there’s a pretty good chance they use him as a starter, or a swingman at least
The one year try to flip him at the deadline special or a multi-year deal?
Knowing the Royals, probably the former.
that’s another one wrong. sigh.
Oof, I had him going to the Astros…
I had him going to the Angels I believe. I thought that either Minor or Happ would sign with the Angels, and Happ to the Angels seems a lot more likely now.
Had him going to NYM – I believe. Can’t think of the rationale other than being a backend SP. Not sure if that was done before Stroman accepted the QO – locking up one spot. FWIW, also had Bauer going to NYM.
I had Braves, they do like signing the old show-me guys on one year deals
better risk than Smyly although not as cheaply.
So starved for real baseball transactions that I even read about this.
The winter meetings are in about a week. That should end the dry spell.
The winter meetings are virtual this year. I wouldn’t expect much of anything.
hmmm… thought he’d have signed with a team in a more clear-cut position to compete (Angels, Twins, Phillies, Mets, Cubs, Brewers would all have made a bit more sense to me….)
i dunno, I think the Royals could be sneaky contenders next year.
For KC to sign a pitcher this early, they needed to add the 2nd year. Those other teams may be more obvious to compete, but likely didn’t offer more than one.
My guess was he’d end up back in Atlanta, but Smyly deal changed that. AAV hasn’t been announced yet but interested to see how Minors contract compares to Smyly’s.
LESSSSS GOOOOO!!!
Solid pickup for the Royals
Well compared to the last 4 seasons, a rotation of…….
Keller
Singer
Minor
Bubic
Duffy
Is quite palatable & with the strength of the bullpen which quite possibly will be added to, I can handle that!
And then there’s still Kowar, Lacy, Lynch, Bowlan, Cox, Marsh, Heasley, etc to come.
I’m starting to dig what seems to be unfolding…
Royals have pitching. Merrifield is great. Salvador is good. Mondesi is good. Both Soler and Dozier took steps backwards last year. Unless they get some free agent hitting I’m not expecting much. You still have to score runs to win.
This is one of those July rental player deals. The Royal basically are gonna play Minor and deal him for a low level prospect unless he returns to 2019 form and maybe they can get a 15 to top 20 pick from someones organization is desperation for pitching. Really unless Minor gets hurt they should get something out of this.
Linda Kaye Henning no longer cares !!
Neither does Uncle Joe. He’s a moving kinda slow.
Wow. That’s the first Petticoat Junction reference I have seen in a LONG time. Very nice.
Does this open up a trade of a young pitcher for outfield help? I don’t know KC’s farm that well but we could match up here.
Springer to KC
I mean… not a bad signing I guess. Depends on the AAV but I assume they got him cheap
Quite a surprise to see Minor sign on with KC. I figured he would have latched on with a contender or at least a team that has a chance to make some noise in playoffs (CLE, CWS, SD, etc). Good signing for KC though. He can help teach the kids and if he pitches well in the first half, he can easily be traded for a few more building blocks for KC. While KC has some good, young talent they are still 2-3 years away from being in the playoff mix.
money matters still……..
Good buy low signing for the Royals. I don’t think Minor will be as bad as he was this year, so they could definitely flip him for prospects at the deadline if he plays well.
I have seen quite a few comments on here about “I thought Minor would want to go to a contender?”, and I don’t understand why. Maybe since he had a bad 2020 good teams are hesitant to bring him along. He probably didn’t have a decision between the Royals, Astros, Padres, and Cardinals, he probably had the Royals jump at him, and since it was multiple years he took it. Plus, KC isn’t terribly far off from contending either. Sleeper team for sure.
Yeah I don’t think he had much of a market after the type of year he just had. Given his age, it’s very possible that he just fell off a cliff and doesn’t have much left in the tank anymore. I do believe that he can still be an effective pitcher, though.
There’s a lot of overthinking that takes place when fans consider these moves. There’s a chance that maybe Mike Minor wanted to return to Kansas City, for whatever reason. Could be that he loved BBQ, or his favorite aunt lives there.
It could be that KC was the first to offer and he didn’t want to risk it.
Who knows? But it’s probably a good gamble for him, and depending on the money, a good gamble for KC as well.
I would never doubt the power of Kansas City BBQ. At least KC is doing something.
Gonna get them Drew Smiley buck$
This signing says, “I don’t actually want to play for the Royals, but I know that if I pitch well enough, I’ll get traded to a mid-season contender. and plus, I know the area.” Seems pretty perfect to me.
I was thinking the same thing last night when Minor’s news came out. Should be a easy tranation.
A nice low cost move to provide some veteran leadership into the clubhouse. Now we need to work on the lineup. Possibly a BP arm.
Probably the only team that offered him two guaranteed years. I’d imagine he starts unless he struggles.
He just needs to lower his ERA by a half step in the third and seventh innings and he will be a natural.
Pitching in KC just might do that.
If his “spin rate’ was good but his other numbers relevant to results were bad, doesn’t that mean spin rate is irrelevant?
Yes and no. It means that he might have had some bad luck, and will be better going forward, and it means that there is something there for a new pitching coach to harness, but it also means that maybe he struggles with deception or other elements of pitching that hinder his ability.
Good pickup. Springer to a Contender.
Nice pickup! I believe the Royals are going to get good value out of this. I think Minor returns to form next year. The market for starting pitching doesn’t seem too bad. I guess we will see about hitters and relievers because none have signed yet. (Except Josh tomlins 1 million dollar deal)
Had him going to the Mets. Good pickup here.
Lots of discussion for such a minor deal
Because most teams are pitching poor after two starters.
.
i don’t think u get the joke
$18 million guarantee? Good deal for both sides!
yep. totally going to be a slow winter. sure.
where’s the leaderboard???
Wow, he earned about $5M more than I expected. I figured 2 years/$12M with an $8M team option with a $1M buyout. Great deal for Minor and the MLBPA. So much for depressed salaries for middle of the road players. Looks like pitching is still highly valued based on the Gausman QO, the Smyly & Morton deals in ATL and now Minor with KC & Trevor May with the Mets. If teams want decent pitching, they are going to have to pay for it. Hendricks & Bauer are licking their chops!
I think everyone got overly pessimistic after the Brad Hand situation, but you’re right the pitching in the middle of the market seems to be doing pretty well in the earlier FA signings so far.
I wonder if teams are going to run into spending limits imposed by their owners later in FA, leaving the guys who sign next year in trouble. It seems like there’s all this fuss about teams having no money so we’re going to have to see it impact the market at some point right?
Wonder what it feels like for an extra $50k in incentives to feel like nothing/not worth the extra effort, as most Americans don’t even make that much