MARCH 5: The Royals have announced the signing, Alec Lewis of The Athletic tweets. The contract includes $250K in performance bonuses.
MARCH 2: The Royals have reached an agreement with free-agent outfielder Jarrod Dyson, Robert Murray of FanSided reports. It’s a $1.5MM pact for the ACES client, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network. The deal is pending a physical.
Dyson is going back to his first organization, which used a 50th-round pick on him in 2006. He managed to overcome the odds and reach the majors in 2010, and has since appeared in the bigs in 11 straight seasons. During his initial run with the Royals, Dyson turned in a few productive campaigns – including during their AL-winning 2014 effort and their World Series title season in 2015 – owing to a combination of excellent defense and base running. He played a fairly regular role with the Royals from 2012-16 and stole at least 25 bases in each of those years.
Heading into the 2017 season, the Royals traded Dyson to the Mariners for right-hander Nate Karns. Dyson, now 36, has also played for the Diamondbacks, Pirates and White Sox since the Royals parted with him. While Dyson has never been a huge threat with the bat, his production has plummeted over the past few seasons. Dating back to 2017, he has slashed an ugly .226/.305/.309 in 1,145 plate appearances, and his 2020 output – .180/.231/.180 in 66 PA – looks especially poor. However, Dyson did steal 80 bases and continue to offer high-grade defense (33 DRS, 22 UZR) during that four-year period.
Dyson, who has extensive experience at all three outfield positions, looks to be in line to back up Andrew Benintendi, Michael A. Taylor and Whit Merrifield in his return to Kansas City. Like Dyson, both Benintendi and Taylor have joined the Royals since last season ended.
That what speed do.
Stole my thunder
Jarrod “The Cleaner” Dyson
Jarrod “Myles” Dyson
Jarrod “lightning rod” Dyson
Jarrod “4th outfielder” Dyson
The “9th Gear” Jarrod Dyson
If they start handing out wins for best 4X1600 meter relay team made up of your outfielders, look out!
Herb Washington has a ring, they already have been!
Are you A’sfaninLondonUK?
In the unlikely event that there are two A’s fans in England.
And many many Big Macs – google it
If it’s a minor league deal, could be good for him to work along side Nick Heath for a bit. Might also send Olivares to AAA for a while and let Dyson be the 4th outfielder, to get Olivares regular at bats. Otherwise not sure the purpose of this deal lol.
The purpose is for me to be able to text “that’s what speed do” and the Dyson motorcycle gif to my friends once or twice a week. Worth $1.5m of John Sherman’s money to me!
Class act. Tremendous player. Unsung hero of those Royals teams. Hope he gets some chances on this team, I’m sure he can still hit and run and field
He could probably run for someone slow like Mondesi lol
Nice.
I love this kinda stuff. A 50th(!) round pick & today signing a contract for $1.5MM. That’s awesome, man.
Puts him at almost 18MM career earnings. Hes done good for himself i rekon
I’m in total agreement, Ducky. Not to mention – a 50th round pick (1,474 players were drafted ahead of him) from the projects in the Deep South who was signed for a couple thousand dollars, and who who has gone on to post a 15 WAR so far in his major league career, and earn over 16 million dollars so far in lifetime earnings not counting this forthcoming KC contract. Gave so much back to his mom and his little hometown. Guys drafted as low as he was are not meant to post even .01 of WAR (they are drafted way down there as minor league depth), so this is a guy whom one only underestimates at their own peril. Dyson is one of my all time favorite players and human beings.
Aren’t even 50 rounds anymore. I believe he’s the only 50th rounder in history to make the majors.
Travis Tartamela also from the 50th round of that year appeared in 3 games for the Cardinals in 2015. But very rare indeed.
Mike piazza was a 62nd round pick
jagonza – I’d forgotten about Mike Piazza; good call (although in Piazza’s case, less guys were picked in front of him than were picked in front of Dyson….due to the fact that there were fewer teams in existence in 1988 than there were in 2006……1,.390 players were taken ahead of Piazza). I knew that there were probably other guys picked at round 50 or below who made the majors, but I suppose my point (or whatever I was trying to say) is that people like Dyson (and certainly MIke P.) are the exception rather than the rule. In retrospect, the Dodgers owed Tommy Lasorda a big bonus for pushing for Piazza’s signing.
Travis Phelps was an 89th round pick (and signee) in the 1996 draft and he eventually made the bigs.. Scott Seabol was taken the round before in the same draft (he also signed) and eventually made the bigs.
A lot of guys from later rounds have debuted over the years.
Ya I was definitely wrong about that, there was a guy picked two picks after Dice in the same draft. Could’ve sworn I heard that in a broadcast once. #fakenews
Mike Piazza’s father and Tommy Lasorda were distant cousins. Vince Piazza (mikes dad) ran across HOF Ted Williams at a baseball card show and actually talked Ted Williams into checking out 16 year old Mike Piazza hit in a batting cage the Piazza’s had constructed in their back yard.
Hey, thanks for the back story, man.
Didn’t know nearly that much about him. Great stuff. Certainly a fine player to be a fan of.
David C: Dyson and the Royals are an excellent match. I can see him being an asset to the organization long after his playing days are over. Developing players is about so much more than hitting, throwing, and catching the ball. It’s also about helping them grow as people. The lifestyle can break you. With all the money invested in players, teams seem to be realizing this more and more (witness the Dodgers’ hiring of Dontrelle Willis in a player development capacity this week). Dyson can be an excellent mentor to young professional players both on-field and off.
Jarrod coming back to finish where it started perhaps
While he hadn’t been of much value since 2017, no harm in taking a look to see if anything is left.
Probably a stupid deal, especially as a major league contract, but the fan in me can’t help but love it.
I agree 100%. Is there better talent out there, yes. However, Dyson has something you can’t teach, blazing speed. Glad to have him back in the fold. GREAT for a young locker room too.
A personal story, I actually got his autograph at a Best Buy on my receipt. I bought the Major League Trilogy that day too. Was kind of ironic and still have it in a little frame in the man cave.
How it feel to chew 5 gum.
Dyson can still run, which makes him a good fit on a team that emphasizes that part of the game. The Royals are my choice for the surprise team of 2021. I’m not saying they’ll make the playoffs, but if the young starting pitchers step up, they can finish third ahead of Cleveland. They are headed in the right direction and should be a fun team to watch.
Well said!
Crazy what Cleveland did to their club, man. The distance between them & the Twins/White Sox is pretty significant now. & – yeah – KC has closed really the gap. & if a couple of those young Tiger pitchers break out…man, it’s very possible that the Indians finish in last.
Too bad. That was a nice team.
They were on their way. Starting pitching to die for; spruce up the offense and you’ve got a window of a few years to finally win a World Series. With all the other stuff swirling around, you can imagine this being a disastrous season in Cleveland on a number of levels. If it is, then they might as well go full rebuild at the deadline and trade Ramirez. Kinda spooky that Bieber came down with Covid. He’ll recover; it just seems like a bad omen. A poor record, weak attendance, and a widespread organizational shakeup are real possibilities.
No chance Ramirez finishes his deal there. Yeah. I think we’ll see a fire sale in Cleveland this summer. Going to be a tough road for their fans, man. Pretty grim future.
& that’s before we even talk about the obvious disfunction in their front office. They’ve quite suddenly become the biggest mess in MLB right now.
Ya know?
Gotta wonder if they’ll ever win the Series. Looks like it’ll be a long awhile at the very least.
Grim, for sure. Post-Covid, I imagine it will be a lot harder for bad teams to get fans back to the ballpark. As for the current investigation, this will be worse for Cleveland than it was for Houston. At least Astros fans got a championship. Cleveland fans will be watching a lousy team while Lindor, Ramirez, and maybe even Bieber star for other teams. Amed Rosario, for goodness sakes.
A shakeup is coming, one would think. They jettisoned Clevenger for his apparently single transgression. This will be worse. Terrible timing, too, when you consider how their division is getting tougher. There will be a dark cloud hanging over the organization as they look to rehabilitate their image and re-shape their identity. The poor fans. They don’t even know what the team will be called.
Baseball-wise, the part that gets me is wasting all that starting pitching they’ve developed. Imagine the Yankees heading into the season with that rotation? It would remove quite a few “ifs,” wouldn’t it?
“Imagine the Yankees heading into a full season with that rotation.”
Aww, man.
You really know how to hurt a fella.
The hardest thing in baseball to do – develop starting pitching – & they did so well at it.
& then just…pissed it away.
Lindor would have cost a bunch to keep. I know it’s a smaller market, but something is wrong when you surrender a player of that magnitude. What better way for a sports franchise to make money than to have a winning team to market? Keeping Lindor and adding Ozuna would have made them a solid playoff contender. They then could have added whatever else they needed at the trade deadline and ride that pitching into October. The payroll would remain reasonable, interest in the team quite high despite the pandemic. While I’m clueless about their finances, I’m having a hard time believing that the pandemic made it necessary to piss it all away. It’s like encouraging people to not follow the team. With the Mets trade, it was as if they added Carrasco to make the Mets take Lindor. Insane. Weak return.
Cleveland is fine. Fire or step down whoever needs to go if need be. No need for a rebuild. Everybody is cheap or has no value. Most their pitchers have 4 to 6 years of control. They have a good farm. If out of it in July they can trade some people if the return is right. If they are hanging around pick up a couple bats and go for it.
Who will they trade if they’re out of it in July? You just stated that everybody is cheap or has no value. Their lineup is putrid. If they move Ramirez after trading Lindor, that would indicate a rebuild.
Not much doubt that GM Drayton Moore likes “character guys”, and Dyson’s always been one of those. Santana, Merrifield, Salvy, now Dyson…..lots of good guys in that clubhouse.
And yes, they CAN surprise. The big boys in that division (Minny, CWS, CLE) all have warts. Lots and lots of things have to go right for them to win, but a lot stranger things have happened.
As a Red Sox fan, I hope they can convince Benentendi to get off that “launch angle” stuff and go back to hitting to contact. If they can, they got themselves a Gordon clone , who’ll fans out there will appreciate for a while.
And they’ll be fun to watch. Sound fundamentals, and guys who always go full tilt.
Great point about Benintendi and launch angle. Considering the makeup of their team, the Royals might have had that in mind when pursuing the trade. As for them being fun watch, it’s just nice to see a team that doesn’t have the same offensive philosophy as everyone else. The game needs some variety. One of my favorite World Series’ was 1982 between Milwaukee and St. Louis. Harvey’s Wallbangers versus the speedy Cardinals. Two successful teams that couldn’t be more different from one another.
My friends son played high school ball with Benintendi and said he is a great person, humble, down to earth
Why the rudeness? Those things actually matter. Baseball can be a humbling game. The season is long, the amount of travel insane, and the lifestyle difficult. And that doesn’t take into account how hard it is to excel at playing the game. When talented players fail, it is often due to lacking the traits PeteWard8 mentioned.
Btw, saying “no one cares” suggests that you speak for everyone. You don’t. When you grow up, you’ll understand why it’s wrong to think that.
It’s Lolzmets.
Back from his latest banishment with a new name intended to do nothing more than cause dissention.
One of my sales guys is absolutely convinced there are bots on the internet for the sole purpose of dividing us.
Seems like crazy talk. But then…it would explain what he’s doing here.
I’ve heard the bots thing, too. I can’t remember the specifics, but there was a group that infiltrated quite a few newspaper sites that use Disqus. They would try to create controversy by checking in on discussions that weren’t controversial by nature. Nutty stuff. They would get banned but then re-emerge under a new handle. Some of the organizations eventually just shut the chat mode off. I think Amazon’s music chat was a casualty. I visited it from time to time. Things got hostile and then one day it disappeared.
Lol
Man, I hate even posting about this because I feel like the next phase is fashioning my tinfoil hat.
But that dude’s never once had an actual baseball take. It’s always exactly like the comment above. I’m a conservative – if anything. He supposedly is too. Just for the record, I despise his takes & presentation, as much as anyone.
Not at all. What an idiotic premise.
& if we’re actually going to discuss; “stupid or repetitive comments constantly on a public forum” – well I can’t think of anyone who fits that particular description better than you.
That’s basically you’re whole deal, man! Is this some form of ironic trolling? Like calling the fat guy “slim” or the bald guy “curly”?
Nah, @lolzmets.
It all comes down to the simple fact that you’re nothing more than a weird & creepy little stalker. That is why I don’t care for you or your erstwhile “opinion”. The End.
I hope this clarifies things for you, man.
It would bother me a little if there was any ambiguity, uh?
He’s already talked about it in every interview he’s given, going back to being a doubles hitter, which will be awesome in our park with the huge gaps.
I used to think that my distress about the lack of in-game action, and obsession with three-outcome at-bats, was because I was an old fogey. But conversations with much younger fans convinced me that wasn’t it. And ya, I miss those Whitey Herzog teams….something ALWAYS happening.
Hopefully the new ball helps. I’m not suggesting a complete return to “Billy-Ball”, but watching a team that steals, takes the extra base, and hits triples is more fun than watching pop-ups.
And ya, I get that doing those things doesn’t do much for players at the arbitration table. I’d like to see THAT change. Hunter Pence was on mlb.tv yesterday, talking about exactly that. He pointed at Pedroia as his inspiration for how you play this game. Not saying either is a HOF-er, but they sure as heck were fun to watch.
My wife is not a baseball fan but accompanied me to a game a couple of years ago when the Dodgers game to Philly. After the first two innings of strikeouts and walks, she commented, “Why do you enjoy this? Nothing ever happens.”
So do you intentionally always call him Drayton even though his name is Dayton? I’ve always wondered…
You’re right. I DO always do that. Totally my mistake…..I knew a Drayton years ago, but that shouldn’t mean much….really don’t know….
Lol just wondered if it was a joke or something. Normally I’m not the guy that corrects people’s spelling or whatever on these things, just had happened enough times my curiosity got the best of me. 🙂
This dude’s platinum card in 9innings baseball 2013 was legit
Hey even if some these guys are simply there wear their Kansas City World Series rings around the clubhouse for the young guys I love it!
Dyson fit in so well with those winning Royals teams. Both overachievers with plenty of spirit. Good to see one of the most beloved players in team history back – regardless of what he does on the field this year.
Dyson needs two stolen bases to pass Frank White on the Kansas City all-time list at fifth and twenty-five to pass George Brett for fourth all-time stolen in KC.
Great move. I have no idea if he can still run or man center but he is a familiar face for the fans. Worth the 1.5 in pr.
Watching him play for the Dbacks against the Dodgers, he moved pretty well. Low OBP, but 30-for-34 in SBs in 2019 after going 16-for-19 the previous season. His defense was fine.
Btw, I just looked and he is 256-of-300 in his career on SB attempts. His success rate of 85.3% is the best all-time for players with at least 200 steals. It is also third for players with at least 100 (trailing only Chase Utley and Carlos Beltran). Dyson was even 6-for-6 last year with Pittsburgh. That makes him 52-for-59 over the last three years. Fast but also smart on the bases.
A 36 year old who has hit a combined .213 – .296 – .288 over the past 3 seasons, gets a guaranteed contract?!
This man has one of the best agents in the world.
Royals are a first-class, loyal organization. Remember that last yr they were the only team to pay their Minor Leaguers a full salary while all other teams were slashing expenses at every opportunity. The Royals are an easy team to root for.
Lol I appreciate (and agree with) the sentiment, but as a 37 year-old royals fan I can tell you I could use a lot of words to describe being a royals fan, but “easy” wouldn’t be one of them! 🙂
Dyson, Mike Minor, Wade Davis, Ervin Santana, the Royals like to bring back familiar faces