The Royals have acquired righty James McArthur from the Phillies in exchange for minor league outfielder Junior Marin, per a team announcement. Outfielder/DH Franmil Reyes was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. McArthur, who was designated for assignment by the Phils a few days back, will be assigned to Triple-A Omaha.
Kansas City signed Reyes, 27, to a minor league deal back in February, hoping that the 6’5″ slugger could recapture some of the form he’d showed with San Diego and Cleveland in years past. Reyes has a pair of 30-homer campaigns under his belt, including a 37-homer effort back in 2019. Overall, from 2018-21, he posted a combined .260/.325/.503 with 92 home runs in 1540 plate appearances. Strikeouts were an issue, as he fanned in 29.5% of his trips to the plate during that stretch, but Reyes offset that issue with his prodigious power and a respectable nine percent walk rate.
Things went south in a hurry in 2022, however, and they’ve gone from bad to worse in 2023. Reyes batted just .213/.254/.350 with a mammoth 37.1% strikeout rate in 280 plate appearances with the Guardians last year before being placed on waivers and claimed by the Cubs. A .234/.301/.389 showing down the stretch in Chicago resulted in an outright off the 40-man roster and minor league free agency, which eventually brought Reyes to Kansas City.
Though Reyes slugged a pair of early homers and had a brief hot streak in mid-April, he was optioned to Triple-A after going hitless and failing to reach base in 20 consecutive plate appearances. That swoon dropped him to a .186/.231/.288 batting line and sent his strikeout rate soaring to 36.9%. In four Triple-A games, he’s gone 3-for-15 with a homer, a walk and seven strikeouts (18 total plate appearances).
The Royals will have a week to trade Reyes, place him on outright waivers, or release him. His minor league contract came with a $2MM base salary, which makes it all the likelier that he’d pass through outright waivers unclaimed if the team goes that route.
In place of Reyes, the Royals will hope to unlock something in the 26-year-old McArthur — a towering 6’7″, 230-pound righty who has yet to make his big league debut. McArthur has opened the 2023 season with a rough patch in Triple-A Lehigh Valley, yielding 13 runs on 20 hits, seven walks and a pair of hit batters against 15 strikeouts in 16 innings of work. That’s his first taste of Triple-A after spending the two prior seasons in Double-A Reading, where he combined for a 4.73 ERA with a 24.7% strikeout rate against an 8.4% walk rate in 131 innings.
McArthur has worked primarily as a starter in the minors (including this year in Triple-A), though FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote in his April overview of the Phillies’ system that McArthur was sitting 94-96 mph during short relief stints in spring training. Pitchers this tall can often have difficulty repeating their mechanics and thus be pushed to the bullpen, and it’s possible that’s where McArthur will ultimately land.
The Royals have Major League Baseball’s third-worst rotation ERA and fourth-worst bullpen ERA, so it’s hardly a surprise to see them adding nearly MLB-ready depth. McArthur doesn’t possess a huge ceiling, but he’s not far off from being ready for a Major League look, and Kansas City needs all the arms it can get at this point.
In exchange for some near-MLB pitching help, the Royals will part ways with a teenage outfield prospect who is likely years from being anywhere close to a consideration at the big league level. Marin turned 19 in mid-March and hasn’t yet advanced beyond Rookie ball. He’s already listed at 6’2″ and 240 pounds and has played right field near exclusively, with only a two-game cameo in left otherwise. Marin is a .328/.425/.554 hitter in 214 professional plate appearances but also struck out 31 times in 103 plate appearances with Kansas City’s affiliate in the Arizona Complex League last year. There’s some obvious power in his bat, but he wasn’t ranked among the best prospects in a sub-par Royals farm system and will now be a years-long development project for the Phillies.
Reyes has no place on a rebuilding team. Waters will be back soon to take JBJ’s place as well.
Anyone in NPB or the KBO have a spot for Reyes? May be his best shot to rebuild value in 2023.
This. It could be a mutual benefit of Reyes learning more contact skills, while showcasing his prodigious power — following the Eric Thames blueprint. At only 27 y/o, he still has time especially with 30 spots at a DH and teams not willing to pay premium to fill it. Nelson Cruz can’t be a DH forever — right? Right??
No fit on the roster, but wish the padres could bring Franimal home.
I think he would be pretty easy to obtain right now
During his stint with the Indians he showed some flashes but never seemed to be able to put it together. Despite the scouting reports of a great work ethic that was actually one of the reasons Cleveland ended up letting him go. He developed a reputation of being lazy
Someone will pick up on Fanmail, He’s an imposing figure lumbering next to the plate. WWE next?
I disagree. A reclamation project like Reyes is a smart investment for a team like KC.
Absolutely…just like Chapman, but not nearly the baggage. That Chapman investment looks to pay off quite handsomely at the Deadline if their GM is worth the task.
Reyes was awesome with the Indians for a brief time. He killed the White Sox (who hasn’t). But when the cubs got him, I thought something had gone wrong or why would he be with the cubs? His best chance of getting back to the majors is to enroll in the Dallas Keuchel School for Player Rehabilitation. You have to be dfa’d at least three times in one season to be admitted.
I thought he had a super spring?
Future NY Yankee
Depends on how much he is on the IL.
Not sure if you are trying to crack a joke on the Yankees but I think that’s a good risk to take for just about any team.
Still would have a higher WAR than Hicks. Why not?
The guy the Phillies got is 19, made it over to the States last year, and slashed .315/.379/.413 in 30 games for the Royals Rookie affiliate. Not too bad since he’s still so young and for the fact that MacArthur has had a rough going.
Getting anything of value for McArthur is great.
Royals pitching is a disaster even with pitchers that have had a good track record. Now they trade a promising 18 year old for a minor leaguer with a suspect track record? I don’t trust the Royals that they can “fix” him.
Reyes is a perfect Pirates signing. He’s cheap and his success from a few years ago is enough of a tease for the front office to sell him to a frustrated fan base.
Pirates or the A’s.
I thought he was Nelson Cruz 2.0, guess I missed that one
Could definitely be wrong, but never got a sense Reyes was employing an edge in stringing together several strong offensive seasons through ’21.
Dropping off so much starting at age 26 is odd.
I wish the Phils got a 19 year old fire baller they could develop..This team has no arms after Nola and Wheeler and Nola isn’t Nola anymore.. Good and even decent pitchers are very hard to find/get..
What good is scoring 4 or 5 runs a game if your pitchers give up 6 and 7 runs..The Phillies bullpen is going to worn out before the middle of June.
Just my opinion..I could be alone in this thinking…
Heard of Mick Abel? Dude might already be AAA ready.
DS, while I agree, I fear rushing these kids too fast.
Reyes is an enigma, one of the biggest I’ve seen in baseball.
He was targeted by Cleveland in the Bauer trade, had a track record of improvement, and a reputation for having a good work ethic.
His K rate wasn’t far out of line for the power he displayed. His walk rate wasn’t bad.
For three years he improved to the point of being on the verge of something special. Then…BAM…nothing.
Cleveland shows a lot of patience with younger players that show power potential…almost to the point of ridiculousness. Franmil didn’t have merely potential. He had demonstrable power, but it didn’t matter. Cleveland dropped him quickly.
They gave him a pretty long leash of 2-3 months last year in whuch he hit about 29 percent below league average as a DH.
When you look at the years long leashes Cleveland has given younger players in the past…Zimmer, Bradley, Bauers, and Chang come to mind…2-3 months is like a three minute timer.
And Reyes had actually produced fairly well before falling off a cliff.
I watched him every day and he was dreadful. He wasn’t going to figure it out.
What happened to Reyes? When he was with the Padres and the first two seasons in Cleveland he looked like he was going to be a good solid player with serious power. Then he just fell off a cliff last year.
Its not like he got old, he is just 27. He doesn’t look like he gained more weight since his Padres days, so its not that. So what is it?
When a team as pathetic as the Royals cuts you, something is seriously wrong.
I’ve been wondering about this too. Obviously he always had his limitations when he was with SD, but he looked like a capable DH when they traded him and when he got to CLE he was solid for a couple years.
His numbers since the beginning of last year are awful though. It would be one thing if his numbers fell off a cliff when he was traded to CLE but he showed the ability to hit in both leagues, he just can’t do it anymore for some reason.
Hopefully Cleveland does not claim him in time for the Detroit Tigers series wh/ starts today as Reyes OWNS them. Believe he’s hit 80% of his career homers vs. Detroit or close enough it just feels that way
I checked his splits…of his 108-career home runs, 11 of them (10.2%) have come against Detroit. The next highest total vs. any team is 7 vs. Kansas City, Maybe Detroit should claim his and stash him in Toledo, so they don’t have to worry about facing him at all.
The Franimal is more bark than bite these days. A good risk for several teams take though.
Watching a Padres game on MLBtv years ago, the Friars broadcasters were excited that Reyes and Franchy Cordero were coming up together and expected both to be the future of the franchise.
There is NO CHANCE Franmil Reyes is 27 year’s old. He must have gotten his birth certificate from Danny Almonte’s people. Bc he looks closer to 37
Franmil is a Rochester Red Wing now, courtesy of the Nationals, who picked him off the scrap heap. Nationals have a serious need for a power hitter, so Reyes joins Matt Adams in Triple A to try to relocate his power stroke. Probably worth a try.