The Royals announced that they have agreed to terms on minor league deals with infielder Mike Brosseau, left-hander Sam Long and right-handers Tyler Duffey and Dan Altavilla. Reporting on Altavilla’s deal came out yesterday but the other three are new developments.
Brosseau, 30 in March, started the 2023 campaign with the Brewers but hit just .205/.256/.397 in 29 games and was outrighted in July. He then signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball but hit just .191/.218/.287 for that club.
It obviously wasn’t an amazing year for Brosseau, but he has some decent showings in his past. He got into 88 games with the Rays over 2019 and 2020, hitting .284/.343/.500 over that time for a wRC+ of 130. He then slumped badly in 2021 before getting flipped to Milwaukee, which led to a bounceback season. He hit .255/.344/.418 in 70 games for the Brewers for a wRC+ of 118.
If he could back to anything close to that, he could be a decent utility player for the Royals. He’s played all four infield positions in his career and has even had short stint in the outfield corners. The club is set at shortstop and first base with Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino but the other infield spots are less secure. Maikel Garcia and Michael Massey are the favorites for third and second base, respectively, but each of them had subpar offensive seasons in 2023.
The Royals recently signed Garrett Hampson to a major league deal, adding some depth all around the roster, but Brosseau should do the same in a non-roster capacity. If Brosseau gets selected at any point, he still has an option remaining, which would allow the Royals to send him back to the minors without exposing him to waivers.
Long, 28, has logged 128 innings over the past three seasons, pitching for the Giants and Athletics. He has a 4.92 earned run average in that time, along with an 18.5% strikeout rate, 9% walk rate and 40.5% ground ball rate. The Royals only have two lefty relievers on the roster right now in Jake Brentz and Josh Taylor, both of whom dealt with significant injury issues in 2023. If Long can earn his way onto the roster, he’s out of options but can be retained for future seasons since he has under two years of service time.
Duffey, 33 this month, spent 2023 in the Cubs’ system after signing a minor league deal. At the Triple-A level, he threw 45 1/3 innings with 3.77 ERA, 29.1% strikeout rate and 12.6% walk rate. He was selected to the club’s roster on the last day of the season and tossed two innings in the final game on the schedule.
He had a really strong run for the Twins over 2019 and 2020, posting a 2.31 ERA over 81 2/3 innings in those two campaigns, striking out 34.2% of opponents while issuing walks at just 6.1% rate. But his ERA jumped to 3.18 in 2021 and 4.91 in 2022. The Royals’ bullpen has plenty of uncertainty after trading away Aroldis Chapman and Scott Barlow last year, perhaps leaving space for someone like Duffey to take advantage.
Royals are all in
These moves should attract Shohei to Kansas City
Good one …
Not sure what shohei hasn’t already signed.
Must be a fax issue.
The Royals are such a mess. Their position players are mismatched and lacking talent. It’s Witt and a bunch of bums. No pitching to speak of. Just a total mess.
The Royals position players are just kids. Give them time and they’ll be fine. The rotation and the pen however are a mess.
It’s a poorly constructed team. The defense is just terrible. Melendez can’t play defense. Oliveras can’t play defense. They have 2 first basemen that both hit left handed and one can’t play defense. No amount of practice and development is going to make that team make sense
I know that Nick Pratto won a gold glove in the minors. that’s a big deal because they only give ONE glove per position over all four levels (Which means he beat out all the other First baseman)
He’s the 1b who can play defense Pasquatino is the one who cant.
Sammy Long can deal
KC has a nice park and a good fan base, eager for some success. They need to bring somebody in, a GM that is, who knows what he’s doing, formulate a plan, and then stick to it. The Royals should have some good draft picks in the near future. Look at Baltimore. It’s doable but it’s going to take a while.
The Royals have a 60 year old ballpark which is falling apart and in the middle of nowhere. The fan base sold out only 10% of home games following 2 World Series appearances and have been bottom 5 in attendance for several years. The legislature just voted against extending an existing 0.0375% sales tax which would have allowed the Royals to build a new stadium downtown.
Just a few things which don’t line up with your perspective.
People don’t go support and spend money to see a bunch of losers who have no chance at ever being relevant with fixed drafts giving a bad team a horrible draft pick for eternity now.
Yes but they also didn’t spend money to see a team that went to the World Series in 2 consecutive seasons.
They aren’t going to spend anytime soon either with them falling in the draft both lotteries. How can a bad team try to build when they can’t even get a chance at the better prospects in a draft?
Not sure where you’re getting your attendance numbers but “10% home sell outs following 2 WS”? Can’t be correct.
Per baseball reference they drew their franchise record 2.7M in 15 (WS champ year, and the last year they had a winning record) divided by 81 games that’s uhhhh basically every game sold out at roughly 33k per? Depending how you define “sell out” which I can’t seem to nail down. “Capacity” is around 37k
2.5m in 16
2.2m in 17
2018-2023 yes, attendance has gotten worse and worse, and the team has lost 104, 193, 97, 106, games in those years.
The ballpark (despite being almost universally loved) had a major renovation in 2009 thanks to tax payers voting through another initiative.
What the legislature voted down is in no way going to stop the ownership group from pushing something through over the next few years. Lots of unanswered questions on that issue.
Your post seems to insinuate that the teams futility has more to do with fan apathy and infrastructure than an inept baseball organization in a small market. I disagree.
Baseball Reference.
baseball-reference.com/teams/KCR/2016-schedule-sco…
Sort by @ to eliminate road games.
Count the number of games where attendance was 37,903 (capacity), without counting SRO and additional seating that extends capacity beyond 40,000.
1. Sunday, 4/3 = 40,030
2. Tuesday, 4/5 = 39,782
3. Saturday, 4/23 = 39,900
4. Wednesday, 5/4 = 38,610
5. Saturday, 6/5 = 38,880
6. Saturday, 6/18 = 38,480
7. Monday, 7/18 = 38,042
8. Saturday, 9/3 = 39,757
81 home games. 8/81 = 9.9% of games were attended sell outs. Average home attendance was 31,577, good for 12th in MLB. That was, again, after 2 consecutive World Series appearances and winning the championship.
Attendance wasn’t bad by any means, but it also wasn’t great.
Never forget Brosseau’s revenge!!!
Brosseau is a reasonable bench bat against lefties, but he’s more likely to be enjoying Omaha as a “break glass” option.
Best wishes on a speedy recovery.
Tyler Duffey lost 1.5mph off his fastball and increasingly got behind in counts to start the plate appearance. The rest was history. Not sure what Duffey has left in the tank, but he’ll need to be better at getting counts to 0-1 to start the at bats to have any success.
It wouldn’t be a Royals team if they didn’t have a Duff(e)y.
JJ winning on the margins…/s
Yay, Brosseau! Did awesome stuff for us when he was on the Rays:)
The organizational footprint being put together by the Royals clearly indicates that the team is not holding back and that they will be GOING FOR IT ALL IN 2024 !!
Going for it this season would’ve required a payroll of about $300MM for the Royals as they’re built.
Sign Ohtani. $50MM
Sign Yamamoto $25MM
Sign Nola $25MM
Sign Gray $25MM
Sign Kimbrel $13MM
Sign A. Chapman $12MM
Sign J.D. Martinez $20MM
Sign Matt Chapman $25MM
Sign Cody Bellinger $30MM
Acquire J. Polanco +$10.5MM
So if the Royals took on $235MM of AAV, they’d be contenders. Still weak in the corner outfield spots and probably 1B with questions at #5 and a couple bullpen spots, but they’d be contenders for a payroll of just $300MM.