The representatives for free agent right-hander Zack Greinke are telling teams that he is preparing to pitch in 2024 and open to contract talks, per a report from Jon Morosi of MLB.com. He was reportedly still undecided on his future as recently as last month but it now seems he has tilted towards returning for another season on the mound.
Now 40 years old, Greinke is no longer the ace he was for most of his career, but he’s still a serviceable veteran capable of logging some solid innings. In each of the past two offseasons, he has signed one-year deals with the Royals, the club that gave him his start. Kansas City drafted him in 2002 and he pitched for them at the big league level from 2004 to 2010. He then went on an odyssey around the league, jumping to the Brewers, Angels, Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Astros, before returning to Kansas City last year.
The 2022 campaign saw Greinke throw 137 innings with a 3.68 earned run average. He only struck out 12.5% of batters faced but limited walks to just a 4.6% clip and kept 41.3% of balls in play on the ground. His ERA jumped up to 5.06 this year, though his peripherals actually improved, with a 16.4% strikeout rate, 3.9% walk rate and 43.1% ground ball rate. But his strand rate went from 72.9% to 68.7% as a few more fly balls went over the fence, leading to a 4.74 FIP and 4.57 SIERA that paint a more flattering portrait.
It’s unclear how much interest Greinke would have in pitching for teams other than the Royals at this stage. He reportedly turned down similar offers from the Tigers and Twins prior to 2022, preferring to return to where his career began.
The Royals agreed to a deal with Seth Lugo today, adding him into the rotation mix alongside Cole Ragans, Brady Singer and Jordan Lyles, with guys like Daniel Lynch IV, Alec Marsh, Ángel Zerpa and others also in the mix.
General manager J.J. Picollo previously stated that the club could have around $30MM to spend in the offseason. The deal for Lugo, along with deals for Will Smith and Chris Stratton, have resulted in $24MM spent on upgrading the 2024 club. That suggests the budget might be getting a little tight, but it’s possible they can stretch it a bit. Greinke was given a guarantee of $13MM last year and a base of $8.5MM here in 2023, but there was also $7.5MM available in incentives, with Greinke eventually unlocking $4.5MM of those.
Perhaps the two sides could find a similar incentive-laden deal for 2024, allowing the club to further strengthen their pitching depth for the coming season. For Greinke personally, his career strikeout total currently sits at 2,979, just 21 punchouts away from the 3,000 milestone that only 19 pitchers have reached.
Pay him in deferred guacamole!
LA Tax Dodgers on line 1
LA tax dodgers lmao…that’s gold.
Trumbo
Would that mean he’d cash in his “chips”?
Manny, I expect that from CurlyTheSmartStooge! haha
Hard Pass.He’s made $338M. He wants to pass Ohtani.
You’ve made enough money dude.
Go find that ball you took from that kid and give it back to him. That should occupy half your summer.
If Greinke took a ball from a kid, then the kid deserved it. Kid was probably a scumbag.
obviously you didn’t see the video. You’re disqualified.
Don’t need to see it. I saw the kid’s rap sheet, it’s quite extensive. Kid was an MS13 enforcer, Greinke was right to take the ball away.
Just looked it up. Only see random Twitter posts, no video. Even the kid was like “before this picture…”. Zack was right, kid deserved it.
Nah man, screw that kid. He’s nothing but trouble & stormed the capitol on Jan 6.
I knew it! The more that comes out about this kid, the more I respect Greinke for keeping a cool head.
This kid was a real thug, between J6 and MS13, I’m surprised Greinke didn’t rocket that ball back into that sun-bleached dog turd’s face.
lol, scumbag kid
For what it’s worth, Greinke autographed my hat before a game at Kauffman Stadium when I was a teenager, and he was quite polite.
Come north to Minnesota pls
Dodgers.
Once Kershaw comes back from surgery he and Greinke can kick it like it’s 2015.
Hope someone signs him, if for no other reason than to get him to 3000 strikeouts
He’ll certainly get a chance somewhere
Greinke is a professional and a winner. He is the best available 5th starter on the market. I wish he’d consider a deal from the Tigers because I’d love for him to shape the culture of our young staff.
Wherever he lands, I’m rooting for him to get 3,000 strikeouts and become the next David Cone, Mike Mussina type of Hall of Fame debate.
Padres. Veteran presence at back end of the rotation.
In 2023
1st time batters saw greinke they hit
. 263/.310/.356
2nd time they saw greinke they hit
. 260/.281/.448
3rd time he for walloped
.412/.414/.853
So 5th starter opener for 3-4 innings and they piggyback someone after. Morejon or a lefty of some sorts.
There are worse ideas. Looks like SD will have a plethora of long relievers available so some piggy back games are likely if they don’t sogn or trade for 2 “real” SP’s one of which being a 2 and the other a really good 4 quality.
Chaim Breslow already sniffing……..
Good
Dodgers sign him and Rich Hill to be the piggybacked fifth starters
Me too. I got that 84 mph fastball humming for a pitch or two.
How is your change-up doing these days though?
It’s a little off speed
“…per a report from Jon Morosi…”
Which means it’s the exact opposite so we’ll hear tomorrow that Grenke is fully retired and playing golf 5 days a week.
What hat will be on his Cooperstown plaque?
Don’t know about a plaque but the only way he’s in Cooperstown is if he buys a ticket and not sure what or if he will wear a hat when he visits.
If Curt Schilling isn’t a HOF pitcher then Greinke definitely is not.
Both of them are Hall of Fame pitcher’s. Schilling would be in it now if he’d kept his trap shut about the voters when he narrowly missed.
Merc – I don’t care about either but your comment made me curious. CS – no Cy (4 2d) and no GG. ZG 1 CY and 1 2d with 5 GG.
WAR just a little better for CS; wins a little better for ZG (HOF voters still like wins even if you don’t).
Each has his own personal issues in media / fans.
I actually think ZG had a better resume and not nearly the offensive media issues so, I’ll disagree that your use of CS as the litmus test for ZG.
Not saying that ZG is a HOFer but he gets in before CS though.
On field only Schilling should be in. If we’re talking WAR, Schilling and Greinke are clumped around names like Fergie Jenkins, Bob Gibson, Verlander, Kershaw, Scherzer, Tom Glavine, Carl Hubbell, Jim Palmer, and more. There’s quite a few HOF pitchers below them in that regard, as well.
MTG – can’t say that I disagree with you. My primary retort was that ZG isn’t out just because CS is out. The personal issues are a factor but I also think ZG’s body of work is better if only by a small margin so, he could easily get in before CS even without the personal stuff factored in.
Both are HOF according to JAWS
L take
KC
Greinke would be the type of guy to have a generic baseball hat like a create-a-player character. Like they would say “here’s the plaque design we worked up, just let us know the team logo”. And he would respond “looks good” then block them.
“It’s gonna be a big game.”
Royals
Definitely KC.
Oh Jon Morosi reported it? You sure you don’t want confirmation from someone credible?
Greinke was seen on a plane headed for LAX wearing a Dodgers cap. Per J.P. Morosi.
Oops not enough fuel to go to LA. headed for Toronto. Left turn at Ohio.
Must be chasing the 3000k. Probably won’t the HOF due to being “quirky”.
Naah he gets in . He’s weird but he’s not a bad guy. If Rickey Henderson is in the Hall someone more normal like Greinke can get there.
What? Ricky holds all kind of records, never cheated and the quirkiest thing about him was speaking in third person. But hey, you posted a comment sooo yea!
3000 k 6 all stars cy young over 200 wins id say he gets in…
Greinke is just an oddball with social issues, perhaps slightly on the spectrum. But by all accounts, he’s a decent guy. And his career is without a doubt Hall of Fame worthy.
I would be concerned that he’ll completely fall of the cliff, a la Wainwright, who was ok in 2022 and then imploded the next year.
I have it on good authority that Zack Grienke is on a plane headed for Toronto to sign a huge contract.
also from Morosi:
Campanella and Scully spotted backstage at the Whisky a GoGo ripping lines of coke.
Yeah baby, bring that +5.00 ERA! That’s worth $20 mill on the pitching starved MLB landscape! Reputation alone is worth that.
@brooklyn62
Terrible take. First, while his ERA was over 5.00, the ERA doesn’t tell the whole story of a pitcher and very dependent on the defensive skill of the team as well. If we look at what he can control with the kwERA metric, we can see that it’s 3.90 and his GBkwERA of 3.83. His problem is he’s lost a lot of speed on his pitches. If you look at the KC defense of RA9def of -0.20, that means the defense hurt Greinke a bit. They lost him about 3.16 runs. This would bring his ERA down to 4.87.
Second, per Spotrac, his market value is $10.4M not $20M.
Sounds like a Pirates signing to me
Nooooooo
Pirates will only sign him if they think they can flip him for chaff at the deadline.
He should have retired after he was robbed of the 2015 CY Young.
Yeah which time?
Probably after 2015 like he literally said
He’s right about “which time” though. If I remember correctly, his own teammate, Kershaw, got one he should have gotten and so did Jake Arrieta.
I’ll be thrilled if he gets out there and wins comeback player of the year.
Brewers on a 1 year deal
He’s washed up
I say go for the 3000 strikeout mark, and any team worried about salary you can defer it until 2045 and leave him with a million dollars base salary.
this made my day
I am also preparing to pitch in 2024 if anyone’s interested!! unfortunately the last strikeout I threw was over a decade ago and even then I only touched the low 80s… all jokes aside… good for him but also at this point… not sure what he winds up with. but more power to him. A comeback season would certainly be fun to watch just not sure he’s really got anything left in the tank.
Mets or KC or something, guy is a weirdo
He would fit the Royals perfectly in an opener/bulk role.