The Royals and Michael Lorenzen are reportedly in agreement on a one-year, $7MM contract. The deal, which is pending a physical, comes with a $5.5MM salary for next season. There’s a $12MM mutual option for 2026 that would come with a $1.5MM buyout if the Royals decline their end of the option. The contract also contains $1MM in performance bonuses for the CAA client.
Lorenzen heads back to Kansas City after finishing the ’24 campaign with the Royals. Kansas City acquired him from the Rangers in a deadline deal that sent reliever Walter Pennington to Texas. Lorenzen made a strong first impression, turning in a 1.57 ERA across 28 2/3 innings while starting six of his seven outings.
That capped off one of the better seasons of his decade-long MLB career. Lorenzen finished the year with a combined 3.31 earned run average over 130 1/3 innings. He started all but two of his 26 appearances. It was the third straight solid year since Lorenzen moved to the rotation. He’d turned in a 4.24 ERA over 18 starts for the Angels in 2022 and combined for a 4.18 mark in 153 innings between the Tigers and Phillies in ’23.
In each of those seasons, Lorenzen has found bottom line success despite an unimpressive strikeout and walk profile. That was particularly true last year. His 18.1% strikeout percentage and 11.2% walk rate are a few points worse than the respective league averages. Lorenzen has missed bats on fewer than 10% of his pitches in consecutive seasons. Last year’s 9.1% swinging strike rate was his lowest mark since 2018.
Lorenzen nevertheless carries a 3.90 ERA across nearly 400 innings over the last three seasons. While he has outperformed his peripherals in each season, teams seemingly remain skeptical about his chances of doing so yet again. Lorenzen has been limited to one-year contracts with base salaries below eight figures in each of the last four offseasons. He reportedly sought a two-year deal last winter. Lorenzen lingered in free agency deep into Spring Training before heading to Arlington on a modest $4.5MM guarantee with $2.5MM in performance bonuses.
The 33-year-old jumped on a deal earlier in the winter this time around. Lorenzen earns a slight pay bump relative to last season. He’ll also get the benefit of sticking with the same organization with which he ended the previous year. This is the first time since Lorenzen’s early-career run in the Cincinnati bullpen that he’ll stick with the same team over an offseason.
Kansas City lost some mid-rotation stability when they swapped Brady Singer for Jonathan India early in the offseason. That vacated a rotation spot for Kyle Wright, who is coming back from shoulder surgery that cost him the entire 2024 season. Lorenzen could compete with Wright and Alec Marsh for the fifth rotation spot behind Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Kris Bubic. Skipper Matt Quatraro could also turn to a six-man rotation or keep Lorenzen in long relief with the flexibility to move back into the rotation as injuries arise or workload management necessitates.
Previous reporting had indicated that Lorenzen, who had a bit of outfield experience with Cincinnati early in his career, could sign with a non-contender to take some at-bats. The idea would’ve been to reach the 20 games as a hitter necessary to qualify as a two-way player. That would’ve meant he would not have counted against a team’s 13-pitcher limit. There is no indication that the Royals — a team that made the Division Series last year and certainly intends to reach the playoffs again — is planning to do that.
Lorenzen’s salary brings the Royals’ payroll to roughly $121MM, according to the RosterResource calculations. They’d been around last year’s spending level before this signing, their first MLB contract since they re-signed Wacha shortly before free agency officially opened. It’s not clear how much room remains in the budget. Kansas City has reportedly looked for a middle-of-the-order bat after acquiring India to hit atop the lineup. Corner outfield and bullpen help are the biggest needs on paper.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Royals and Lorenzen had agreed to a one-year, $7MM deal that included a $12MM mutual option. Anne Rogers of MLB.com reported the salary and the option buyout. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic was first to mention the $1MM in bonuses. Image courtesy of Imagn.
Is he gonna hit like he was saying??
Oh I do hope so
Me too. He could legitimately rake when they let him. And he was one of the few hitting pitchers who could consistently put an at-bat together, not just run into a mistake pitch from time to time.
35% K rate and a .282 OBP. Whew, Babe Ruth and Ohtani watch out!
On some teams today that would be good enough to bat leadoff.
Mikel Franco like
Really? Which one?
On my Pirates I’d stick him in RF, bat him leadoff, let him pitch every fifth day, and give him free pierogies for a year. Being a Pirates fan probably disqualifies me from knowing much about good lineup construction, I realize that.
I say give him at bats in spring training, see what happens his hitting stats aren’t terrible for someone I’m sure solely concentrated on pitching in the minors.
He hit some in the Minors. Pretty sure that is why they told him to focus on his pitching.
They got him at a good price.
He went to Fullerton High School in OC. Who else went there? Walter Johnson and Richard Nixon.
Well, we’ll see what happens now, I suppose. Wonder if he’ll be going two way like he was selling himself as or just sticking to what we know he’s good at.
Kind of ironic, the Reds & Royals make a trade, KC gets a 2nd baseman and the Reds get a starter, now today the Reds pick up a 2nd baseman and the Royals sign a starter on the same day.
Nice signing for the Royals. I didn’t really like the Bubic for India trade since SP was their strength. But if they sign an outfield bat they’ll have a more well-rounded team. Looks like they have a plan!
Bubic is still with the Royals. They wouldn’t part with him with the upside he has.
Oh yeah, meant Singer.
He’s got a great testimony. Glad to have him back.
youtu.be/dDQEzVs_4nY?si=a0fgUMjP_ybDXxRF
Agreed, excellent video! Thank you for sharing!!!
That’s old, he’s a devout satanist now.
Bless up for the big dawg!
Huge gap in his FIP and ERA. But for 7 million sure why not.
Lorenzen put up 2.6 bWAR for 2024 in 130.1 innings. Seven million for a starting pitcher with those numbers looks dirt cheap in this market. (Yeah, I know “dirt cheap” is a relative term.) I’m a little surprised that he couldn’t get more money from some other team.
fWAR paints a different picture but it’s still a nice deal and he pitched better in his limited time in KC. Great signing for the Royals.
That fWAR of 0.7 looks pretty bizarre for a guy with a 3.31 ERA in 130.1 innings. Yeah, I know it’s FIP or SIERA or WHOSIS or something. But somehow Lorenzen managed to keep runs off the board pretty well. Even if he flops in 2025 it’s just a one-year deal at “only” seven million. If he duplicates 2024 it’s a steal for KC.
Not that bizarre when you look under the hood. Very low K rate, high BB rate and he gives up plenty of hard contact in the air. Still, I like the deal.
WAR is relative but FIP is predictive and his results will probably be closer to his FIP—and career ERA—next season.
Lorenzen has been outdoing FIP for a long time. He’s got a career 3.99 ERA and a career 4.41 FIP. After a while (854.1 innings) you have to wonder if FIP is just off the mark for this guy.
To be honest, even a 4.41 ERA wouldn’t look bad for one year and seven million in the current market for starting pitchers. Again, I’m surprised that some other team didn’t pony up a little more money.
I agree that 7MM is still good but 2024 is the outlier. Throw out the 2024 ERA/FIP discrepancy and you have a career 4.11 ERA and 4.32 FIP, so he hasn’t actually meaningfully outperformed his FIP outside of 2025.
Throwing out 2024 throws out 15% of his entire career. That’s a lot to toss out. And as you point out, he’s outperformed FIP for the rest of his career, anyway.
I’m not holding my breath on a Cy Young award for this guy. But I’m with bWAR on this one. Lorenzen is a useful mid-rotation starter at a very affordable price.
Sure it’s 15% but I was responding to you saying he’s been outdoing his FIP for a long time.
Either way we both agree it’s a nice signing for the Royals but I just don’t think a 0.21 FIP/ERA difference prior to 2024 shows that he is a long time FIP out-performer. That is a pretty negligible difference.
I thought for sure Orioles pivoted to Morton at 1 yr 15 mil because Lorenzen market was going multi year track. Dolt. 7 mil 1 yr does seem “dirt cheap”.
Probably because Lorenzen walked 4 per 9 and struck out 6.7.
That’s not a recipe for pitching well moving forward. He doesn’t have Hr problems though and KC suppresses those. I think this was the right price and he’ll be a fine deal but I understand why it wasn’t higher.
Both guys keep the ball in the ballpark. That said; considering career innings pitched by both, the gap between pay seems skewed. In hindsight, maybe it’s not that Lorenzen is under valued but maybe Morton is over valued. Cobb getting $15 mil deal is the culprit?
Criminally underpaid and underappreciated.
Came here to say the same thing, but probably using too many extra words. Well put.
Royals pen and offense are still abysmal. Jr, Salvy, and the rotation carried this team to the playoffs last year.
He probably can hit better than 2/3 of the outfielders for the Royals last year.
Solid move. 7MM feels like a steal.
What a bargain for the Royals. Now get some bats to help the best player in baseball.
A one-year deal for $7MM? For Lorenzen?? Where in the heck were the Tigers?
I said pretty much the same thing before I read your post.
That is cheap, a number of teams needing a solid starter could have gotten him…
Good pickup.
The most overrated team ever. A 4 player team with all 4 having the best season of their career. A 4th place is coming
With a 2.6 bWAR in 2024, I’m surprised Lorenzon couldn’t get more money. The Tigers should have brought him back.
When are mutual options ever exercised?
Pretty much never.
Usually just a way to defer some of the salary. A $3M buyout on the option would bring the total contract value to $10M, which still seems a great deal in this offseason’s market for starting pitching.
Glad the royals got him back. Good flexibility as a pitcher. Good move by kc
Royals rotation looking like:
Lugo
Wacha
Ragans
Lorenzon
With Marsh, Bubic, and Lynch competing for the 5th spot
4th place
You missed Wright.
Yeah i did, i realized it too late to fix it. The Royals have a solid staff heading into next season
Bubic by a hair
Anne Rodgers is reporting 5.5M this season with a 1.5 buyout next year and 1 million in potential bonuses. If he can match his innings pitched and ERA from last season then the Royals just got a little bit better.