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11 Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.

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Pirates Outright Edward Olivares

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Pirates outfielder Edward Olivares went unclaimed on waivers after last week’s DFA and was assigned outright to Triple-A Indianapolis, per the Pirates’ transaction log at MLB.com. As a player with more than three years of big league service, he has the right to reject the assignment in favor of free agency but will likely accept so as not to forfeit the remainder of his guaranteed $1.35MM salary. (A player needs five-plus years of service to reject an outright assignment and retain his salary.)

Pittsburgh acquired Olivares in a small trade with the Royals back in December, hoping he could continue or build upon the slightly above-average production he turned in with Kansas City over the past couple seasons. From 2022-23, Olivares — whom the Royals picked up from the Padres in exchange for Trevor Rosenthal back in 2020 — batted .270/.322/.439 with 16 homers in 559 trips to the plate. He’s never walked much but also offered lower-than-average strikeout numbers and some value on the basepaths as well.

Olivares has seen his walk rate increase to a nearly average 8.2%, but he’s hitting for far less power and has only attempted one steal this season (which was successful). He batted .224/.291/.333 in 196 plate appearances with the Bucs — about 26% worse than league average, by measure of wRC+. Olivares has plus arm strength — 93rd percentile, per Statcast — but has regularly graded as a poor defender in the outfield corners due to poor reads and poor range (despite slightly above-average sprint speed).

The Pirates’ deadline acquisition of Bryan De La Cruz helped push Olivares out of the picture (despite De La Cruz having a generally similar skill set). De La Cruz, Bryan Reynolds and Michael A. Taylor figure to get the bulk of the outfield playing time down the stretch in Pittsburgh, though an injury or two could always push Olivares right back into the mix.

As a player with three-plus seasons of big league service who’s now been outrighted off his team’s 40-man roster, Olivares will have the opportunity to become a free agent at season’s end unless he’s added back to the 40-man roster between now and then.

Pirates Designate Edward Olivares For Assignment

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The Pirates announced Thursday that they’ve placed right-hander Colin Holderman on the 15-day IL with a right wrist sprain, selected the contract of righty Ben Heller from Triple-A Indianapolis and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by designating outfielder Edward Olivares for assignment.

Olivares, 28, was acquired from the Royals in the offseason when Kansas City needed to open a roster spot after signing right-hander Chris Stratton. Olivares had qualified for arbitration for the first time and he agreed avoid arbitration by accepting a $1.35MM salary from the Pirates.

Unfortunately, his tenure in Pittsburgh was a bit less than what the club was expecting. He had slashed .270/.322/.439 with the Royals over 2022 and 2023 for a combined wRC+ of 106 in that time but he hit .224/.291/.333 with the Pirates this year, with that production leading to a wRC+ of 75. He was optioned to Triple-A about a month ago and is hitting .245/.305/.321 at that level for a wRC+ of just 64.

He is in his final option season and will be out of options next year. Between that and his performance, it seems he was getting pushed out of the club’s plans. They fortified their outfield mix by acquiring Bryan De La Cruz and utility player Isiah Kiner-Falefa prior to the deadline.

With the trade deadline now in the past, the Pirates will have to put Olivares on waivers in the coming days. It’s possible that a club could view this year’s downturn as simply bad luck, as his batting average on balls in play is just .250 this year. That’s a drop from the .306 BABIP he had over the two prior seasons and this year’s .290 league average. His 8.2% walk rate this year was actually a noticeable increase from the 5.7% rate he had in the two preceding campaigns. His exit velocity and hard hit rate are down a bit but not drastically so. His speed and arm strength are above average but he’s received poor defensive grades overall.

If some team does put in a claim, Olivares can be optioned for the rest of this year and then retained beyond this season via arbitration. But as mentioned, he will be out of options by next year. If he clears waivers in the coming days, he will have the right to elect free agency as a player with more than three years of service time. But since he is below the five-year mark, heading to the open market would mean forfeiting what’s left of this year’s salary. With roughly $375K still to be paid out, he would likely accept an outright assignment and stick with the Bucs in a non-roster capacity.

As for Heller, this is the second time this year the Pirates have selected him to the roster. The last time resulted in him being designated for assignment and outrighted after allowing 11 earned runs in two innings. His time in the minors has gone far better as he has a 3.55 earned run average in 33 Triple-A innings pitched this year while striking out 40.7% of batters faced. He’s out of options but can be retained via arbitration beyond this season if he manages to hold onto his roster spot.

Jared Jones Makes Pirates’ Roster; Jared Triolo Likely To Be Named Second Baseman

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Top pitching prospect Jared Jones has won a spot on the Pirates’ Opening Day roster, the club announced to its beat writers this morning (X link via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com). He’ll likely slot into the team’s rotation. The Bucs will select the contracts of Jones and of right-handers Hunter Stratton and Ryder Ryan (X thread via Stumpf). Pittsburgh will place catcher Yasmani Grandal and infielder/outfielder Ji Hwan Bae on the 10-day injured list to begin the season. Relievers Colin Holderman and Carmen Mlodzinski will open the season on the 15-day IL.

Also making the roster are out-of-options pitchers Bailey Falter, Josh Fleming and Roansy Contreras, as well as outfielder Edward Olivares and righty Luis Ortiz. The Bucs will not carry non-roster invitees Brent Honeywell Jr. and Billy McKinney on the roster to begin the season. Those aren’t the only key roster decisions Pittsburgh has faced this spring; Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that manager Derek Shelton last night called it a “very safe assumption” that Jared Triolo will be the Pirates’ starting second baseman to begin the season.

Jones, 22, was the Pirates’ second-round pick back in 2020 and entered spring training ranked among the game’s top 100 prospects at each of Baseball America (No. 74), MLB.com (No. 62), The Athletic (No. 39), FanGraphs (No. 62) and ESPN (No. 53).

Those rankings come on the heels of a strong 2023 season split between Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis, wherein Jones logged a combined 126 1/3 innings of 3.85 ERA ball with a 27.6% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate. The right-hander’s dominant spring showing surely didn’t hurt his chances of making the Opening Day roster; Jones pitched 16 1/3 innings without an earned run during Grapefruit League play, yielding just nine hits against eight walks with 15 punchouts.

The Athletic’s Keith Law writes that Jones has made huge gains with both his heater and his slider since being drafted and now has the potential for three plus pitches. The former two-way standout is an excellent athlete and, as noted by Eric Longenhagen and Tess Taruskin at FanGraphs, has also improved his strike-throwing as he’s shifted his focus solely to pitching. Scouting reports on Jones generally agree that there’d mid-rotation potential, and further improvements to any of his command, curveball or changeup could further boost his upside.

Jones tossed 122 2/3 innings in 2022 and 126 1/3 innings last season. That should set the stage for a decent uptick in his workload this season. The Bucs might still be cautious with him on a start-by-start basis, particularly early in the year, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if a healthy Jones approached or exceeded 150 frames this year. Since he’s a consensus top-100 prospect who’s making the Opening Day roster, his performance this season will particularly important for the Bucs. If Jones wins Rookie of the Year this season or finishes top three in National League Cy Young voting, he could net the Pirates an extra pick in the 2025 draft under the 2022-26 CBA’s newly implemented prospect promotion incentives.

Triolo, 26, made his big league debut in 2023 and spent the bulk of his time at third base, filling in for an injured Ke’Bryan Hayes. That’s Triolo’s natural position, but Hayes is one of MLB’s best defensive players at any position, so Triolo will slide over to second base in what could be his first full big league season. The writing for him winning the second base job was on the wall after the Bucs optioned Liover Peguero and Nick Gonzales — particularly with Bae also banged up (and now headed to the injured list).

In 209 plate appearances last season, Triolo batted .298/.388/.398 — production that was buoyed by an enormous .440 average on balls in play and came in  spite of a grisly 30.1% strikeout rate. The punchouts and good fortune on balls in play have both continued this spring. Triolo has taken 45 plate appearances and batted .325/.400/.525 — excellent surface-level numbers that are propped up by a more suspect .458 BABIP. Couple that with a 31.1% strikeout rate, and his production looks similar to his 2023 output — though this year’s pair of homers in his limited spring playing time is a good sign, as Triolo hit just three long balls in last year’s 209 trips to the plate.

Triolo is a strong defender who draws plenty of walks, which should help set a decent floor for him, but he’ll need to cut down on the strikeouts and/or significantly improve his quality of contact (86.6 mph average exit velocity; 32.8% hard-hit rate) if he’s to sustain much in the way of success at the plate in the majors. Strikeouts were an issue in his first taste of Triple-A work last year (26.5%) but weren’t a problem for him in the lower and mid-minor league levels, so perhaps he’ll drop that rate over a larger sample as he gains more experience. If nothing else, a plus defender at multiple positions with a keen eye at the plate has the makings of a useful utility option, but Triolo will get the opportunity to show he can be more than that right out of the gate in 2024.

The 27-year-old Stratton made his MLB debut with the Bucs in 2023 and pitched 12 innings with three runs on nine hits and three walks. He fanned 10 of his 47 opponents (21.3%) and kept the ball on the ground at a hearty 51.5% rate. He was non-tendered in November but returned on a minors deal two months later. Stratton will now get a second big league look after firing seven shutout frames with a 7-to-2 K/BB ratio this spring.

Ryan, 29 in May, pitched a scoreless frame with the Mariners in 2023. That represents the entirety of his MLB experience. He’s fanned 28.6% of his opponents in 7 2/3 innings for Pittsburgh this spring and done so with a staggering 73.7% ground-ball rate. Ryan has pitched to a sub-4.00 ERA with a strikeout rate north of 24% in each of the past two Triple-A seasons (one with the Mariners and one with the Rangers). The Pirates will give him his first real look in the majors to see if he can carry any of that success over to the game’s top level.

Pirates Acquire Edward Olivares From Royals

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The Royals have traded outfielder Edward Olivares to the Pirates for minor league infielder Deivis Nadal, according to team announcements. Kansas City needed to clear a 40-man roster spot after their previously-reported deal with right-hander Chris Stratton.

Olivares, 28 in March, will be joining the fourth organization of his career. An international signing of the Blue Jays, he was traded to the Padres as part of the 2018 Yangervis Solarte trade and then to the Royals as part of the 2020 Trevor Rosenthal deal.

He got to play in the big leagues in a part-time role from 2020 to 2022 but got his most extensive action in the most recent campaign. He got into 107 games with the Royals in 2023, hitting 12 home runs and stealing 11 bases. He only walked in 5.7% of his plate appearances but he also limited his strikeouts to a 16.6% clip. His overall batting line of .263/.317/.452 translated to a wRC+ of 105, indicating he was a bit above league average.

That season matches a lot of his career. He doesn’t walk much but also doesn’t have terrible strikeout rates. He has a bit of power but nothing astounding. His highest home run total is the 20 he hit in 2021, 15 in Triple-A and five in the majors. He has speed, with Statcast putting him in the 83rd percentile, but doesn’t steal a ton of bases and his glovework has been graded poorly. He has career tallies of -15 Outs Above Average, -21 Defensive Runs Saved and a grade of -7.9 from Ultimate Zone Rating. His arm strength is considered to be in the 90th percentile.

There are some intriguing tools in there, which is surely why so many clubs have taken a chance on him. But there are also some warts, which is probably why he has bounced around a bit. He qualified for arbitration for the first time this winter, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a salary of $1.8MM. The Royals tendered him a contract but it seems he was on the roster bubble. The club agreed to a deal with Hunter Renfroe today, adding him into an outfield mix that also includes Nelson Velázquez, MJ Melendez, Kyle Isbel, Drew Waters and Dairon Blanco.

For the Pirates, they have Jack Suwinski and Bryan Reynolds in two outfield spots but one of them is fairly wide open. Catcher Endy Rodríguez recently underwent UCL/flexor tendon surgery, opening the catcher spot for Henry Davis to perhaps get a lengthy audition there. Joshua Palacios, Connor Joe, Ji Hwan Bae and Canaan Smith-Njigba are on the roster and options to slot next to Reynolds and Suwinski.

Joe will probably bounce between first base, the outfield and the designated hitter spot, while none of the others have established themselves at the major league level. Olivares will be jockeying with them all for playing time, but he still has an option if he loses out.

Nadal, 22 in February, has played the three infield positions to the left of first base and each outfield spot as well. He has spent each of the past two seasons playing in Single-A. In 2023, he struck out in 33% of his plate appearances but also walked at a 15.1% clip and stole 33 bases. His .212/.344/.377 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 101.

The Royals still have to make their deals with Renfroe and Michael Wacha official, so they will need to open two more roster spots.

Anne Rogers of MLB.com first reported the trade terms.

Royals Designate Joe Barlow For Assignment

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The Royals announced their moves for today’s roster expansion, including the previously-reported selection of utility player Nick Loftin. They also recalled right-hander James McArthur and outfielder Edward Olivares, with right-hander Brady Singer going on the paternity list. To open a spot on the 40-man for Loftin, right-hander Joe Barlow was designated for assignment.

Barlow, 27, was claimed off waivers from the Rangers less than a month ago and was immediately optioned to Triple-A Omaha. He’s tossed 12 1/2 innings for the Storm Chasers since then but allowed 13 earned runs in that time, which will seemingly prompt the Royals to quickly move on.

His major league career began with a strong 1.55 ERA in 2021, though that was at least partially fuelled by a tiny .143 batting average on balls in play. His ERA jumped to 3.86 last year and 4.66 this year, as his strikeout rate also dropped year over year from 24.3% to 19.2% to 13.6%.

The Royals will now put Barlow back on waivers in the coming days. His results haven’t been great lately, but he’s not too far removed from having the closer’s role in Texas. He racked up 13 saves for the Rangers last year and 11 the year before. He still has two more option seasons after this one and has yet to reach arbitration. It’s possible he could interest clubs around the league who have a roster spot available and an idea of how to get him back on track.

Royals Claim Bubba Thompson, Option Edward Olivares

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The Kansas City Royals announced that they have claimed Bubba Thompson off waivers from the Texas Rangers. He has been optioned to Triple-A Omaha. In other roster news, the Royals reinstated Drew Waters from the bereavement list, optioning Edward Olivares to Triple-A in a corresponding move.

The Rangers DFA’d Thompson on Friday to make room for J.P. Martínez on the 40-man roster. Thompson, a first-round pick in the 2017 draft, had been playing for the Triple-A Round Rock Express following a poor start to the season at the MLB level. In 37 games with Texas, he hit .170 with a 41 wRC+ and -0.1 FanGraphs WAR. He was demoted at the end of May.

Thompson has yet to live up to his former top prospect status, but still just 25 years old, he is far from a bust. He looked like a legitimate bench piece last season, batting .265, stealing 18 bases, and finishing with a 77 wRC+. Moreover, despite his disappointing slash line this year, he increased his walk rate, decreased his strikeout rate, and showed off a little more power. He continued to demonstrate his improved plate discipline at Round Rock, compiling 19 walks (and two HBP) compared to only 28 strikeouts in 149 trips to the plate.

Thompson should have a better chance to make his way back to the majors in Kansas City, but he’ll need to continue to show improvement at Triple-A. If he’s able to take steps forward at the plate, he could be a useful contributor since his speed and defense give him a solid floor. The Royals already have two young, right-handed-hitting outfielders on the big league roster, Samad Taylor and Nelson Velázquez, in addition to the switch-hitting Waters. Olivares and Nate Eaton are also waiting in the wings at Omaha.

After a promising cup of coffee last season, Waters got off to a slow start in 2023. An oblique injury kept him on the shelf until late May, and he was hitting .239/.293/.354 with a 76 wRC+ entering the All-Star break. Since then, however, he has a 107 wRC+ in 23 games. His 11 RBI in that time are tied for fourth on the Royals, while his 12 runs scored are tied for fifth. He returns to the team after missing the minimum of three days on the bereavement list.

Olivares had a mini breakout in 2022, finishing with a 110 wRC+ in 53 games. However, he pulled that off thanks to a career-high .344 batting average on balls in play. His BABIP has fallen below league average this season, and his triple slash line numbers have dropped in accordance – despite the fact that he’s striking out less often and hitting for a little more power. Meanwhile, Velázquez, whom the Royals promoted on Thursday to replace Waters on the roster, has hit a home run in each of his last two games. He’ll get the chance to stick with the big league club for at least a little longer.

Royals Fielding Offers On Several Veterans

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The Royals have been talking to other clubs about potential trades involving veteran pitchers Scott Barlow, Taylor Clarke and Ryan Yarbrough, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Outfielder Edward Olivares has also been discussed in potential deals.

Of the bunch, Barlow is the most obvious and straightforward trade candidate. The 30-year-old righty thrived as the primary closer in Kansas City from 2021-22, pitching 148 2/3 innings of 2.30 ERA ball with 40 saves, a hefty 28.2% strikeout rate and a solid 8.4% walk rate. The 2023 season has been far more troublesome. Barlow’s average fastball sat at 95.3 mph in ’21 but has dipped to 92.9 mph this season. His walk rate has also spiked, and the right-hander’s 5.35 ERA is a career-worst mark.

That said, Barlow still figures to hold appeal to other clubs. Dip in velocity notwithstanding, he still has well above-average strikeout (26.2%), swinging-strike (12.6%) and opponents chase (37.6%) rates. His $5.3MM salary is generally affordable, and Barlow is controllable through 2024 via arbitration. This year’s struggles are at least in part due to a .340 average on balls in play and 61.6% strand rate, both worse-than-average marks which should eventually trend toward his career marks of .306 and 76.1%. Barlow had a solid 3.97 ERA as recently as July 16, but he’s been tagged for eight runs through 4 2/3 innings over his past five outings.

Clarke, also 30, has a shorter track record and more pronounced struggles in 2023. The right-hander has been tagged for a 6.00 ERA in 45 innings this year, thanks to a particularly dreadful slump dating back to mid-June. Clarke had a 2.70 ERA through his first 30 innings but has been tattooed for 22 runs in his past 15 innings. A season-long .374 BABIP isn’t helping his cause, but that alone doesn’t explain the extent of the right-hander’s struggles. From 2020-22, he pitched to a respectable, if unspectacular 4.44 ERA with solid strikeout and walk rates.

The 31-year-old Yarbrough inked a one-year deal with Kansas City after spending his entire big league career with the Rays organization. He’s earning $3MM this season and, although he missed time after a frightening incident where he was struck by a comebacker, the lefty has been decent when on the field. In 51 innings — seven starts, seven relief outings — he’s posted a 4.24 ERA. Yarbrough has one of the lowest strikeout rates in MLB (13.7%) but also one of the lowest walk rates (4.2%) among pitchers with at least 50 innings.

While Yarbrough started the season in Kansas City’s bullpen, he moved into the rotation not long before his injury and has continued starting since returning in early July. He’s made four starts since coming off the IL, pitching to a 2.19 ERA with a 15-to-2 K/BB ratio in 24 2/3 innings. He’s a pure rental and could help round out the back of someone’s rotation in the season’s final two months.

Olivares, 27, came to the Royals from the Padres organization in the 2020 trade that sent Trevor Rosenthal to San Diego. He looked solid at the plate in 2022 when he hit .286/.333/.410 with four homers, eight doubles and a pair of steals in 174 trips to the plate. His 2023 output has taken a step back. He’s logged a career-high 274 plate appearances but turned in a tepid .246/.299/.409 batting line.

The right-handed-hitting Olivares has even platoon splits this year but has generally been better against righties than lefties, when looking at his career as a whole. He’s played all three outfield spots in his career but has primarily worked in the corners; he doesn’t have above-average grades at any of the three positions, though. Olivares would be controllable for three more years beyond the current season, but he hasn’t developed as the Royals had hoped and is more of a change-of-scenery candidate than someone who’d fetch them meaningful prospect depth.

Royals Designate Amir Garrett For Assignment

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The Royals announced a series of roster moves this morning. The club has reinstated left-hander Ryan Yarbrough from the 60-day injured list and recalled infielder Samad Taylor from Triple-A Omaha. Yarbrough is slated to start this afternoon’s game against the Guardians. In corresponding moves, left-hander Amir Garrett has been designated for assignment while outfielder Edward Olivares was placed on the 10-day IL (retroactive to July 8) with a mild left oblique strain.

It will be Yarbrough’s first start since he was struck in the face by a line drive off the bat of A’s first baseman Ryan Noda back in May. In all, Yarbrough missed just over two months with the resulting injuries. It had been a difficult start to the season for Yarbrough even before he suffered the injury. The 31-year-old lefty owns a 6.15 ERA, 28% worse than league average, with a 5.19 FIP in 26 1/3 innings of work for the Royals this season across ten appearances (three starts). For now, Yarbrough is ticketed for a return to the rotation, but the lefty has swung between the rotation and the bullpen all throughout his career, with 75 of his 137 career appearances in the big league coming in relief.

Taylor, meanwhile, made his big league debut with the Royals earlier this season. Across 38 plate appearances in the majors, Taylor owns a .133/.270/.133 slash line. His performance has been much better across 308 plate appearances with Omaha as he’s slashed .306/.412/.460. Taylor figures to join a bench mix in Kansas City that currently includes infielder Matt Duffy and outfielder Dairon Blanco. He’ll replace Olivares on the roster, who has slashed .242/.296/.410 in the club while mostly playing left field for the club.

Garrett’s Royals tenure comes to an end a season and a half after the club acquired him from the Reds in a deal that sent left-hander Mike Minor to Cincinnati. Garrett’s time in Kansas City was fraught with struggles. In 2022, the lefty posted a 4.96 ERA that was 18% worse than league average. While his 3.40 FIP was solid, Garrett saw his strikeout rate dip from 28.4% the previous year down to 25% while his walk rate crept up from 13.5% to a more untenable 16.3% during the 2022 campaign. The results have been better in 2023, with a 3.33 ERA in 24 1/3 innings, but Garrett’s issues with the free pass have gotten even worse as his walk rate has reached a whopping 17.9% this season.

Going forward, the Royals will have a week to trade, waive, or release Garrett. While it’s doubtful Garrett would bring back much in trade, it’s possible some clubs would have sufficient interest in acquiring the 31-year-old lefty and seeing if they can iron out his control problems that they would be willing to take on the remaining half of Garrett’s $2.65MM salary this season.

Royals Select Jackie Bradley Jr., Matt Duffy, Franmil Reyes

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March 30: The Royals have now added all three of Bradley, Duffy and Reyes to their roster, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com (Twitter links). To make room for those three additions, they traded left-hander Richard Lovelady to Atlanta and placed left-hander Jake Brentz and outfielder Diego Hernandez on the 60-day injured list. Brentz is going to miss most of the season due to Tommy John surgery while Hernandez will be out for a few months with a dislocated shoulder.

March 27: Outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. and infielder Matt Duffy have been informed that they’ll be on the Royals’ Opening Day roster, tweets Anne Rogers of MLB.com. Both were in camp as non-roster invitees, so they’ll need to be added to the 40-man roster. Designated hitter/outfielder Franmil Reyes, also in camp on an NRI, is “likely” to make the roster, Rogers continues, adding that outfielder Edward Olivares and utilityman Nate Eaton are both going to be on the Opening Day squad as well. Olivares and Eaton are already on the 40-man roster. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman first indicated over the weekend that Bradley was expected to make the roster.

Bradley, 33 in April, has long been considered among the best defensive outfielders in the sport, having collected a whopping 58 Outs Above Average since the start of the 2016 season, including a +3 mark in 2022. His history at the plate is far more complicated, however. From 2015-2020, Bradley oscillated between being a decently above average (118 wRC+ in 2016) and slightly below average (89 wRC+ in 2019) bat from year to year, ultimately posting a 102 wRC+ in 709 games over that six-year period.

Since then, however, Bradley has been nothing short of brutal at the plate: In 266 games in the past two seasons for the Brewers, Red Sox, and Blue Jays, Bradley has slashed just .182/.245/.285, good for a wRC+ of 46 that indicates Bradley was 54% worse than the average major-league hitter over that timeframe. Looking at the underlying metrics, it’s easy to see that Bradley’s struggles are borne of regression in virtually all aspects of his game since his days as an average bat with the Red Sox. Notably, his walk rate has dropped from 9.6% to 6.5% while his ISO has plummeted from a solid .191 down to just .103.

Even with his strikeout rate staying mostly stagnant (it ticked up slightly from 24.6% during the 2015-2020 season to 26.2% the past two years), that loss of power and declining ability to elicit free passes leaves Bradley highly unlikely to contribute meaningfully to the Royals with the bat in 2023. Still, with Drew Waters expected to open the season on the injured list and Michael A. Taylor getting shipped to the Twins in trade earlier this offseason, Bradley will provide the Royals with valuable depth in center field behind Kyle Isbel.

As for Duffy, he’ll give the Royals a veteran utility presence who can handle any of third base, shortstop and second base. The 32-year-old spent the 2022 season with the Angels, for whom he posted a .250/.308/.311 batting line in 247 plate appearances. Duffy’s right-handed bat could be a natural complement to left-handed-hitting second baseman Michael Massey, and his versatility provides some insurance in the event that Hunter Dozier’s struggles continue and/or Massey needs further seasoning in Triple-A Omaha.

Duffy once rated as a plus defender at the hot corner but has posted closer to average defensive grades around the infield in recent seasons. He’s never hit for much power, but the limited pop in his bat has dwindled as well. The diminished defensive ratings and power are perhaps partially due to foot and ankle injuries that have taken their toll on him over the years.

Reyes, 27, certainly isn’t lacking for power. He boasts a pair of 30-homer seasons and has clubbed 106 long balls in 2013 Major League plate appearances dating back to his 2018 debut with the Padres. However, strikeouts have become an increasingly problematic issue for the slugger, evidenced by last year’s career-worst 33.2% mark. If Reyes walked at the rate one might expect for someone with his prodigious power, the lack of contact might be more forgivable, but he drew a free pass in just 6.3% of his plate appearances between the Guardians and Cubs in 2022 — more than two percentage points worse than the league average. He also saw his power output curiously drop off, resulting in a career-worst .221/.273/.365 slash.

Assuming Reyes indeed makes the roster, he’ll likely be used as a designated hitter, a righty bat off the bench and perhaps an occasional option in the outfield corners, though he grades as a poor defender and the Royals have plenty of alternatives. Reyes, who hit .372/.438/.674 with three homers and four doubles in spring training, will need to keep up an above-average level of production as he hopes to fend off prospect Nick Pratto, who was optioned to Triple-A last week. Pratto and Vinnie Pasquantino give the Royals a pair of powerful first basemen, but to this point in their careers it’s Pasquantino who’s proven better equipped for big league pitching. Still, if Pratto’s raking in the minors and Reyes is again struggling, there’s room for both Pasquantino and Pratto to share time at first base and designated hitter over the long term.

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