The Royals aren’t sitting at the “big boy” table for free agents

The baseball free agent signing frenzy hasn’t taken off yet.  After the Blue Jays signed Dylan Cease for seven years and $210 million, which seems like an overpay, there are a few free agents who could help the Royals. Kyle Tucker, Bo Bichette, and Alex Bregman are among the remaining big names. There are a few others who would be welcome additions, players like Kyle Schwarber or Eugenio Suárez. Maybe an arm like Zac Gallen, Ranger Suárez, Miles Mikolas, or Framber Valdez.

The truth is: the Royals rarely play at the Big Boys’ table. They typically pick among the leftovers at the children’s table. Sometimes this yields a Raúl Ibañez or a Kendrys Morales, a Seth Lugo or an Aroldis Chapman — players who can be signed inexpensively for a year or two and are looking for an opportunity to bounce back. Those players all turned in excellent seasons with the Royals, and in Chapman’s case, he was flipped for a much more valuable asset. Other times, you get a Juan González or an Omar Infante — guys who were good and even excellent at one stage of their career but were solidly on the downslope by the time they pulled on a Royals jersey.

I suspect the Royals will once again pick at the leftovers, and they’ll probably have to overpay for the privilege. Maybe a Harrison Bader or a Lucas Giolito. I wouldn’t be brokenhearted if they brought back Mike Yastrzemski.

The hard truth is that the Royals don’t have the cash to throw around at the biggest free agents, and it seems that the metro area lacks the gravitas that most marquee players look for. I understand the metro area is not Los Angeles or New York or even Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, or Atlanta. And I’m thankful it’s not. Kansas City traffic and overall congestion are much more manageable, our crime situation is lower, and the metro area and outlying suburbs are terrific places to raise a family. Kansas City is a beautiful city, and many retired players stay. I think that speaks volumes about the livability of Kansas City. I wish the free agents would consider that. Of course, money speaks the loudest, and some other city usually has more to throw around.

Last winter, the free agent market was held hostage by Juan Soto, who was the big fish. Soto got $765 million over 15 years, which is mind-blowing to me. Soto is a star, no doubt, but I’ve never been enthralled with his game. To me, he’s the Nate Bargatze of baseball. I’m sure you’re familiar with Bargatze and may even be a big fan.

That’s great, but for some reason, I don’t “get” Bargatze either. I’ve watched all his Netflix specials and have some close friends who are crazy about the guy. He’s earned his success, and more power to him. He’s selling out large arenas and making some serious bank. Good for him — strike while the iron is hot. This isn’t meant to be a diss on Bargatze. He seems like the type of guy I’d like to have a beer with or someone I’d like as a neighbor.

I just don’t get his type of comedy, and that’s on me. When I watch Bargatze, this is what I hear:

NB: My friend Goober and I, when we were in high school in Tennessee, would go down to the crik on hot summer days and swim or hunt frogs.(light laughter)NB: Goober had a girlfriend in high school named Maybelline.(more laughter)NB: Now in East Tennessee, Maybelline was what we called a biiiiig girl.(heavy laughter)NB: When Maybelline walked, she had a hitch in her giddy-up that made her look like a horse trotting along.(standing ovation)

This is delivered in a Tennessee monotone, and Bargatze’s face remains expressionless. Everyone in the audience is losing their minds, but I’m thinking, what the hell, the guy hasn’t said anything funny yet. What are we laughing at — let’s wait for the punchline. That’s how Juan Soto leaves me. Sometimes it’s easy to miss geniuses, and I miss it with Soto and Bargatze.

I’ve watched Soto play probably twenty times, which is admittedly a super small sample size. The typical result is he’ll go 1-for-3 or 1-for-4 with two walks. Granted, the hit — which is a single — comes with men on second and third and drives home two runs. I stayed up late one night just to watch him play a game when he was with San Diego. If my memory is accurate, and it might not be because, well, I’m getting old, he came to the plate four times and never swung at a pitch. If I remember correctly, he had two walks and two strikeouts looking. There’s no question that Soto is a hitting genius — the numbers show that. His Baseball Reference page is impressive. His career OBP is .417, which is elite. He’s one of the best-hitting outfielders in baseball. There was a little chatter about the Royals going after him last year, but that idea was just a fever dream.

His play just leaves me uninspired. I rarely see any fire from him, like you see from a player like Bryce Harper, for example. Soto’s career high in hits is just 166, which he achieved in 2024 playing for the Yankees. For a guy who’s often touted as the next Ted Williams, he’s never collected 200 hits in a season, which is astounding to me. He often seems perfectly happy to draw a walk, and indeed, his career average is 132 per year, which is insane.

Over the past three seasons, Soto has averaged 158 hits per. On the other hand, Bobby Witt Jr. has averaged 191 hits per, including a high of 211 in 2024. I guess what it comes down to is if I’m an owner and paying a player really big money, I want him to swing the damn lumber. Walks are fine, especially if you’re the 7th through 9th hitter. If you’re batting 2 through 5, I want you to take some hacks. Despite spending a gazillion dollars on Soto, the Mets did not make the playoffs this year. Who knows, maybe the signing will work out for them. Or not. For every Soto, there is a team buried under the contract of a Kris Bryant or an Anthony Rendon. I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the time, a team is better off not playing at the Big Boys’ table. The risk/reward ratio is often out of balance.

The last time the Royals played at the Big Boy free agent table would have been in December of 1989, when Ewing Kauffman decided to go for broke and try to win another World Series. I loved every minute of it, until the free agents started playing. On December 7, the Royals signed Storm Davis, who had been a 19-game winner with division rival Oakland. That seemed like a double win: we got an excellent pitcher and weakened a division rival at the same time. Four days later, the Royals shook the baseball world by signing the reigning National League Cy Young winner, Mark Davis. I remember hearing the news on my car radio. In those days, the radio stations would give the news, weather, and sports updates at the top of every hour. That was our version of the internet. When I heard the Davis signing, I drove to the nearest pay phone, called my dad and, barely able to contain my excitement, told him the Royals were going to win the 1990 World Series. I was jacked. And wrong.

Of course, winning the off-season, as the Mets discovered last year, doesn’t mean anything. The Royals got two years and 72 appearances out of Storm, before mercifully shipping him to Baltimore for 32 games of Bob Melvin. Melvin was a free agent at the end of the 1992 season and skipped town for Boston. That I understand. If there’s any city I like more than Kansas City, it’s Boston. Losing Melvin wasn’t the end of the world. He was a spare part received for unloading a bad free agent signing.

It was worse with Mark Davis. The Royals hung onto him for 2½ seasons, and they were rough — 95 appearances with a 5.31 ERA. Kansas City shipped him to Atlanta in 1992 for another relief pitcher, Juan Berenguer. Berenguer had two of the all-time great baseball nicknames: Señor Smoke and El Gasolino. Unfortunately, El Gasolino was running on fumes by the time the Royals got him. It’s funny what happens to a pitcher when they lose an MPH or two off their fastball against the greatest hitters on earth. Suddenly, El Gasolino was El Yugo. Señor Smoked. Baseball can be a cruel sport. Berenguer appeared in 19 games for the Royals, then called it a career.

To his credit, Mark Davis hung with it a few more seasons and even made a comeback attempt in 1997 after being out of the game for two years. In retirement, he went on to a successful career as a pitching coach, including a stint in the Royals organization.

Those signings seemed to have scarred the Royals brass, and despite overpaying for their own free agent Alex Gordon a few years back, the team has mostly shied away from big-dollar, splashy free agent signings. And I’m okay with that. I’ve always been a believer in having a strong scouting department and drafting and developing your own talent. Grow your own, and if you have a gap or two, try to find an Edinson Vólquez or Kendrys Morales to fill in the hole. It worked like a charm in 2014 and 2015. The Royals don’t seem to be particularly adept in the arena of scouting and development, but that’s a story for another day.