The small market thing has always been a flimsy excuse. These teams are ALL owned by GROUPS of billionaires and millionaires. If Sherman et al really start to put more of their skin in the game, we could see a sustained run of success (or at least competitiveness) for the first time since pro sports became big business. Would be pretty fun!

That's a real mixed bag in baseball. Glass spent money during the World Series years but you're just not going to hit on everyone, you end up with contracts like Ian Kennedy weighing you down. Those 2016-2017 teams spent quite a bit of money on players with nothing to show for it. They weren't the Dodgers but they were in that $125-150 million payroll range which was pretty competitive, especially for a small market with a bad TV contract. MLB is all about the TV contracts.

You can just look at the Padres and Mets the last couple years, blowing up their payrolls and it didn't work. You have to develop players to some degree even if you're a big market.

They also signed Kennedy at age 31 for five years.

I think a smart front office should limit long-term contracts to players age 28 and under and in the Royals' case, preferably a homegrown star like Witt.

Ideally, everyone wants to lock up players young like the Braves did, but sometimes you will have unwilling parties (Scott Boras' clients) that will take you to free agency and make you spend big against the entire market.

Mother of God. Is this the same Royals I know and love (sometimes/rarely)?!?!?

So you bought out 3 years of Free Agency, eh? Congrats - even if he opts out, you essentially got 3 prime years for 3/$100 million. That's likely to be a real nice deal for those seasons.

You've locked him up through his age 30 season. And in all probability, unless he becomes an MVP caliber player on a legit HOF career track, he may just leverage the first of his opt-out years to ensure that the Royals pick up the last 3 seasons of their club options.

That's not the sort of highway robbery teams like the Braves have pulled off with Acuna and Albies, but it's a nice deal and it's a little certainty for the franchise going forward.

If you look at the year by year numbers, they're getting a pretty good discount on his arb eligible years too. This is a pretty team friendly deal that gives him some security if he doesn't rise up to his expectations, or gives him an out if he does.

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One of the biggest days in Royals history.

LMAO Las Vegas Mayor pretty much told Sherman and the As to **** off back to Oakland and that their stadium plans were nonsensical

Funnily enough, it was Mahomes who actually telegraphed this signing a couple of months back.

I just think there are too many KC names attached in ownership who are not going to want to be tied to a perpetually bare franchise.

****ing still can't believe this.

Kinda reminds me of the days when Kauffman was handing out "lifetime contracts" to guys like Brett, Quiz and Willie. I think this contract will likely play out better...

I'm gonna keep saying it, and I know it's largely sentimental, but now we need to sign Zack Greinke! I still think the idea of him and Lyles piggybacking each other vice versa in starts could work. Or, just let Greinke work out of the bullpen. We'll never have enough pitching, and if this team is gonna be competitive and play meaningful baseball after Memorial Day, it would be nice to see Greinke play a part in it finally.

I don't disagree with you...but you assume that Greinke wants to play.

Greinke literally only has value if he's willing to be a 1 inning pitcher and if that's the case he isn't going to get 10 mill per.

Is there an article or quote out there from Greinke expressing an interest in playing ? He seemed pretty checked out by the time 2023 ended.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Zack Greinke&#39;s representatives have communicated to <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLB</a> teams that he&#39;s preparing to pitch in 2024 and is open to contract talks. <br><br>Greinke, 40, went 2-15 with a 5.06 ERA this year over 142 1/3 innings. <a href="https://twitter.com/MLBNetwork?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MLBNetwork</a></p>&mdash; Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/1734657341184942561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>