That seems like a pretty reasonable deal to me.

I'm OK with signing Chen...

But Chen money + Hochevar money + Davis money gets you Ervin Santana.

From what I heard Moore say the other day, they knew he had a good offer on the table. 3-year deal makes sense in that case. KC might have to go 4 years to get it done, which is understandably risky. Especially if you're offering $12-14 million/year.

But still... I'd rather have one Ervin Santana than all three of those guys. Even with the long-term risk.

Yeah, but at the end of the day I'd rather round up all that money and make one offer to Shields. Even though that's a longer shot.

But as I've said before... we aren't winning anything unless we develop starting pitching. We just aren't. The rest is just hoping on a prayer. I guess that's why I'm not too worked up over Santana yet. We have to get at least 2 starting arms out of the current group. Pair them with guys like Guthrie and Vargas, and make a serious run at Shields and we are legit.

I would love to have Santana on the team, believe me. But I think its smarter to have 3 healthy arms instead of one who has pitched a ton and could easily slide back to his pre 2013 stats.

Greinke money for a guy who's 34 before the first pitch of that contract?

Hard to see that being a fit for KC.

Agree on developing star pitching internally. Must do a better job of that.

completely agree

The good news on the pitching front is that there is help on the horizon. This year - and how Ventura develops - is a big indicator year for him.

Best case scenario:

Ventura pitches well and is in RotY consideration.

Zimmer and Manaea both have strong minor league seasons, and the Royals have a pair of top 15 prospects knocking on the door to start next season.

Miguel Almonte continues to develop and remains a top 50 type.

Could go really well... but TINSTAAPP

This also allows Davis to stay in the pen while we hold Ventura out for a few months to keep an extra year of control.

If we're truly going "all-in" this year, it may be more beneficial to give Ventura as many starts as possible.

I kinda like the idea of keeping Ventura down and limit his innings to begin the season, then bring him up after the all-star break for the playoff push. Hell, maybe even bring Zimmer up at the same time if he's pitching well.

Ventura pitched 150 innings last year. Means he probably is good for 190-200 this year at most.

I wouldn't keep him down that long, as I think they need him pitching to his potential to make a really strong playoff push this year. But I could see limiting him a bit in Omaha to start the year and then bringing him up in early May.

When two of those healthy arms are Luke Hochevar and Wade Davis, I disagree.

Neither of those guys provides value that can't be found somewhere else. Bullpen pieces are easy to replace, especially with Moore around.

I'm leery of a long-term deal with Santana. Four years and $50 million or so would make me nervous. But it also gives much higher upside for this season than the alternative.

Obviously not as many years... but $20 mil or so a year? I mean is that any worse than giving $14 million to Santana? I don't think it'll happen but it's not completely outrageous. I think Shields is more consistent than Santana, and more important to the success of this pitching staff. He's a fastball/changeup guy, he stays in good shape, so he might age well.

I'm not sure Shields is getting $25M a year. We'll see though. It also makes sense from DM's perspective because it also helps justify the Myers trade.

Why should Ventura start at AAA? He's already proved he's a MLB-caliber starter last year. He has to be in the rotation day 1.

I agree.

Speaking hypothetically, if you're concerned about an innings limit with him and want to limit his innings and pitch count but keep him on a starter's schedule, that might be easier to do in Omaha/the minors.

I wouldn't do it, personally. You can probably get the same effect by having him on the Opening Day roster, making him the 5th starter, and skipping some starts early in the year. But I'd probably just come out of the gate blazing with him and let him do what he can.

As a Latin American signing who did NOT sign for a big bonus immediately, Ventura is the type of guy who might fit in with a Perez/Escobar-type extension.