Kansas City Royals Appreciate Jeremy Guthrie’s Team-Friendly Move
January 24, 2014 12:36 pm EST by Doug LaCerte
Jeremy Guthrie
Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
One of the bigger Kansas City Royals stories I missed during my sports-related dark period involves patience, understanding and camaraderie. It’s a pretty darn uplifting thing to write about, especially compared to the usual up-and-down rigors of the MLB offseason and especially compared to the incredibly upsetting way the Kansas City Chiefs‘ season ended which I’m still not totally over.
Thanks to things like the recent news about Jeremy Guthrie, though, I’m slowly working through it.
On the Jan. 13, the Royals announced that Guthrie worked with them to restructure his contract in order to free up $3 million for 2014′s payroll. The team’s GM Dayton Moore explained specifics to local media and then gave the vaguest of vague explanations as to why the restructuring was used to save money this season. “We’re looking to maximize our payroll the best way we can,” Moore said.
This restructuring of the veteran righty’s contract will surely be well-appreciated by fans and management alike. Guthrie now joins former Royals ace Gil Meche as guys who will be remembered for helping out their team in special and selfless ways. Moves like this breed confidence as players buy into the team’s ability to succeed enough to make sacrifices for it. This may seem overstated for a subtle rearranging of millions of dollars (and an additional $200,000), but Guthrie went out of his way to improve the team’s chances at winning right now. That warrants a non-sarcastic tip of the cap in any regard.
Whatever Moore’s murky quote will portend remains to be seen. The recent news regarding Masahiro Tanaka keeps KC’s chances of signing a high-profile pitcher remote. I hope I’m wrong, but as of now I assume that $3 million isn’t enough to make a splash in the soon-to-be-ravenous, post-Tanaka pitching market.
Doug LaCerte is a writer for Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter @DLaC67, “Like” him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google.
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