***Official 2024/2025 KC Royals Offseason Thread***

[GabyKeepsMeWarm]

Royals went from 56-106 to 86-76.

Made the playoffs. Took out the Orioles on the road.

Lost in four games to the Yankees by 4 runs.

Finally got a bullpen.

Had two pitchers who will finish in the top five for the Cy Young.

Bobby Witt jr turned into a superstar likely being an MVP #2 to that phag in NY.

Salvy just kept doing Salvy stuff.

Vinnie came back from shoulder surgery and had a helluva year.

Cole Ragans had a full season. His arm didn’t fall off. He’s probably top five for Cy Young.

Seth Lugo is gonna finish top five for Cy Young. He’s like Rick Reed. And he’s ours for at least another season.

Brady Singer will get his next time with arbitration. And I’m ambivalent, but I know it’s damn hard to find healthy arms who could be be better as a 3/4 starter.

Michael Wacha was more than everything we could’ve ever wanted, but I say let that man fly unless he wants to take a dumb contract, which he won’t do.

That gives us Alec Marsh who was pretty great for his role.

And we have Wright coming in, plus Bubic who could start.

But this team needs another bat and wingman for Bobby. It’s perfect that Juan Soto would fill many roles, but it ain’t happening.

Adames is someone I like. And we can dangle Massey/Garcia. Just a thought.

This team…. I hope they go into the offseason working hard, and I hope they got the glitter out of their eyes.

Good team with obvious weakness, and a perennial superstar ready to erupt….

Sherman and JJ should be on the phone soon

[TomBarndtsTwin]

Originally Posted by BWillie

What about this guy? And his last name is Steer. Perfect for Cow Town.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/stat.../spencer-steer

Reds are pretty high on him and he's only 26 and doesn't even reach arbitration till 2026, so they have at least 3 years of cheap control.

No way they would include him in a package with India for Singer, unfortunately.

[New World Order]

Here we go Royals here we go!

[TomBarndtsTwin]

Originally Posted by Ocotillo

You can see the vote breakdown here. They even have all the voters listed and who they voted for.

https://bbwaa.com/24-al-mgr/

I don't necessarily have a HUGE problem with Vogt winning it, even if I don't agree with it, but the margin of the voting is completely ****ing ridiculous.

It's an essence a '**** you' to KC and Q and we don't value or think the turnaround that happened meant shit. I mean, Hinch I get, because Detroit didn't even turn it around until August and then finished the year on a tear. But KC started off the year hot, stayed in it and battled throughout the year and hung on at the end despite struggling down the stretch. There HAS to be some acknowledgement of that.

The fact that some writers left him completely off the ballot shows just how reeruned baseball writers are and how their voting is largely based on guys they like and politics, first and foremost.

[PHOG]

Originally Posted by bsp4444

@#$% - Joe Pos even voted Vogt over Q.

Originally Posted by Woogieman

He's from Cleveland, so not too surprising

And so he's dead to me.

[GabyKeepsMeWarm]

Originally Posted by TomBarndtsTwin

I don't necessarily have a HUGE problem with Vogt winning it, even if I don't agree with it, but the margin of the voting is completely ****ing ridiculous.

It's an essence a '**** you' to KC and Q and we don't value or think the turnaround that happened meant shit. I mean, Hinch I get, because Detroit didn't even turn it around until August and then finished the year on a tear. But KC started off the year hot, stayed in it and battled throughout the year and hung on at the end despite struggling down the stretch. There HAS to be some acknowledgement of that.

The fact that some writers left him completely off the ballot shows just how reeruned baseball writers are and how their voting is largely based on guys they like and politics, first and foremost.

That sums it up pretty well, and is more or less how I feel. Shit man, the KC Star writer didn’t even have Q as #1 on his ballot. I honestly thought it was gonna be close to a dead heat for first, but clearly I’m an idiot. Writers just have this massive hard-on for Cleveland managers, five winners in 17 years is a bit much, but whatever…. Maybe Q can guide another 30 game turnaround and still finish second when the Angels come out of nowhere in 2025 and win 80 games due to the brilliant guidance of Ron Washington…

[GabyKeepsMeWarm]

And in no surprise, Seth Lugo finishes second in the AL Cy Young award to Tarik Skubal. Helluva season Lugo!

[dlphg9]

Ragans got 4th. He's gonna win it in the next 3 years I bet.

[poolboy]

Lugo and Ragans were both lights outs this last season ..So proud of those fellas and its very nice for once to not be scrambling around for SPs

[Why Not?]

2 top 4 CY finishers? Man, that’s amazing!

[siberian khatru]

Originally Posted by Why Not?

2 top 4 CY finishers? Man, that’s amazing!

In 1985 Royals finished first (Saberhagen), tied for third (Quisenberry) and fifth (Leibrandt).

[GabyKeepsMeWarm]

So tomorrow we get the MVP award. If things continue as they have, I’m expecting Bobby to finish in 2nd behind Judge and it’ll probably be stupidly unanimous. Maybe Salvy gets a couple votes. We also had the latest HOF nominees drop.

Got me thinking about Salvy. Realistically, what do we all think it’s gonna take for him to get into the HOF?

Salvy gets absolutely killed on WAR due to his lack of BB’s and pitch framing. But he’s been mostly excellent in every other category. He lost 2019 to injury. Lost most of 2020 to Covid, though he was a beast when he played.

The writers have notoriously made catchers wait or simply be held to a criteria that doesn’t make any sense. In 150 years of baseball, we’ve got 17 catchers in the HOF. That’s ****ing ridiculous. One catcher gets in, on average every nine years.

If Salvy simply had 300 more BB’s right now, in turn pumping up a few other stats, runs, OBP, OPS, etc…. He might already be a lock after another year of quality play. He’s got plenty of hardware. Nine AS selections; six as the starter, five GG’s, five SS’s, various off field awards, WS MVP. He has the most homers ever in a season at 48, he’s been enormously popular among everyone throughout and outside of baseball.

But I don’t think any of that is enough, unfortunately. He’s under contract for one more season with the Royals with an option for 2026. He’s gonna turn 35 in 2025.

I think he’s gonna have to do a few things to get into the HOF, and it’s mostly about staying healthy and padding his stats.

I’d like to see him put up a similar year in 2025 that he put up in 2024. If he does that, he’ll be right around 1700+ hits, 300 HR’s, and 1000 RBI.

The Royals pick up his option for 2026, and rework his deal to a two year deal plus another one year option, if all options are picked up, he plays with the Royals through at least 2027 and possibly 2028.

If he remains healthy, and “productive”, he should be close to 2000 hits after 2027, 350-ish HR’s, 1150-1200 RBI after 2027.

At this point, unless he has simply continued to do what Salvy seems to keep doing with finding the fountain of youth and putting up numbers that no 36-37 year old catcher does, he’ll be in a backup role, behind Mitchell at C, Jac at 1st and Vinnie as the fulltime DH.

He could thrive in that role for a few years if he wanted to do that. 40-50 hits a season, banging out 5-10 dingers, play until 40 and finish with 2100+ hits, close to 400 HR’s, and 1300 RBI, all as a ROYAL.

This is my cream dream. But I don’t think it’s crazy stupid.

What do you guys think?

[GabyKeepsMeWarm]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

Ragans got 4th. He's gonna win it in the next 3 years I bet.

He’s got a chance. He certainly has shown us that he can stay healthy for one full season and be effective. He’s gonna need the last thing though: fewer walks, more run support and find that extra gear to get through innings with fewer pitches. Oh, and remain healthy, otherwise he’s gonna be our newest version of Danny Duffy.

[Ocotillo]

Originally Posted by GabyKeepsMeWarm

So tomorrow we get the MVP award. If things continue as they have, I’m expecting Bobby to finish in 2nd behind Judge and it’ll probably be stupidly unanimous.

This presents a good case of how close Judge vs. Witt really is, but I still see Judge running away with it.

The MVP winners will be announced TOMORROW on MLB Network 🏆

BK takes a deeper look into a few finalists. #MLBTonight pic.twitter.com/uDdsQWciS7

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) November 21, 2024

[Ocotillo]

Originally Posted by GabyKeepsMeWarm

I think he’s gonna have to do a few things to get into the HOF, and it’s mostly about staying healthy and padding his stats.

I agree. He's ninth with 273 HR among players that spent most of their careers at catcher. If Perez moves past Lance Parrish (fifth with 324 HR), he would be in a top five in career HR with a group that includes Mike Piazza, Carlton Fisk, Johnny Bench and Yogi Berra. Berra has 336 HR.

This year's ballot will be interesting because Russell Martin (28th all-time catcher in Jay Jaffe's ranking system) and Brian McCann (35th all-time) are debuting on the ballot. Salvador Perez is 32nd overall. I think it's going to be tough for McCann and Martin, but I'm curious if either one gets the minimum 5% and stays on the ballot.

That's what Sal is going to have to do, stay on the ballot and remain in the conversation and hope that his case generates momentum during the 10-year window he's on the writer's ballot.

There's some good names on Perez's top 10 most similar like Hall of Famers Roy Campanella and Joe Gordon, future Hall of Famer Buster Posey, Francisco Lindor and guys like Bill Freehan and Jorge Posada who just miss the HOF cut. Freehan is an overlooked 1960s catcher that should probably be in.

Perez's Hall of Fame monitor is 81, the likely Hall of Famer is 100, so he's building a case.