Usually a first World Series appearance in 29 years would take a lot of pressure off of a franchises’ front office. Not so in Kansas City. An incredible run, with a tremendously young team brings a lot of hope for future. But, it also brings a lot of financial question marks to a team that can barely scrape together a $100 million payroll.
The good news for the Royals is that they have 12 arbitration eligible players to decide on this offseason. As GM of the Royals in this project, I decided to pick up 10 of those contracts. Based on this season, all 10 come to tremendous values.
The two toughest decisions the Royals face this offseason, are whether to resign FA James Shields and to decide if Billy Butler is worth the $12.5 million team option the Royals hold. Shields’ struggles this postseason, along with the massive contract he is seeking, pretty much wrote his own ticket out of town during this project. Instead of signing him, the Royals traded for Y. Gallardo, replacing Shields with a younger (28 yrs) and probably cheaper ($13 million) option. Granted it cost Eric Hosmer and Wade Davis to do so – but both of those players might not have been affordable to KC in the near future. In that deal KC also picked up some much needed power in the OF, with Khris Davis (who also is a bargain at $500,000).
The Butler decision was a tough one for this project, just as it will be in real life for KC. He’s a fan favorite and has been there as the team has grown around him. He’s only 28 years old, BUT he’s a DH, and his numbers have decreased a great deal over the last two seasons. For $12.5 million, he needs to produce more power than the 24 HRs he combined for over the last two seasons. With a team payroll of $102 million for this coming season, I could not justify $12.5 million for a declining DH. That is why Butler’s option wasn’t picked up.
With a limited budget, signing Nelson Cruz and his 40HRs to $8.5 million was a steal. He was KC’s top FA priority during this project. Adding Cruz, Davis and signing Michael Choice should give KC some added power this coming season. It certainly should help improve their 95 regular season HRs from 2014.
This project was fun, and gave a great glance into the financial issues that MLB GMs deal with every day. Even with a $100 million budget, I struggled to get KC’s numbers balanced. There were several trade offers that I liked on paper – until I began to crunch the numbers. I can’t even imagine how the Astros or Marlins approach offseason decisions each year. As a baseball fan, it also made me appreciate how teams like Oakland and Tampa do so much, with so little.
Individual Salaries
Kansas City Royals