Can we resign him before Friday?

Word floating around is that Joe Maddon wants him in the worst way and Cubs are going to throw the bank at him.

Welcome to Chicago.

And doing so now allows his agent to negotiate offers off line yet in good faith and float them back to the Royals who can choose to match them or negotiate the hometown discount. He'll give KC a little but if someone throws 5/100 at him he would be a fool not to take it just like Billy Butler would have been foolish not to take the A's money.
This is his entire life. It's part of ours.

Expected move. The next move will be the headliner.

Clubs have exclusive negotiation rights with impending free agents until free agency begins, so yes. But I'm guessing Gordon wants the league to set the market before he starts negotiating.

There seems for all the world to be mutual interest between the parties, so I'm guessing that Gordon will stay for a reasonable offer and I'm guessing the team will make him one. We'll see how crazy the market gets.

Acting like this is "Bye bye Gordon" is just ignorance, though.

Yeah, Gordon at least needs to listen to what other teams offer, because if someone blows him away with an absurd offer, then he might have to reluctantly take it. If he finds out that his value on the open market is about where we think it is, then he might be willing to give the Royals a small hometown discount off that number, but he'd be a fool to not at least find out first if there's a stupid amount of money waiting for him that we're not expecting.

Tigers need a left fielder

Thoughts on what it would take from the Royals? 6 years/$100 mil?

The vague guess right now is 5/100 (thats the high end of the guesses, could be more like 5/90). $20MM AAV is high for a left fielder with his hitting stats, but Gordon is unusual, he's got added value in LF from his glove.

I'm racking my brain trying to figure out the non-financial compensation number for A1 to stay. I'm guessing $1 million per year because he is a good guy and wants to be a Royals for life and maybe the same in endorsements over the course of his life. That puts the Royals in the 4/72 million or 5/90 ballpark. Could be close enough. I think the Cubs go 5/105 and close the deal. They want to win. Badly.

Many players have acted on money alone, and many have regretted it. Carlos Beltran, Ervin Santana, Josh Hamilton, and Albert Pujols come to mind. I get players want to make the most money, but I would accept a slightly smaller amount (10%) to stay where I want to be. I had a good chuckle at all the guys who left KC to win a championship and still haven't won one.

Completely with you. But if he puts the Cubs over the top, risky as it is, he's in the hall of fame and receiving blank checks the rest of his life. And playing for Joe Maddon who is persuasive.

I'm not so optimistic that he will resign with KC. All the while saying he is willing to give a hometown discount, but does not want to leave money on the table. Giving a discount is leaving money on the table. As far as the issue of possible injury causing him to lose money. It doesn't look to be happening with his injury this past year. But I can see the prospect of injury in 2 consecutive years being an issue if that were the case. Alex will go where the money takes him. Either way, if KC does resign him I hope to god they stipulate in the contract no more stupid hats. That cat toy he had on his yesterday should make him embarrassed to be a man.

Bartman curse will never allow the Cubs to get to the promise land.