Kennedy's 2011 was flat out filthy. It's too bad that it was most certainly an anomaly. Even still, the dude can eat up innings like nobody else. I'm thrilled about these last couple of weeks.

Oh, I don't like Happ as a pitcher much at all (remember, I got a firsthand look at the guy for years before his "awakening" in Pittsburgh last year). Didn't like the 3/36 when I first heard about it either and I don't buy that he'll repeat his 2015 again. But I'd still take his brand of mediocrity for 3 years over Kennedy's slightly better brand over 5. The 5th year really seems a bit excessive.

One of the reasons I've been littering these threads with love letters to him is that he never has pitched for a team set up to accentuate his strengths and cover his weaknesses like KC can.

He'll make at least 2/3 of his starts in stadiums that are good for flyball pitchers (KC, Minnesota, Detroit) and will have an elite OF defense.

His previous situations were a high altitude bandbox and a team with an absolutely awful OF defense.

That, and the Royals could have gotten him from the Diamondbacks two years ago for the equivalent of Aaron Crow and Buddy Baumann...

Have always liked Kennedy, don't like 5 years. But I'll complain about that after the window closes in 2017. He makes us better for the next 2 years.

Yep. I think we will like this deal for the next 2 years and then scratch our heads after that. Guess what, who cares? We are going for it while we can. And THAT is awesome!

Rany freaking out about after 2 yrs esp if Kennedy gets hurt. Says he is probably gone after 2 if he's good

5 years doesn't worry me. $14m 5 years from now will be #5 starter money.

@FlannyMLB: And #Royals aren't done yet. May still add another cost-efficient starter and/or bullpen help.

Rany's 5 tweets on the signing combined:

"Don't be fooled: It's not a 5-year deal. It's a 2-year deal with a 3-year player option. If he's good, he's gone in 2018 like everyone else. But if he hurts his shoulder in the first two years, we're on the hook for 5 years. That's a LOT of risk for a pretty modest upside. As a general rule of thumb, when the player option is LONGER than the guaranteed portion of the contract, the risk exceeds the reward. For the money they've spent on Ian Kennedy and Joakim Soria, the Royals could have signed Jordan Zimmermann, and avoided the opt-out. Hmmm. I think Ian Kennedy is a better pitcher than he's shown the last 3 years. But over the last 3 years, he's been BELOW-REPLACEMENT LEVEL."

That's interesting. Who else is still out there that fits that category?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/JeffPassan">@JeffPassan</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/based_ball">@based_ball</a> I think in any stat as volatile as HR rate, a half-season is too small a sample - even a full season probably is too</p>&mdash; keithlaw (@keithlaw) <a href="https://twitter.com/keithlaw/status/688374472156536832">January 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
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I think we like it for two years and then see Kennedy opt out of the deal because he's coming off two very strong years for a team that was in the playoffs both seasons.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">hard to defend those 31 home runs he gave up last year <a href="https://t.co/36b9bwHMJX">https://t.co/36b9bwHMJX</a></p>&mdash; keithlaw (@keithlaw) <a href="https://twitter.com/keithlaw/status/688366483664203776">January 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/keithlaw">@keithlaw</a> Thought this was a pretty good overview from <a href="https://twitter.com/based_ball">@based_ball</a>. <a href="https://t.co/MmjEIbydbs">https://t.co/MmjEIbydbs</a> HR rate halved after the All-Star break.</p>&mdash; Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/688374102726422528">January 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
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If that happens, I'll have ZERO complaints.