I think 2019 could be a really interesting season for the Royals if Ryan O'Hearn can put up numbers close to last year. A .900 OPS guy in the middle of line-up? We could be a real decent team. Probably a fluke last year, but exit velocity numbers were legit, so you never know....

It's still all about their pitching and lack there of
.They have to shore that up before they can compete

That’s a little less than I was expecting but is pretty close. He was likely due for about $1 million this year, then $4 in arb 1, 8-10 in arb 2, and 10-12 in arb 3 assuming this production held and he stayed healthy.

So he might have left money o. The table, but he’s not set for life, too.
Makes him even more attractive as a trade candidate, too.

That's what I was wondering. Had to do a double-take.

Whit's deal gives the Royals options.
They can still trade Whit.
Or, move him to CF and give Lopez 2nd.
Or, they could put Lopez on the market. I imagine they'd get something decent in return.

He was 2 yrs from FA. Isn’t hard to understand.

Incorrect.

He had 3 arbitration years after this year before he hit FA in 2023.


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...igCAnM/pubhtml

https://legacy.baseballprospectus.co...s-city-royals/

Even more to my point then. We were just buying out some arb years.

Yes. We were trying to cost control so we knew what we'd be paying going forward and could avoid arbitration. Whit gets a little bit more money upfront, but saves the Royals several million in his last 2 years of arbitration. Smart business move by the Royals.

Supposedly, there's a club option for his first FA year, but not sure what the amount on that is and hasn't been reported anywhere yet.

This is a good deal for the Royals, especially if Whit has a great start to this season and we decide to trade him to a Playoff contender who is looking for more than just a rental. I like it.

The option is believed to be worth $10.5 million.

If they sit O'Hearn against a decent amount of the lefties we face, I think you can expect him to repeat. While I don't trust Ned to do so, he really needs to maximize his roster to get them to start turning the corner towards competing again. The Royals don't need to be a .500 team, but they need to start their improvement and that will necessitate a semi-platoon of a guy like O'Hearn. If you play O'Hearn everyday, he regresses as an overall player. I'm not sure he'll ever be the kind of player that can play against lefties all the time.

We have a "not bad" rotation and I think the bullpen could actually become the biggest improvement if one of our rule 5's surprise and Zimmer shocks. Otherwise, the bullpen will be a work in progress for 2019 and we'll be well short of .500. If the bullpen surprises, getting close to .500 is not completely nuts in our mediocre division.

Always assume all financial transactions are zero NPV

I was just looking at O'Hearn's splits. Which prompted me to figure out who'd take his place in the line up if you wanted to sit him against Lefties. Owings bats about .152 against RHP and .269 against LHP. Move Dozier to 1st, Whit or Owens to 3rd. O'Hearn and Owings both have better numbers at the end of the year.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Now that the tooth extraction of a football game is over, pitchers and catchers report a week from Tuesday. Arizona here we come!</p>&mdash; Mike Swanson (@Swanee54) <a href="https://twitter.com/Swanee54/status/1092261864610893826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>