Witt Jr and Brady McConnell could be two of the four infield positions of the future. Some have suggested trading Dozier while he's hot. Could this be a setup for that?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">1/Maikel Franco for $2.95M by the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Royals</a> is just the kind of non-tanking deal rebuilding teams should emphasize. KC will see if it can revive the promise once expected. If so, Franco still has a year of control in 2021, allowing KC to keep, extend or trade him. If not</p>&mdash; Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) <a href="https://twitter.com/Joelsherman1/status/1207786315569389569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">2/the Royals will be done after a year having spent less than $3M to have at least a legit MLB player man 3b. Franco will play next season at 27. He may never reach his potential. But good for KC for taking a measured risk to see.</p>&mdash; Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) <a href="https://twitter.com/Joelsherman1/status/1207786316295032835?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Expect to see some platoons this year with the Royals. Hunter Dozier will play every day, but may platoon a bit with Ryan O’Hearn at 1B. Whit Merrifield will play a lot of CF, but could platoon a bit at 2B with Nicky Lopez. Lineup will fluctuate day to day depending on matchups.</p>&mdash; Jeffrey Flanagan (@FlannyMLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/FlannyMLB/status/1207792892590403592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Shaw is without a doubt a better defender. I'm sure someone will take a chance on him as a bounceback candidate but it might be a minor league deal. It's hard to say he was better than Franco offensively though. Shaw got sent down too. His OPS was 150 points lower, and he was completely lost at the plate last year and struck out in 33% of his at bats. Given his history you'd thought Dayton would go defense over offense but he really didn't here.

what am I missing here?

Why are we ****ing around with Dozier's head? Why don't we put him at third for 162 ****ing games? hasn't he earned it?

why are we dicking around with the spots we have have a bona fide major leaguer at?

Trying to make sure we have enough passable bats. Even on a down year last year the guy put up a .700 OPS and put the ball in play.

If Bubba, Brett Phillips, O'Hearn and Lopez all hit like they did last year and Gordon retires the entire second half of the lineup is going to be brutal.

I get the Merrifield can play pretty much anywhere and it doesn't affect him, but not many people are like that.

If we need bats at different positions, we should go get bats that play those positions. Moving guys around is generally not a great Idea, in my opinion.

I agree we need bats, I just think we shouldn't move guys around when we know they're good at a regular spot.

So 100 losses again in 2020?

I don't want to Dane this thread up but.....


abso-****ing-lutely

:(

Here you go Mecca.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Per source, the Royals&#39; 3B search came down to two options: Maikel Franco and Travis Shaw. Franco was younger with more upside (and more cost-efficient). Franco had a down year last year but scouts say change of scenery could make a huge difference.</p>&mdash; Jeffrey Flanagan (@FlannyMLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/FlannyMLB/status/1207762767635243008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Looks like the Royals went with Franco because he still has arbitration years.

The problem is if you are doing that because Dozier is a bad 3rd baseman which he is...his defensive metrics had him at -10 in 100 games. Why are you replacing him with another below average 3rd baseman?

Personally I question if Dozier is kind of smoke and mirrors and would be open to moving him.

Would have preferred to roll with Gutierrez at 3B if they were going to move Dozier off the hot corner. At least Gutierrez did decent at the plate in limited action and is by far our best defensive option at 3B. I'd rather we just go with lock down defense to the point it makes sense and doesn't kill us for half the lineup. Don't think Gutierrez would have been a black hole in the lineup. Franco at 3B makes 1B and RF more of a liability as well over O'Hearn/Mcbroom at 1B and McBroom/Whit in RF. Dozier over Soler in RF, being the only improvement I see...maybe Dozier over McBroom, but I haven't seen a comparison the two of them for RF.

If Gordon doesn't play, I can see this being a move we had to make due to the likely weakness of Starling's and Phillips' bats. Whit goes to left if Gordon doesn't play?

If Franco has shitty defense at 3B but a good arm then doesn't a move to RF make sense?

Huh. Now this is a pretty good little nugget:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A thing from 2019 that will always make me laugh: Terrance Gore appeared in *seven* different playoff series before getting his first start in a Major League game.<br><br>2014 ALWC<br>2014 ALDS<br>2014 ALCS<br>2014 WS<br>2015 ALDS<br>2015 ALCS<br>2018 NLWC<br><br>First start: Apr 10, 2019 <a href="https://t.co/cD4OV0OksB">pic.twitter.com/cD4OV0OksB</a></p>&mdash; Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) <a href="https://twitter.com/mike_petriello/status/1208078652690386944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 20, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>