Jerry Crasnick on twitter saying the Royals may be priced out on Zobrist. Mentions the Mets, Nats, Dodgers, Giants, Cubs, Cards, Angels and Braves have all shown interest.

Still wouldn't be surprised if his contract is closer to Gordon's than people expect.
Posted via Mobile Device

Like I said, he's probably the worst pure receiving backstop I've ever seen.

The guy started catching in 2009. By 2012 he was the Cardinals backup catcher and getting pretty much zero playing time.

So he got 3 years of pretty intense training in the minors then he went to seed at the major league level as Yadi's caddy, where he got minimal playing time. He's caught all of 3,100 innings in his entire career, majors and minors. He didn't catch at all before the Cardinals converted him. So about 350 games worth of experience total behind the plate in his entire life. If you want to see what a guy with 3 full years of experience catching looks like behind the plate, Tony Cruz is your man.

The guy is awful. I can't speak to Butera but I absolutely can speak to Cruz and whatever Royals fans think they'll be getting from him....they won't. He's not good at anything.

Butera is very good defensive catcher, but his batting is similar to just letting a pitcher bat. Cruz at least you can trust with a bat. Cardinals trouble was Cruz got used way too much mainly bc how the NL rules is setup. If you only played him once a week, the damage is minimal.

You can't trust Cruz with the bat, either. They had a virtually identical OPS last year and their K/BB rates are almost identical (Cruz a little less likely to strike out, Butera a little more likely to walk).

Cruz is horrible man. And I'm not saying this to shit on the Royals, this is purely shitting on Cruz. In 600+ ABs, Cruz has a WAR of -2.8 That's below replacement level, mind you. Not even 2.8 wins below average, which would be pretty damn impressive in only 630ish ABs. But nearly 3 wins below 'random guy plucked from any minor league system' in about a single season worth of plate appearances.

That's some seriously condensed suck right there. Butera's only a -1.7 in 850 plate appearances.

Like I said, it's difficult for me to really make a comparison between the two guys because I've seen Butera play maybe twice, but if you're saying that Butera was at least a sound defensive catcher, then he's a better player than Cruz. And if you just give a quick glance at WAR over their respective careers, it would seem to back that.

I'd keep Pete Kozma on the team over Tony Cruz and that's about the most damning thing I can say about a major league player. Yes, Tony Cruz is just that terrible.

We released Pena... We gave up nothing. Who gives a shit.

We released Pena... We gave up nothing. Who gives a shit.

We released Pena... We gave up nothing. Who gives a shit.

Did we release Pena? Did we give up anything? Does anybody around here give a shit?

Does anyone know what happened to PENA!!!!????????!!!!

Word on the street as that we released him. However, you'll be happy to know that we didn't give up anything! Also - nobody seems to give a shit.

I'm sure this was mentioned but rumor is we offered Herrera for Jackie Bradley straight up and they're considering it.

Rumor from where? Finding absolutely nothing about this anywhere.

Holland non tendered. As was Calixte. Pena traded to the O's for cash

Quit the runaround, how do you really feel?!?

Drops the Mic and walks away.