Crown Jewels: Royals International Signings, NRIs and Bob Uecker

The international signing period is open, which means it's time to add some very young talent to the organization. Plus, a look at who's coming to camp and a tribute to a great.

I suppose I now start every Friday with an update on free agents left to sign, and as of this morning, just 30 of the top 50 free agents on the MLB Trade Rumors list have signed. Pitchers and catchers report in less than a month and 20 of those free agents remain unsigned. That’s kind of crazy, though I guess I also don’t know how that compares to last season. Four of the top 10 remain with two more in the next 10, three in the 10 after that, four in the next 10 and then seven of the final 10. Plenty of good names remain, even for teams avoiding players with qualifying offers and long-term deals.

I asked around a bit, as I’ve done throughout the winter, and it seems like those on the teams’ sides seem to believe things are thawing a bit. The insane asking prices are coming down, as they basically always do. One person I spoke with said there would probably be a big run on players signed over the next week to 10 days. Another thought we might see something similar to a few years ago when a bunch of players signed in spring training. As the offseason has progressed, there’s been speculation that things would open up after this player or that player signed, but I don’t think any one player is holding up the market. I think that early activity made a lot of agents believe there was more to this market than there is and asked for the moon, as is their right. Now things need to regulate a bit.

Here is this week’s one newsletter. Whatever was going around, I got and got hard, so I was on my you know what this week, but hopefully I’ll get more for you in the coming weeks. I definitely will once action gets going.

International Signings for the Royals

The international signing period opened up on Wednesday, which means teams were allowed to make deals they’ve had in place for years official. This year has been a bit of a different one because of the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes that appear to be coming down to the Dodgers and Blue Jays. I think most believe it’s the Dodgers, but I haven’t seen anyone truly rule out Toronto, so they can continue to dream on being a bridge for once for a bit longer. If you’re unfamiliar with international signing rules, teams get an allotted amount and can trade for up to 50 percent more than their allotment. The Royals have $6,908,600 to spend this year, the second highest pool.

I find this signing period interesting for a few reasons. One, it’s kind of a crapshoot. I’m not saying scouts aren’t good at their jobs because they are, but even the best don’t have a crystal ball to determine what a teenager is going to look like in a few years. Think about the maturation you go through from 16 to 18 and then from 18 to like 21 or 22 and then from 21/22 to 26. It’s hard enough with drafting 18-year-olds out of high school, but to up the degree of difficulty like this makes it that much tougher.

Just look at MLB Pipeline’s rankings from, say, 2015. We see some familiar Royals faces on there. Lucius Fox was acquired for Brett Phillips. He was ranked sixth in that class. A strapping outfielder named Seuly Matias was 13th. Scroll down into the 20s and you get to 25 when you see a name you know well, Juan Soto. Yes, Soto was the 25th ranked prospect in that class. Good on them for ranking him at all, but he was behind such greats as Jonathan Sierra and Albert Guaimaro. Oh hey, Fernando Tatis Jr. was 30th on that list. This isn’t to say teams should just sign whoever, but I say that to remind everyone that the rankings are inexact.

The Royals reportedly have agreements in place with Warren Calcaño, a shortstop from the Dominican Republic, Ramcell Medina, a shortstop from the Dominican Republic, Moises Marchan, a catcher from Venezuela, Kendry Chourio, a pitcher from Venezuela, Luis Ramon King, an outfielder from the Dominican Republic and Luis German, an outfielder from the Dominican Republic. There are others, of course, but those are the big names. Baseball America has Calcaño ranked seventh, Medina ranked 38th and Marchan ranked 59th on their top-100.

The belief is that Calcaño can stick at shortstop, but needs to grow into some more power. He’s 6’2”, so theoretically his frame can support some added muscle, but scouts aren’t expecting big power from him. Medina is smaller, but I’ve talked to a couple of scouts who think there’s more thump in his swing and that he could be a guy to pop quickly and get to full season ball younger than expected. He’s got some whiff in his game, but the batted ball numbers are impressive for him. And Marchan is in the right organization for catcher development. He’s a good defensive catcher and has a nice swing. Again, who knows?

What’s interesting to me is that I don’t believe these players have officially signed yet. Best I can tell, the Royals typically get most of their guys signed on the first day they can. Why is that interesting? Well, Sasaki is why. I don’t know if the Royals are going to be a part of this or not, but reports are that the Dodgers and Padres along with some other teams are looking to add international signing money. Could this be an avenue for the Royals to go get an outfielder from the Dodgers? James Outman and his ridiculous strikeouts scare me, but he’s the name that keeps coming up when people suggest it. Or maybe they take Luis Arraez off the Padres hands (I don’t think so, but you never know). It’s an interesting wrinkle this year.

Royals Announce Non-Roster Invites

We are close enough to spring training that we’ve gotten the big list of players not on the 40-man roster who will be invited to spring training with the big club. Most are no surprise. Let’s take a look at anyone who stands out from each group.

Pitchers

Chandler Champlain
Taylor Clarke
Austin Cox
Junior Fernandez
Tyson Guerrero
Andrew Hoffmann
Ben Kudrna
Anthony Simonelli
Beck Way
Steven Zobac

First, you always need pitchers in camp. It doesn’t mean that you can’t bring up guys from minor league camp, but especially early when guys are going two innings at most, each game requires a bunch of arms. I don’t think Champlain will break camp with the team, but I’d say he has the best shot of the “prospects” on this list. Though Way, with a big a camp and some injuries, could be a guy you see make a jump. He’s been much better as a reliever than as a starter. I wouldn’t bet on it, but you never know. I think Clarke could find himself on the big league roster given his experience. The rest are there to soak up innings and make an impression.

Catchers

Kyle Hayes
Omar Hernandez
Carter Jensen
Blake Mitchell
Brian O’Keefe
Luca Tresh

You really need catchers in big league camp to catch all the pitchers who are there. That’s why you see a guy like Hayes, who I’d be surprised if many of you even recognized the name. I had to look him up. Hernandez is another organizational catch-and-throw guy who can help in spring training and likely will kind of just go where there’s a hole in the system. The rest are actually interesting, though.

This’ll be Jensen’s second big league camp and while I see next to no way he makes the roster, he can really build on his solid 2024 season and excellent Arizona Fall League experience. I would not be surprised if we see a lot of at bats for him in the early part of camp. He’ll probably start the year back in AA, but a great spring could get him on a faster track to the big leagues. Mitchell is in the spot Jensen was last year, just getting a taste of big league camp. I don’t think he’ll get a ton of action, but it’ll be great for him to get to work with the pitching staff some and get into a game here and there. And then there’s O’Keefe, who’s an offensive catcher who had a nice year in Omaha and Tresh, who feels like a future backup.

The Royals don’t currently have a third catcher on their 40-man roster, so unless they add one, O’Keefe and Tresh have a camp battle to be the first catcher up if one of Salvador Perez or Freddy Fermin gets hurt early in the year.

Infielders

Cavan Biggio
Jac Caglianone
Cam Devanney
Tyler Tolbert
Javier Vaz

Let’s see, Biggio is interesting as an NRI given where he was just a few years ago. I don’t think he makes the team. Devanney is a guy who I think should be a utility infielder in the big leagues right now because he can hit a little and can play shortstop capably. Tolbert has been in camp before. We know he can fly and can play infield and outfield. Vaz was in camp last year and made a crazy play in left field. He’s a future big leaguer and I guess that’s it.

Oh wait, the Royals invited Cags to camp, which goes against the grain for them, but shows how advanced they think he is. He isn’t going to make the roster on Opening Day, but I would not be surprised if he’s in the lineup at the big league level by August. I wouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t either, for whatever that’s worth, but the Royals think he can move very fast. The numbers were underwhelming for him once he hit pro ball, but he had a draining 2024 college season and he started to come on late in the Arizona Fall League. They’ve mentioned outfield for him during the season, so I’ll be curious to see how much time he gets out there this spring with the big league staff evaluating that.

Outfielders

Gavin Cross
John Rave

I think Cross can still be a big league contributor, but to what level, I don’t know. The power is still there. The swing is still there. The speed is still there. The defense in a corner is still there. He just hasn’t fully found it yet. He hit .261/.342/.428 in Northwest Arkansas with decent power and stole 30 bases in 32 attempts. I hope he gets sent to AAA this season so we can track the batted ball metrics for him, though when you watch him, you can see the ball jump off his bat at times. I wouldn’t bet on this, but I think he could win a job this year, similar to Kyle Isbel in 2022. That’s without any other additions, which I think are still coming, but it’s possible.

With Rave, the numbers were there in the minors, but those batted ball metrics just aren’t very impressive and I don’t think the Royals see him as a big leaguer given that he was doing some very good things in AAA and never got a chance in an outfield that desperately needed some help. Still, it’s another chance to impress and he can play center field.

RIP, Bob Uecker

It’s not very often that a death hits me. Rickey Henderson’s did, partially because of the shock of it but partially because he was just a great. But the news yesterday that Uecker had passed away got to me. He and I shared a birthday, which is totally meaningless but a fact I loved. Ueck was just so cool. He played in the big leagues and wasn’t very good, but he knew it and was funny about it. He then became an incredible broadcaster and an actor and is the reason Major League (and Major League 2 and much less so, the third version) is my favorite baseball movie.

Everyone quotes the line, “juuuuuuuuust a bit outside” and laughs and laughs and laughs, but they often miss the rest of the line - “he tried the corner and missed.” The first part is funny. The second part is droll and so freaking funny that even after seeing the movie, I don’t know, 100 times, I still miss the next line sometimes. Major League is my movie that I watch when I’m sick and the one I watch the day before the season every year and that’s not going to change, but I think that’s a big reason why his death impacted me so much yesterday.

It’s not that he didn’t live a long, full life. The man was 90 and just a week and a half from 91. I don’t know him personally, but the stories from those who do paint the picture of someone who didn’t, or at least shouldn’t have, had any regrets. So it wasn’t untimely or a tragedy, but in the way that no time is enough, it was too soon. My yearly re-watch of Major League will have a different feeling. My tuning to Brewers games when the Royals aren’t playing will have a different feeling. It’s a sad day to lose someone like Bob Uecker.

One more thing with an awkward turn after that last point! I’m partnering with Underdog Fantasy because it’s fun to add a bit of gaming to sports fandom. Obviously I’ll be a lot more on the baseball stuff, but I wanted to share some picks I have for the Chiefs/Texans game this weekend. Super homer picks (though with research!) and I may lose, but it adds a little more intrigue to the game.

Underdog is available in Kansas and Missouri now (and a bunch of other states too), so sign up today with code CROWN (or DBLESKY) and you can get up to $1,000 bonus with your first deposit. I’ll be sharing some picks and some links here on Fridays and then I’ll add some throughout the baseball season as well.