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Good question about what Royals think of Minor and whether, even though he is not an ace, whether having his professionalism and reasonably expected production would be a positive influence on the starters. Ervin seemed to help other young starters (as least Carlos), and Greg the young relievers. Personally, and after seeing young starters thrive in the playoffs, I don’t think that Brady or the other young starters need us to overpay an ace type. JJ and Dayton have said they were on the hunt for relievers, if there is a good deal, fine, but I also like the practice of other teams to let young starters who do not make the rotation, start in the bullpen, like Keller did for us. If free agents do not work out it may not be a bad thing, we may already have all that we need.

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I can tell you that they aren’t necessarily unhappy with what he gave them in 2021. I’ve mentioned this quite a bit that while the ERA was high, he really was generally fine. But they also wouldn’t mind being able to get out of the deal and move him and bring in someone with more of a shot to be more than fine.

I just think the free agent starter market seems pretty reasonable on these mid-tier guys and the relief market looks bloated, so why not change course? I know they have about a million young starters, but it doesn’t hurt to have a more reliable arm or two to put in there.

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