JJ For a Day: Free Agency Bonanza

Yesterday I dug into some trades for the Royals, today, I sign some guys.

It is so easy to say that the best organizations are filled with homegrown talent. Free agency and trades should be to supplement what you can develop, and that’s the best recipe to a winning franchise. I think that’s one recipe. If you look at the 2024 Royals roster, one that made the playoffs, they had 16 players get 100 or more plate appearances and 15 throw 30 or more innings. Of those, 15 were homegrown (nine hitters/six pitchers), eight were acquired via trade (4/4) and eight were signed as free agents (3/5). So the Royals had a plurality of homegrown players reach those thresholds, but plenty others who were acquired in different ways. For reference, the Guardians had 33 such players and 17 were homegrown with 11 acquired via trade and five by free agency, so pretty similar.

After looking at three trades I’d make that mostly shored up the lineup, the Royals roster still has some holes to fill. In the moves from yesterday, I added about $14.7 million to the payroll for 2025. By my rough calculations, including all their arbitration-eligible players, that puts them at around $121 million. I mentioned a number of $140 million to $145 million. I can stay close enough to that range that my negotiating skills should get John Sherman to pony up to go a little higher.

If you remember from yesterday, I think the lineup is pretty well set, though I have one deal I want to make that you’ll see below. That means the focus is mostly on the pitching staff, which is also in surprisingly good shape. At first I thought they might play in a deeper end of the pool with some rotation options like a Yusei Kikuchi or Sean Manaea. But looking at the payroll numbers and the fact that they gave Michael Wacha $18 million (so maybe they did swim in the deeper end already), I think they go for someone a little bit lower on people’s lists. Let’s start there.