Michael Lorenzen Fills Another Piece of the Royals Puzzle

The Royals re-signed the righty to a reasonable deal to help get outs.

Some players are just more likely than others to sign with their previous team in free agency. Michael Wacha was one of those players and the Royals got his contract done so fast that he doesn’t even technically count as a free agent signing. Teoscar Hernandez with the Dodgers was one. Austin Hedges was another. And so was Michael Lorenzen. It wasn’t a foregone conclusion, of course, but there just seemed to be a nice fit with the organization after he was acquired at the deadline in exchange for Walter Pennington. Even when the report came out that he was looking to a be a two-way player, I always thought it was sort of to get the Royals moving.

And now the Royals have signed Lorenzen to a contract that guarantees him $7 million. He’ll get $5.5 million of that in 2025 and then the other $1.5 million of that in a buyout on a $12 million mutual option. Those basically never get picked up, so the amount on the option is pretty much moot, though that’s actually a number that could be the rare one exercised. If Lorenzen has a good, not great, year, he’ll enter free agency heading into his age-34 season. It still almost certainly won’t get picked up, but that could at least have me thinking about it come late October.

Lorenzen had a nice 2024 season overall. He had a 3.81 ERA with the Rangers, but it came with some rough peripherals. He gave up too many home runs, walked too many batters and didn’t strike out enough. But he got to Kansas City and while the 1.57 ERA was shiny, the 3.90 FIP was a little more accurate to the way he pitched. He did walk fewer batters in Kansas City while striking out a handful more, but it was still too many and too few, respectively. But with the Royals, he utilized a sweeper instead of his slider and the results were almost immediate.