Jeff Passan
‏Verified account @JeffPassan
9m9 minutes ago
Mike Moustakas has agreed to a one-year deal with a mutual second-year option with the Kansas City Royals, sources with knowledge of the deal tell Yahoo Sports. It guarantees him $6.5 million and can max out at $22.7 million.
Boras must’ve caved. He was talking about holdin Moose out the entire year, if need be, to get a big contract.
Great move to turn down the $13 million qualifying tender.
@JayHawkFanToo Insanity doesn't seem to be one of the filters involved in decisions either by the players or by the owners.
But why shouldn't baseball reflect modern life?
@JayHawkFanToo Not my idea. Here’s a link to an article siting past examples of Boras doing something similar. KCDeathStar article ↗
Boras has done this dance before. Four years ago, Kendrys Morales and Stephen Drew both remained unsigned into June. Kyle Lohse wanted until late March in 2013 to sign. Morales and Lohse ended up making as much or more than most expected. Drew, who was 31 when he went unsigned, made less.
So, Boras knows this route. He designed the playbook, and volunteered an alternative outcome. If the offers don't come, Moustakas could wait until the draft pick compensation drops after the June draft, perhaps sign a deal for the rest of the 2018 season, and then take another spin with free agency.
Manny Machado — who is moving from third to shortstop this year — and Josh Donaldson will be free agents, so Moustakas would at best be the No. 2 third baseman on the market.
Mis remembered. The proposed plan (by the Star) was to sit until June.
@dylans If I was Moose I would have fired Boras already or told him that he owe's me another $6.5M this season.
I'm not even happy to see Moose back the way he basically didn't even attempt to come back until he couldn't get a prettier date.
But, it does look more and more like the Royals won't field a putrid team. I am glad to see Dayton stick one to Boras and Moose for the way they acted this offseason.
@dylans Yea that would have let his comp pick expire and teams would have been much more likely to sign him. Other than he wouldn't have seen a live pitch for half of a season...
This is the best he could get. $6.5M on another "prove it" contract. If he sucks, Royals can part ways with him. If he is great, good for us and he can go try to fetch money again next offseason.
@Buster-1926 I think that Dozier still has an option and will get plenty of ABs in AAA. They clearly don't think Cuthbert is the guy to play 3rd in the future.
I think you are exactly right about trade bait though. If he gets on pace for another 30HR season I think we will see him flipped at the deadline. Same with Duda and Jay. At $6.5M for 1 year you couldn't not sign him. Complete steal, value wise.
I don't mind what they are doing, personally. Ideally, all 3 players repeat their last season's performance, we are 10 games out at the deadline, and we can flip each for a prospect or two. If we reload the AAA system by flipping cheap vets at the deadline, AND we take advantage of 4 draft picks in the first two rounds, this team might just have a few nice pieces in 3 or 4 seasons. This is supposed to be a very deep draft, especially pitching-wise, and the future looks bright.
Finally, as I've mentioned before, TV money and eyeballs are important.
@Buster-1926 bummer
@Buster-1926 Not shocked one bit.
@HighEliteMajor No, but that is interesting. I love Cuthbert. My theories probably don't apply to teams going through dumping and upheaval!
I think that's why KC made some of the moves they did (Jon Jay, Tyler Collins) to make sure they had enough outfield depth for the first half (with a chance to deal some of those guys once Bonifacio is ready around the All Star break.
@mayjay I think your theories on first basemen fall in line with what one would optimally prefer, much like the NFL combine. You speak of the ideal 1Bs that everyone would prefer. But many of the greatest 1B of all time don’t fit the combine mentality — Gehrig, Killebrew, Palmeiro, Foxx, Carew. And my discussion of Moose at first was assuming Hosmer was not availabile.