News Every Day | Yesterday, 16:00

Royals Rumblings - News for January 7, 2025

Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images

Is the off-season 90 percent complete now?

Craig Brown reacts to the Cavan Biggio signing.

Biggio’s strength as a hitter comes from his strike-zone recognition. In his career, he’s chased on pitches outside of the zone under 16 percent of the time. That’s an elite chase rate. The league average is generally around 28 percent.

It’s a fantastic foundation for any hitter. The issue in Biggio’s case is he just doesn’t hit the ball hard when he’s making contact in the zone. Last season, his Statcast metrics fell off a cliff. His average exit velocity was 82 MPH compared to a career average of around 88 MPH. His Hard-Hit Rate plummeted to 17 percent, down from an average close to 33 percent.

The other issue is Biggio’s strikeout rate. You would expect someone with the kind of strike zone recognition that possesses to avoid the whiffs, but that’s not the case. Biggio’s career strikeout rate is 27 percent, which is entirely too high for a player with his kind of profile.

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter likes Biggio as a bench piece.

Royals fans may ask: Why would the Royals want another version of Frazier? Well, there are two parts to that answer.

One, “super” utility guys don’t just grow on trees. Even though their defensive value can vary from position to position, they give manager Matt Quatraro flexibility in the lineup. That allows him to maximize opportunities for other players on the Royals roster. Over 162 games, that can’t be downplayed, and Quatraro proved that he could maximize a deep bench effectively last season as they won 86 games after only winning 56 in 2023.

Secondly, it is also essential to get players like Frazier but at a much cheaper cost to give flexibility on the payroll.

Mark Polishuk at MLB Trade Rumors writes about how each AL team has addressed their biggest 2024 weakness so far.

Royals (Left field, -0.7 bWAR): The Royals also received -0.1 bWAR from the right field position, and only three teams got less from their outfielders than Kansas City’s collective 1.0 outfield bWAR in 2024. Former top prospect and incumbent left fielder MJ Melendez has yet to break out after three MLB seasons, plus veteran Hunter Renfroe is back in right field after exercising his $7.5MM player option for the 2025 season. It wouldn’t be a surprise if either is moved to bench duty now since the corner outfield is a natural spot for the Royals to add a big hitter. Some left field help might come from an unusual source, as both new acquisition Jonathan India and Michael Massey are apparently willing to move from second base to left field if it’ll help the team (and garner them more regular playing time). Stay tuned to this situation, as now that K.C. is firmly back in playoff contention, the Royals should be more aggressive in shoring up the lineup to try and make a deeper October run.

Former Royals pitcher Brian Flynn is now owner of the Joplin Outlaws in the Mid-America League.

The Dodgers trade infielder Gavin Lux to the Reds.

The Yankees are interested in trading for Luis Arraez.

The Rangers sign reliever Chris Martin to a one-year deal.

Nolan Arenado is reportedly willing to waive his no-trade clause for the Red Sox.

Why the Tigers need to go all-in for 2025.

Where will free agent Jack Flaherty end up?

This off-season agent Scott Boras shows he still has it.

The widow of former Padres owner Peter Seidler sues his brothers for control of the team.

The Rays now want Tropicana Field to be repaired for the 2026 season.

Baseball America has minor league park factors for 2024. [$]

What the upstart Women’s Pro Baseball League could learn from other women’s sports leagues.