Royals Sign RHP Michael Wacha, OF Hunter Renfroe
The Kansas City Royals, who already signed former Met Seth Lugo to a 3-year, $45 million deal, inked veterans Michael Wacha and Hunter Renfroe to multi-year deals today.
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported that Renfroe signed a two-year, $13 million deal, with an opt-out after the first season. The first year of the deal with be worth $5.5 million, and the second year $7.5 million.
Renfroe will now be heading to his seventh team in six years. After spending parts of the first four years of his career with the San Diego Padres, Renfroe had stops with the Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Angels and Cincinnati Reds before getting his new deal 2-year deal with Kansas City. However, with the opt-out in the contract, he could still find his way to a different team in 2025.
Renfroe, who will be 32 in January, had the worst season of his career in which he played at least 100 games in 2023. In 504 plate appearances with the Angels, he hit .242/.304/.434 with 19 home runs before being placed on waivers near the end of August as part of a salary dump for Los Angeles. He was claimed by the Reds but hit just .128 over 14 games before being released. On the season, he had a -0.6 bWAR and 0.6 fWAR over 140 games, mainly as a right fielder.
Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
A little under an hour later, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the Royals were adding Wacha on a two-year, $32 million deal. Like Renfroe, this deal also comes with an opt-out after the first season.
For Wacha, this becomes his sixth team in six seasons after spending the first seven years of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals. He spent the shortened 2020 season with the Mets and posted a career-worst 6.62 ERA over 34 innings before moving on to the Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox and San Diego Padres.
Wacha has had a lot of success over the past two seasons, posting a 3.32 ERA with Boston in 2022 and a 3.22 ERA with San Diego in 2023. However, he made just 47 starts in those two seasons and averaged about 130 innings. Now 32, he will turn 33 on July 1.
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