Royals Rumblings - News for February 20, 2024

20.02.2024 16:00

Royals Review

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

We will have baseball games this week!

Anne Rogers writes about Daniel Lynch’s efforts to make the rotation.

“I’m trying to strike guys out,” Lynch said. “Get guys out. I’m trying to go out there and show what I can do. That’s all you can do.”

Lynch is building up as a starter this spring and competing for a spot in the rotation. It’s far from guaranteed after the Royals signed Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha this offseason, and have Cole Ragans, Brady Singer and Jordan Lyles as starters as well. But there’s a lot that can still happen in Spring Training, and the team is fostering competition by keeping rotation spots open — it’s likely that fifth spot comes down to performance and health among Lyles, Lynch, Alec Marsh and others.

“We’re not going to name five starters right out of the gate,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “There’s a lot of options for us, guys that can pitch out of the bullpen or start. So we’ve got to build up nine or 10 guys.”

David Lesky at Inside the Crown chimes in on the John Schreiber trade.

While I’ve meandered a bit here, that brings me to my final point and it’s the prospect community disliking this trade. I’m not the first person to note this and I likely won’t be the last, but I find it interesting that many have spent months bashing the Royals system (and mostly fairly) who criticized the Royals for trading from that same system. This isn’t black and white, so the nuance might get a little lost here, but if the system is so bad and they traded a prospect that has a lot of variance in how good he is for someone who can help today.

Craig Brown at Into the Fountains is lukewarm about the trade.

Look, you never want to trade a true prospect for a reliever. It’s just not good baseball sense. And you probably don’t want that prospect to be a guy who ends up in a rotation making 30-odd solid, if unspectacular, starts a year. Not with how much starting pitching is going for on the open market and especially when your organization traditionally has had difficulting developing those types of pitchers. And the Royals aren’t necessarily “going for it” with a swap like this. They’re simply attempting to shore up a position that was a weakness the year before.

Could this trade come back to haunt Picollo and his staff? Certainly. That’s the danger in dealing prospects. The question on the flip side is, does this make the major league team better? I think it does but by an incremental amount.

David Gerth at Down on the Farm gives his evaluation of the deal.

Overall, this trade seems pretty even from a value perspective, but maybe a tad bit in favor of the Red Sox. The Royals seem to want to compete this year, and they needed bullpen help, but most projection systems see them as having a low chance of making the playoffs this season. This trade doesn’t materially affects their playoff chances, but does provide more stability to their pen. Sandlin could compete for a rotation spot as soon as next year, which fits more with the Royals contention timeline, so this trade feels a bit short sighted.

The Royals still haven’t come to an agreement with local labor and community groups about their new stadium.

Crossroads business owners talk about potentially being displaced by a stadium.

Milwaukee re-signs pitcher Brandon Woodruff to a two-year deal.

Boston signs reliever Liam Hendriks to a two-year, $10 million deal.

The Mets will reportedly sign Luke Voit to a minor league deal.

Mike Trout doesn’t want a trade out of Anaheim yet.

Seattle could be making a move for free agent Matt Chapman.

Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon admits baseball has never been a big priority for him.

Teams are starting to hire former players as GMs again.

The Lerner family is no longer exploring a sale of the Nationals.

CBS Sports has its top 50 prospect rankings.

Why not all steep swings are created equal.