Royals Rumblings - News for January 10, 2025

Pitchers and Catchers report in a little over a month

The Royals tweeted out some gorgeous pictures of Kauffman Stadium in the snow.

Max covered the big transaction news yesterday with the Royals agreeing to terms with all arbitration-eligible players.

Baseball Prospectus ($) gives us their top prospects list for the Royals. The RR Twitter account gave a preview:

Steve Adams at MLB Trade Rumors mentions the Royals as an unlikely option for a Nolan Arenado trade:

Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat tweeted this morning that the Royals were among the teams that reached out to the Cardinals last month but didn’t pursue a trade because of a belief that Arenado wouldn’t green-light the deal. The Royals are still seeking another bat, and incumbent Maikel Garcia is a glove-first player with a lighter bat than even the recently diminished version of Arenado. Kansas City also traded its top third base prospect, Cayden Wallace, to the Nationals in last summer’s Hunter Harvey swap.

However, Arenado’s contract would figure to be quite problematic for the Royals. Beyond the $64MM total he’s owed is the fact that said commitment is front-loaded; Arenado is owed $32MM this coming season ($5MM being covered by Colorado). The Royals’ payroll is already close to $10MM higher than it was a year ago, per RosterResource. Rosenthal noted in the aforementioned Fair Territory segment (17:50 mark) that he was surprised Kansas City even eked out another $7MM to re-sign Michael Lorenzen. Piling an additional $27MM onto the payroll and pushing their Opening Day would push payroll close to or slightly north of $150MM. That’d top the current franchise record of $143MM, set back in 2017. Arenado might represent a clearer upgrade to the Royals or Mariners than to some other speculative fits, but neither seems to have the financial wherewithal to bring him aboard — even if Arenado were willing to approve the deal.

The Royals Player Development Twitter account did three short videos about Nick Kenney, the Royals Director of Medical Administration. Here’s part 1:

To round out the Royals news, we have a couple of blog posts.

First, David Lesky, at Inside the Crown ($) asks what is repeatable from 2024 to 2025. He also lists my biggest fear for the 2025 team in his “tough to repeat” section:

The Rotation’s Innings

This is an easy one, I know, but last year, the team got 155 starts from their main starting five and 911 total innings from starters, which was second-most in baseball behind the Mariners. This is so simplistic and I wrote about it all throughout 2024, but these starters had either never thrown this many innings (in the case of Ragans, Lugo and Alec Marsh) or hadn’t done it in a long time (in the case of Wacha). Now, just because someone has never done it doesn’t mean they can’t do it. And that means that just because they haven’t done it twice doesn’t mean they can’t do it twice. It just feels unlikely.

Then we got a twofer from Farm to Fountains. Jackson Wilks and his look at the Naturals won the toss so he goes first:

2024 on paper makes Javier Vaz seem like a guy who stalls at AAA going forward. His set of skills and ability to adapt to new skill levels make him very useful to a team like the Kansas City Royals. Vaz has the best walk tool in the Royals system, barring another season of Blake Mitchell accruing 80+ walks. Even then he struck out 89 times less than Mitchell in 2024. He didn’t swing out of the zone often, he made consistent contact, and he hit the gaps. If he gets his 20.3 infield flyball percentage down that alone will skyrocket his numbers.

Preston Farr suggests the Royals outfield will not be the same as 2024:\

Wiemer is the true wild card in the new outfield rotation. Defensively, he’s a home run. There’s little question that he adds a new level of defensive talent to the group alongside Kyle Isbel. Wiemer was worth five defensive runs saved and eight outs above average in his only notable MLB playing time back in 2023. He can easily slot into any of the three outfield positions and offer up better defense than any other option on the roster, save for Isbel. At the plate, Wiemer offers post-hype top prospect potential. That sort of potential ceiling was absent from last season’s 26-man roster.

The Royals are set to return much of last season’s outfield. This time around, however, the team’s contingency plans offer much more hope. Wiemer and a mixture of India and Massey offer backup options should Melendez and Renfroe continue to struggle to the same degree we saw in 2024. In the minor leagues, Tyler Gentry remains on the 40-man roster and could get a call. Unlike last season, however, it’s unlikely he will be called upon to “save” this outfield to any degree. That level of pressure isn’t likely to help even the best prospects succeed, and the Royals have done well to insulate any potential pressure for prospects they can add to the outfield picture.

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I have a two-parter about music mostly written but I had a writing idea I couldn’t let go of this week. I don’t think it’s terribly deep or profound, but it just kept coming back to me. It started when I was taking down our Christmas tree, kept popping into my head with all the news of the California fires, and came back to me as we were cleaning the house.

Let’s say you’re in a life threatening situation and there’s a real risk that your home won’t be there when you get back. What do you bring with you?

As mentioned above, the California fires prompted it this week, but we’ve had to think about it in the past because of hurricanes. We made a list a few years ago with the theory that if we’re ever in that situation, we aren’t going to be in an optimal state of mind. Best to think about it ahead of time. Today’s brainstorm is now “ahead of time”.

There are a couple of constraints. Part of your car is going to be taken up with other family members or pets. You’re going to need essentials like clothes, food, etc. Similarly, you only have an hour to pack up your car, so it’s not going to be the most efficiently packed, either. For instance, when moving, you have some time to optimize, filling every nook and cranny of your car. During an emergency, there’s no time for that. It’s going to be an inefficient rush job. Basically, you can grab a couple boxes of items. If you’re really fast, maybe a few more larger loose things.

What would you take? The most valuable? The most practical? The most sentimental? Some combination? I’m going to try and sprinkle my examples in through this whole thought exercise.

In terms of valuable: sure, you bring credit cards, cash, and a check book, if you still have one. Maybe you’ve got a thumb drive that has your bitcoin locker on it. Do you have gold or other precious metals around the house for just such an emergency? Jewelry is small and can be valuable. It could also be sentimental. Watches, too.

Speaking of sentimental and valuable, there are a lot of things that are in both categories. If you’re deep into a hobby, you know which ones are valuable. I know the most valuable video games, baseball cards, and Lego sets in my collection. But I don’t think I’d bring the most valuable, though, as they’re not the most sentimental. Maybe they’re only marginally more valuable that much more sentimental ones. The big 3 of SNES RPGs are not the most expensive video games I have, but they would cost quite a bit to replace and mine are originals. I think they go. But the Legos stay behind as I can mostly rebuy what I want to rebuild. Do you have a rare book? Quality art? Designer clothes?

I wrote about baseball cards a few years ago. I’m pretty sure that in the comments I talked about my binders of baseball cards. But since we can’t be sure (thanks, Coral), I’ll talk about it again. I used to have about 50K baseball cards and I drastically pared that down a few years ago. However, I kept some binders with a page or two of cards from each set and also supplemented with cards off of eBay, other sites, and from my Dad’s old collection. For example: instead of the full 792 cards from 1990 Topps, I have a page with 18 cards from that set. Between my Topps binder and a second Hall of Fame binder, I have at least one card for every single player in the Hall of Fame*. I would grab those two binders. The total value between those might be $500 max, which means it might fetch $200 if I sold it. But the time it took to put that together and the memories I have from childhood, collecting with my Dad, make that a “must keep”.

*mostly - there are a couple of players without legit cards so I have their Hall of Fame postcards from Cooperstown

Next up is “practical”. IDs, passports, and really critical documents are a must. But what makes up a critical document? Your will? The deed to your house or title to your car? Marriage certificate? Do you have those all readily available or are they scattered?

I think phone and computers are so ubiquitous and practical that if you have them, you’re bringing them. So much of our data and identity are wrapped up in there now. I’m also bringing my backup hard drives just in case something happens to the computer. The data is more valuable to me than the physical hardware. I can rebuy a laptop. I can’t replace decades worth of digital photos or journals. Or maybe you don’t need to; maybe you have that in the cloud. You probably want to grab some chargers and/or backup batteries, too.

For being in IT, I’m a bit of a Luddite. I don’t keep my data in the cloud, but I do keep a backup of all my data on a hard drive at the bank. Protip: I highly recommend an offsite backup in some capacity. If your house burns or floods or is hit by a tornado, your laptop and onsite backup are both gone at the same time. I keep one at my bank and one in the file cabinet at home at all times. About once a month, I run a backup, take it to the bank, and then bring the one from the bank home so I can do my next back.

I can see a lot of people thinking their guns are very practical and/or valuable. Do you need to bring along something from work? Another computer or some sort of tool you need to carry on wherever you go to next? How about toiletries or a medical kit or prescriptions? Food for you? Food for your pets? Diaper bag for kids? Do you already keep a “go bag” or “bug-out bag”? What’s in that?

Finally, there’s the sentimental - in some ways the least valuable and in some ways the most. I think if we did a Family Feud style survey, “family photo album” would be the top answer and nothing else would be close. Our wedding album is on my list. We have digital copies of some of those pictures but not all and the album itself is a wonderful reminder of one of the most important days of our lives.

Other people have family keepsakes and heirlooms that are irreplaceable. I mentioned our Christmas tree as a jumping off point for this piece. I have a box of Christmas ornaments that are very near and dear to me. My grandparents got me the Hallmark “grandson” ornament from my birth until the year 2000. If I lost that, could I go recreate it on eBay? Sure, and I probably would. Heck, some cost less now than they did then (6 for $25, for instance). But I’ve had mine for decades and they were from my grandparents - that’s what makes them special to me, of course.

I’m also probably grabbing a box and quickly going through our curio cabinets and boxes of keepsakes. We have our homemade wooden nametags from the camp where we met. We have a number of souvenirs from travel like an angel figure from the Vatican, little model churches from Colombia, nesting dolls from Russia, and a chess set from Turkey. I have over 300 shot glasses from places we’ve been. Maybe I grab a couple, but there’s no way I could take them all. There’s my original Optimus Prime with its broken arm and Megatron with missing pieces. I’d have a hard time not putting those in the box.

What’s your ratio of valuable to practical to sentimental things? I think I’d end up with more sentimental than the other two combined. There are things I would have to have (wallet, money, laptop, phone, documents) - but those would take up only a bag or two. The rest would be the things I can’t replace with money.

I’ll complete my answer to get things rolling. I’ve already mentioned a handful of things I’d bring: obvious necessities like wallets, passports, extra money, phones, computers, and important documents. There’s the wedding album, box of ornaments, the baseball card binders, and the random keepsake box. There’s the t-shirt quilt I wrote about a couple of months ago - I’d strongly consider that as it’s both practical and a memento. Speaking of clothes, when I’m packing those away, I’m erring more on the side of sentiment than practicality. “Always October” may not be in perfect shape, but it’s going in the suitcase.

For the rest of the family, I have the Switch and a dozen games in a small carrier. If there’s been a disaster, all of us are going to want a distraction at some point. Beyond that, I’m not sure how much we let our son take. Sure, he’s going to get a couple of stuffed animals. I’m not sure what else means a lot to him in this sort of situation.

I’m sure my wife would add to the curio cabinet raid: an old glass from her great grandmother here, a travel knickknack there. She’s not as sentimental as I am, but she still has a streak of it. She’s collected one particular stuffed animal since she was a kid and has at least 200 of those, including her 2nd and 3rd from when she was just 1 year old. Those would end up in a sack along with a number of others. Sure, her computer has the “cow census” with pictures and notes of each, but you can’t hug a computer the way you can hug a stuffed bovine.

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How about something chill? Let’s revisit Animal Crossing: City Folk with the 6pm theme