Royals Rumblings - January 22, 2025
Carlos Beltran is not in the Hall of Fame...yet.
Baseball fans learned of the newest Hall of Fame players in Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner. But former Royals outfielder Carlos Beltrán had a silver lining despite not heading to Cooperstown.
A steady increase in votes for the National Baseball Hall of Fame has the former Royal and longtime center fielder as close as ever to being elected in the coming year or two. He garnered 277 votes out of 394 ballots (70.3%) cast by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. That was only 17 votes shy of the 75% threshold needed for enshrinement.
According to Pat Ragazzo of Sports Illustrated, reliever Lou Trivino threw a bullpen session on Tuesday, and the Royals were one team in attendance.
Free agent RHP Lou Trivino threw a bullpen session at Cressey Sports Performance in Palm Beach in front of scouts this morning
Yankees, Dodgers, Guardians, Cubs, Giants, Reds, Royals were among those in attendance and teams came away impressed, I’m told
Got his sinker up to 94 mph and is already drawing interest from several teams.
Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino appeared on The Chris Rose Rotation and spoke on Pete Alonso not being valued in New York.
Specifically, Pasquantino noted that first basemen typically produce lower wins above replacement (WAR) totals compared to players at other positions, which is due to first base being perceived as the easiest defensive position to play; this has resulted in not only Alonso, but other first basemen not getting the deals they anticipate.
Tim Kelly at Bleacher Report projects some trade deadline moves for the coming MLB season, including sending outfielder JJ Bleday to the Royals.
Acquiring Bleday would add another impressive bat to the lineup in Kansas City, and he would benefit greatly from shifting to left field on a full-time basis. The Royals may have to pay a bit of a premium to acquire the 27-year-old, but he won't become arbitration eligible until 2026 and can't become a free agent until after 2028, so Kansas City would have him for a few years then.
Mark Wiebe at The Beacon talks about an economic standoff between two Midwest states.
When Jackson County voters rejected a proposed ⅜-cent sales tax to fund a new Royals stadium and improvements to Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas legislators immediately dangled the prospect of STAR bond incentives to attract one or both teams to their side of the state line. Missouri pledged to counter with its own deal, but it has yet to do so.
Joel Goldberg stopped by Salina 's Red Fern Booksellers this week.
Mike Gillespie at Kings of Kauffman says the winter doldrums may not relent for Royals fans.
Matt Chabot at Farm to Fountains looks at Kris Bubic in 2025.
Brian Murphy at MLB.com pays respects to the players who fell off the Hall of Fame ballot, including former Royals utilityman Ben Zobrist.
Lewis Pollis at The Lewsletter breaks down the 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame results.
An 11-year-old from California pulled the Paul Skenes 1/1 debut patch card.
Jacob Rudner at Baseball America ($) talks about a shifting roster mindset in baseball's collegiate ranks.
The Detroit Tigers and free agent third baseman Alex Bregman are reportedly in a negotiation standstill.
Snow is blanketing southern states this week.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul posits banning students from using cellphones during school hours.
Today's song is Heavens to Betsy by Jackson Dean.