Royals Rumblings - News for February 3, 2025

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Screw the groundhog, spring is near.

John Sherman and the Royals talked about contention at Royals Rally on Saturday.

As spring training is on the horizon, the Royals are content with their current roster. Picollo attempted to add a middle of the order bat but shifted to the relief market in recent weeks. The decision was made to pursue Estévez to round out the bullpen.

It was a choice that was signed off by Royals owner John Sherman.

“We tried hard on some marquee outfield bats and we are continuing to talk with some guys,” Sherman said. “But I think it’s about what makes our team better. Estévez was a big add to our team. It made our team a lot better.”

J.J. Picollo talks about some unfinished business this off-season.

“That’s probably one area in the two years we haven’t been able to reach our goal, getting that, so it’s a little disappointing,” Picollo said Saturday at Royals Rally. “But we can’t force teams to make trades they don’t want to make. We were active in the free-agent market, we just weren’t able to land the guys. I think it speaks volumes to what Mr. [majority owner John] Sherman is doing and his commitment to allow us to continue to bump our payroll up a little bit and a willingness to exceed what the payroll was projected to be.

“All we can do is try — we can’t force it. We made valiant efforts on the free-agent side and real concerted, direct efforts in a trade market and just weren’t able to pull it off.”

Jaylon Thompson writes about how Carlos Estévez will fit into the bullpen.

As for how the Royals plan to use Estévez, Quatraro said there won’t be designated roles heading into spring training. Estévez will get an opportunity to close out games as another late-inning option alongside Erceg.

“He is going to get plenty of opportunities to close games,” Quatraro said. “He’s done it. He’s proven he can do it.”

Craig Brown reacts to Ken Rosenthal’s report of the Royals’ pursuit of free agents.

Picollo isn’t willing to hamstring this team in the future to aid in the short term. That hasn’t always been his modus operandi (see Renfroe, Hunter), but when it comes to contracts like Renfroe’s the damage has been relatively minimized by the terms involved. Five years for Santander or even three for Profar feels a bit risky. Writing that the Royals fear Santander may be reduced to a DH role in the “latter part” of a deal actually flatters Santander. He’s already a candidate to play most of his games there. And Profar…I haven’t written much about him this winter because I honestly don’t know what to make of him. Two years? Probably. Three? That seems like a risk that teams like the Royals shouldn’t be making.

We have to be careful about getting hung up on these free agent misses. The Royals don’t want to be known as the Toronto Blue Jays of the AL Central.

Jack Flaherty signs a two-year, $35 million deal with the Tigers.

The Cubs sign Nicky Lopez to a minor league deal.

The Padres will move Xander Bogaerts back to shortstop.

The Mariners are unlikely to trade Luis Castillo.

Shohei Ohtani is projected to return to pitching in May.

Why the Yankees feel they are better this year without Juan Soto.

The Orioles have an underrated trade chip.

The Dodgers have cornered the market on baseball’s nastiest pitch.

Why are there so many foul balls now?

A Japanese team is participating in the Caribbean Series for the first time.

The only time Negro League star Josh Gibson graced a magazine cover.

Former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent dies at age 86.