Royals Links: Ervin Santana, Memorable Moments, Raul Ibanez, & More

Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

Major League Baseball free agency is already underway, and with the Mets’ signing of Michael Cuddyer, the Royals now have one fewer right field option available to them. Plenty of media outlets are reporting rumors of certain players being available in trades, and there are rumors that the Royals might be interested in those players. At this point, the rumors mean very little. Until more moves start being made, speculation is basically the only thing out there, so some people are going to take what is written, and run with it as if it is inevitable. For your own sanity, please don’t do that. Instead, let’s just click some links to stories from around the Royals realm of the internet.

– According to CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman, the Royals have reached out to Ervin Santana, and both sides seem interested in a reunion. I mentioned last week that bringing Santana back would make a lot of sense, but if he’s really thinking he can get a 5-year deal, consider me uninterested. I think 3 years would be about right, possibly with a 4th year vesting option, but anymore than that is too much. Then again, Santana was said to be looking for a hefty contract last winter, and he ended up with significantly less.

More from KC Royals News

• KC Royals Rumors: Is a monster move in the cards?
• KC Royals Free Agent Hunt: 3 Tampa Bay pitchers
• Grading the 2022 KC Royals: The $25 million man
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Expectations met
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Day 3 update

– As Andy McCullough wrote in the Kansas City Star, the Royals have offered Raul Ibanez an off-field position for next season. Ibanez has gotten some interest from other teams in a coach or manager role, even though he hasn’t officially retired yet, but the Royals would love to have him back in the organization after he had such a positive impact on the clubhouse in the second half of the season.

– David Lesky of Pine Tar Press wrote about his 10 favorite moments from the Royals’ season. I don’t think I would be able to narrow the list down to just 10, because it was such an incredible experience to follow this team all spring, summer, and even into fall. There were simply so many memorable moments that shaped the Royals’ year, and regardless of what happens in the offseason, 2014 will remain a great memory.

– Speaking of memorable moments, Brad Johnson discussed 10 significant ones from the 2014 postseason for The Hardball Times. A couple of Royals’ plays are included, although the author neglects to mention that Alcides Escobar bunted on his own in Game 7 of the World Series, instead opting to criticize Ned Yost, because apparently that’s the cool thing to do. Regardless, this list contains a few plays that were kind of wacky in how they went down.

– At Baseball Prospectus, Craig Goldstein has a post on the winners of the Internet Baseball Awards. More specifically, he wrote about the winners at times when they didn’t look like winners. For instance, the post contains a video of Mike Trout horribly misplaying a ball, and another video of Jose Abreu breaking a phone box with his bat. It’s fun because these baseball players are awesome, and because of their awesomeness, plays like these tend to be forgotten.