Jeremy Guthrie’s European Vacation

Many teams will probably be interested in signing Jeremy Guthrie this offseason. After his successful run with the Royals in the second half of 2012, the Royals would be included on that list as well. For the time being, however, Guthrie’s probably not going to be sitting down to sign a deal.

Guthrie is one of a handful of big leaguers who is taking part in the European Big League Tour who will be conducting clinics with European youth with interest in baseball.

Prior to the EBLT, though, Guthrie had already visited Spain, where, among other things, he learned to fight bulls with the aid of Tomás Campuzano & Agustín de Espartinas. He also stopped to look at the 2,000 year old Roman aqueducts in Segovia, Spain. And, as it turned out, he came across some kids who were playing a bit of baseball.

On the EBLT, the group landed in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Guthrie is currently joined by Alex Liddi of the Mariners, Chris Dickerson, currently in the Yankees organization, Rick Van den Hurk of the Pirates and Roger Bernadina of the Nationals. They’ve taken in a soccer match, admired the extensive use of bicycles (Guthrie is a biking enthusiast and bikes are extremely popular in Holland). He even did a little shopping – or at least helped Dickerson do some shopping.

Apparently, he also spent a lot of time answering questions.

And that was just the first leg of the tour. Guthrie et al are now in London until the 18th. Guthrie has discovered that London has Chipotle and also made a pretty awful pun (which is redundant).

After the 18th, though, it’s back to reality. Guthrie won’t be wandering Europe anymore and it’ll be time to negotiate. With the Royals very much out of the Zack Greinke race. Anibal Sanchez may be out of their range as well, unless other teams balk at his asking price. Guthrie still looks like a good option for the Royals, even if he’s not the ace we’d all like to see. But he’d be effective.

And hey, Kansas City does have multiple Chipotle franchises as well as a recently implemented bicycle sharing program. That has to count for something, right? No aqueducts, however (but there are plenty of fountains…).