Mike Moustakas Agrees to $2.64M Deal With Royals

According to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, Mike Moustakas avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one year, $2.64 million dollar deal with the Royals. The Royals filed at $1.85 million and Moustakas filed at $3.1 million, making the agreement land slightly on Moose’s side.

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Most projections foresee Moustakas’s OPS landing somewhere between .680 and .720, which is either above or below average depending on where he lands. Over the last two years, he’s been a replacement level player (i.e. replaceable by a AAA player), so I tend to believe that he’ll be on the low end of the projections.

Moustakas will probably play better than he did last season. I know, I know; I said the same thing last year. Even if you include his playoff numbers, his 2014 triple-slash is an abysmal .214/.268/.381. However, he’s hitting his peak years and showed some signs of life in the post-season. His home run against Mike Morin came off the bat at 112.2 mph, a velocity he hadn’t reached since April 2014 and didn’t reach at any point during 2013. He punished mistakes.

There is some reason to suspect that can continue the momentum we saw at the end of last year. His line drive rate and the velocity of home runs off his bat have steadily ticked up every year since he reached the majors. His approach has also slowly improved over the years. In 2014, he swung at less pitches out of the strike zone than ever before.

After his magical 8-day demotion to the minor leagues, we saw a more tolerable player. Looking at every plate appearance since returning from AAA on June 1 (so that will include the post-season), he hit .234/.284/.401. If he can hit that well for an entire year while providing gold glove highlights, he’ll be worth the $2.6 million.

Royals fans might feel better with a better talent anchoring third base, but the price tag is hard to argue with–especially when we’re talking about a guy with 70 raw power.