KC Royals Trying To Keep The Party Going Past 2015

Jul 5, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals left fielder Alex Gordon (4) runs after a fly ball against the Minnesota Twins during the eighth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

Alex Gordon

Born and raised in Nebraska, Alex Gordon insisted that he would pick up the remaining option year on his contract to stay in Kansas City through 2016. While he backtracked from that strong assertion that he made during the playoff stretch run in 2014, it does indicate that Alex Gordon probably would like to finish his career in Royal blue.

The problem is he’s likely to get significant offers, which might exceed $100 million. Shin-Soo Choo commanded a seven-year, $130 million deal from the KC Royals’ spring co-tenant Texas Rangers before the 2014 season. Choo was 32-years-old at the time, and was coming off a 4.3 bWAR season in 2013. Overall, he had never exceeded 5.9 WAR in his career, and had accumulated total 25.6 bWAR .

Those are more modest numbers than Alex Gordon, who already has 31.6 career bWAR with six weeks to go in his age-31 season, and has topped the 6.0 bWAR barrier three times: 7.2 bWAR in 2011, 6.3 bWAR in 2012, and 6.6 bWAR in 2014. Gordon has 2.5 bWAR in 2015 in about half a season.

Choo’s contract, however, might deter others from making a similar deal since it’s pretty much turned into a disaster when he struggled through an injury-plagued 2014 and has only put up 1.1 bWAR since. At age 34 next season, and five years remaining on his deal, it’s hard to imagine the Rangers ever coming close to getting value.

Even so, I expect someone to throw a nine-figure offer at Gordon with all of the local TV money sloshing around baseball (the Cardinals recently signed a $1 billion local deal with Fox Sports).

I don’t know how far Alex Gordon’s loyalty will go, because the Kansas City Royals are locked into a bad local TV contract until 2019. They probably can’t come close to a Choo-type deal. Gordon will have to give the KC Royals a steep hometown discount if he’s going to stay in KC.

Next: Eric Hosmer