KC Royals: Why Trading For Nick Markakis Makes Sense

4) NICK MARKAKIS HAS A REASONABLE CONTRACT

Markakis is signed through 2018 (his age 34 season) at $11 million per year. Though that sounds like a lot of money to us common folk, it’s pretty reasonable in today’s major-league baseball. With open-market prices running around $8 million per WAR, Markakis only has to produce about 1.3 WAR per season  to provide value.

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Though owner David Glass might not want to eat another $9.5 million or so in pro-rated salary when the team payroll is a record $132 million, the KC Royals might persuade the Braves to take back a contract like Omar Infante as a salary dump. Since Infante is signed through 2017 at $8 million per season, the Royals would be on the hook for another $3 million or so, while the Braves would gain around $17 million in future salary relief.

That would clear up second base for Christian Colon, who appear more productive than Omar Infante right now. I doubt he’d be any worse.

While the KC Royals might not want to be on the hook for the $22 million remaining on Markakis contract after the 2016 season, at $11 million he should be easy to deal presuming his production doesn’t crash at the end of this season.

That way, the Kansas City Royals would have their right field stop-gap until players like Jorge Bonifacio and Bubba Starling prove they are ready for major league jobs.

Of course the counter-argument is that Bonifacio and Brett Eibner are ready for major-league jobs right now, and that a Nick Markakis trade would just be wasting resources. However, Markakis should come relatively cheap and gives the team known production.

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In the end, the KC Royals scouts will have to make the call. They have better data on Bonifacio, Eibner, and Markakis than any outside analyst.