Kansas City Royals Christmas List For 2017

For Joakim Soria:

A vial of water from Lethe. For those of you who didn’t study Greek mythology in school, the waters of the river Lethe makes you forget.

In Joakim Soria’s case, 2016 sucked so bad he’s better off if he didn’t remember it. Of course, it would probably be better if the entire baseball world simply forgot about his 2016 season in which he blew 13 leads. Though Soria’s 4.05 ERA was slightly better than league average, his -2.13 Win Probability Added was the second worst mark among relievers in MLB. Ouch.

Win Probability measures what Soria does to his team’s chances to win in each of his appearances. If you decrease your team’s chances to win in a particular game by 20%, you get a -.2 Win Probability Added (WPA) for the game. The Kansas City Royals would have been about two games better off if Soria had never played in 2016.

That’s really bad.

For Matt Strahm And Josh Staumont: 

Three years of maturity. Matt Strahm will play next season at age 25, while Staumont just turned 23. Both will be considered rookies next season, despite Strahm’s 22.0 inning stint with the big club last season. Staumont has yet to play higher than AA.

Yet, the KC Royals would like both players to fill significant roles in 2017. Strahm could either become the no. 5 starter or a key set-up man for closer Kelvin Herrera. Meanwhile, Kansas City would love it if Staumont can harness his command well enough to zoom past AAA and be ready for bullpen duty in the second half of 2017.

Staumont’s stuff is electric. He pairs an 80 grade fastball with a nasty curve and developing slider. While the organization hopes he can find enough command to start, his stuff is so good Staumont could conceivably provide significant value as a reliever in 2017. With both Wade Davis and Greg Holland missing from the team’s famed “HDH” trio that carried KC to the 2014 World Series, the Royals could really use some homegrown replacements.