Royals Rumors Roundup: Atlanta not expected to chase Mike Moustakas

The Kansas City Royals have plenty of free agents who will be targets of other teams. Here’s a look at some of the rumored destinations for those players from around the web.

There are so many Hot Stove rumors swirling about former Kansas City Royals players that we decided to group together some of the top ones — as of this moment. The great, and sometimes agonizing thing, about free agency is the unknown. It’s an exciting time for many franchises, but, for obvious reasons, it’s a frightening one for Royals fans.

Kansas City supporters are looking for any bit of encouraging news when it comes to their key franchise pieces. Well, we give you just that with this tidbit from Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Braves aren’t expected to pursue Mike Moustakas this offseason. Burns’ piece seemed to be in response to MLB Trade Rumors predicting Moose would sign with Atlanta. In that article, the writers at MLB Trade Rumors concluded Moustakas would land a five-year, $85 million deal with the Braves.

Burns points out that contract — if Moose did receive it — would be the richest in the franchise’s history. It would be almost $10 million more than Atlanta spent on B.J. Upton in 2012. Burns also noted that such a move would run contrary to the Braves’ rebuilding plan. But he did note that the possibility of Dayton Moore joining the Atlanta front office could change things. For the record, Mark Bowman, who covers the Braves for MLB.com, thinks Moustakas could be a wild card free agent target.

So if he doesn’t end up in Kansas City or Atlanta, then where might Moustakas sign? We already know the Angels would make a lot of sense. And the Boston Globe‘s Nick Cafardo also mentions them — along with the Mets, Yankees and Giants — as a possible destination.