Kansas City Royals Rumors: Cubs and Yankees inquire about Danny Duffy

Boston, San Diego still chasing Hosmer

One of the biggest remaining storylines of the Winter Meetings — and the offseason as a whole — continues to be the race to sign Hosmer. While a lot of negative things have been said about the star first baseman, he still registers as a hot commodity. Given his initial price tag, only a few teams would realistically have the funds to sign him.

Many of those financially loaded teams (Yankees, Dodgers and Giants, for instance) don’t have a need for Hosmer. The team with the deepest pockets in the running would be Boston. Especially given what the Yankees have done this offseason, the Red Sox need to make a splash. According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the team will almost certainly sign one of the following three free agents: Hosmer, J.D. Martinez or Carlos Santana. In many ways, Martinez would seem to be the best fit. Olney said as much on Tuesday:

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Adding Martinez would allow Andrew Benintendi to move to center field, and Jackie Bradley could be traded for prospects. The first base market is also much deeper than the corner outfield market. In theory, Boston could land Martinez and a slugging first baseman like Logan Morrison, Yonder Alonso or even Hosmer or Santana, if things work out just right.

While Boston remains very much in play, on the opposite coast, at least one team hopes the Red Sox prioritize Martinez. According to A.J. Cassavell of MLB.com, San Diego continues to show “very real” interest in Hosmer with an obvious hope that a market fails to develop for the 28-year-old. That said, the Kansas City Royals haven’t given up hope of retaining their franchise cornerstone, per Heyman:

Even with that glimmer of hope, it’s getting increasingly hard to imagine the Royals re-signing Hosmer. With Moore dead set on rebuilding the farm system in lieu of competing, would it make sense to add Hosmer and trade everyone else? Well, that’s a topic we’ve already discussed.  But it bares repeating that bringing back Hosmer, while simultaneously tearing everything around him down to the studs makes no sense.

Maybe, there will be clarity on the future of the Kansas City Royals by the end of the Winter Meetings. Then again, fans might prefer not to know what the future holds. Or it could be best to just rip the bandage off in one quick pull.

Next: Expansion should put Royals in new division

What do you think? Could Duffy be on the move? Who will play center field in 2018? Let us know your thoughts and predictions.