KC Royals: Making the case, Angels and Orioles free agents

Do the Los Angeles Angels or Baltimore Orioles have free agents who can help the KC Royals?

Bad teams are bad for different, but limited, reasons. They usually just have bad players, or not enough good ones, which also means such clubs typically don’t produce great free agents every offseason. The KC Royals, for example, didn’t lose any stellar free agents after their 100-loss seasons of 2018 and ’19.

Their lack of sufficient numbers of good players is at least one reason the Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Orioles won’t suffer much if they lose their free agents this winter. There are only four between the two clubs, and none will command a lot of attention.

Of the two teams, the Orioles’ dearth of talent hurts the most. Baltimore last won more games than it lost in 2016, the season marking the end of five straight winning campaigns that encompassed three playoff trips. The O’s were so bad that they lost 11 more games (115) than the Royals did in 2018, and five more (108) than Kansas City the very next season.

The presence of Mike Trout, perhaps the best player in the game, hid many of the Angels’ flaws over LA’s last five campaigns. Unlike the Orioles, Los Angeles didn’t manage even a single winning season in that time, but they also didn’t lose 100 games in any of those years.

Not surprisingly, then, free agency won’t strip the Angels or the O’s of their core talent this offseason. Los Angeles could lose a shortstop and a pitcher, while Baltimore stands to lose a catcher and a starter. There’s really only one possibility for the KC Royals among them.