KC Royals: Making the case, New York Mets free agents

With several expiring contracts for pitchers and position players, the New York Mets have a long list of players the KC Royals could look to acquire.

Welcome back to Kings of Kauffman’s continuing series analyzing the major league free agent market and projecting who might, or might not, fit the KC Royals’ needs. Today we look at the Mets’ free agents.

While the Mets have had two winning seasons and one Wild Card qualification since they lost the 2015 World Series to the KC Royals, fans had grown increasingly frustrated with the team’s owner. Fred Wilpon finally sold to Steve Cohen ending the former owner’s 40-year history with the club.

Now, the Mets presumably have more cash to spend on current players and free agents if they wish. With over a dozen stars hitting the free agent market, the 2021 version of their franchise should look very different.

Pitchers, pitchers everywhere

There is one potential player off the Mets’ list of free agents, as Marcus Stroman accepted the Mets qualifying offer of $18.9 million. Possibly anticipating a potentially weak market, Stroman decided it was better to take this instead of potentially settling for less, much like what happened to Mike Moustakas a few years ago.

As you can probably guess from previous articles, I am not keen on the Royals investing heavily in free agent pitching at this point. One name that did strike me as worth taking a look at, though, is Michael Wacha. He could be a great person to plug into a long relief/emergency starter role.

He has struggled the last couple of seasons, but will only be 29 next year and had a great year in 2018.  Wacha is not projected to cost much, maybe $3 million per year, and if he can return to the form he had early in his career it would be a nice bargain.

Another arm that could fill that role is Erasmo Ramirez. After an injury-filled couple of years, he rebounded in 2020. While only relieving in six games, he did average more than two innings per appearance.

Ramirez had a WHIP under 1.00 and usually keeps his walks to a minimum.  This could be a nice boost to the KC Royals who struggle in that department.