KC Royals: Making the case, Brewers free agents

There are still four other players from the Brewers who could fill in at either first or third base for the KC Royals.

As a native Kansas Citian, it seemed like Logan Morrison would be a good fit to someday return to his hometown team. That window appears to have passed, though.

Never one to hit for a high average—he has two seasons over the .250 mark—Morrison has shown pop hitting 140 career dingers. He even poked 38 balls out of the park as recently as 2017 with the Tampa Bay Rays.

While he’s a good fielder at first base, the Royals already have players who struggle to reach base. In the last three seasons combined with just over 400 plate appearances, Morrison is hitting under .200 and has an OBP of roughly .265. He’s not worth pursuing, even for sentimental value.

An interesting player to look at is Jedd Gyorko.  He rebounded from a dismal 2019 season to post a .838 OPS, the highest of his career. He is only 32 years old and if he has years left in him with decent power and the ability to reach base like in ’17, ’18, and this season, he could be a good fit.

Pieces would need to be moved around in order to make him fit, similar to the Braun analysis, but I target him for first base as well. Gyorko played very well there this year in his first extended look at the position, so I’m not opposed to a multi-year deal for around $3-4 million per season.

A player KC could take a cheap flyer on is Ryon Healy. He looked like he was off to a solid career displaying power and decent hitting for the Oakland A’s in ’16 and ’17. They traded him to Seattle at the right time as his batting average and ability to reach base went down quickly.

Healy only received 10 at-bats between the regular season and playoffs while in Milwaukee. He will be 29 next season and is worth a one-year, small-dollar contract or even just a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training.

While Healy has played third base, he was terrible defensively, registering fielding percentages of .954, .857, and .919.  For him, it’s definitely first base or nothing.