KC Royals: A trio of last-minute non-tender candidates

Teams must tender contracts to certain players by tomorrow; three KC Royals are obvious “non-tender” candidates who will become free agents unless tendered.

The final out of the 2020 World Series marked the end of the most unique season in major league history. Hours later, baseball’s clock struck Midnight and the offseason began in earnest when all players eligible for free agency, including some KC Royals, officially became free agents.

Then came Nov. 1, the deadline for teams to make qualifying offers to their free agents, which had to be accepted or rejected by Nov. 11. Nine days later, 40-man rosters had to be set for Rule 5 draft purposes.

The next big deadline is 8 p.m. ET tomorrow—clubs have until then to tender (offer) one-year contracts to members of their 40-man rosters with less than six years of major league service time. Tendered players can sign immediately, negotiate, or have their 2021 salaries determined via arbitration. Non-tendered players immediately become free agents.

So, the KC Royals must soon decide whether to tender contracts to 37 of their 40-man roster players; only Danny Duffy and Salvador Perez, each with over nine years of service time, and Whit Merrifield, who has less than six years but is on a contract extension through 2023, aren’t subject to the tender rule.

The chances of the Royals tendering all other 37 players aren’t good. While the club may offer  one-year salaries it believes they’ll accept to several, or sign some to early contract extensions for the same reason and to buy out the first years of free agency, it may also have little incentive to sign, or risk unfavorable arbitration awards with, others.

There are, of course, Royals who’ll receive tenders or extensions because they’re too valuable to lose, such as Brad Keller, Adalberto Mondesi, Brady Singer, Kris Bubic, Josh Staumont, Daniel Tillo, Hunter Dozier, Nicky Lopez, and others, and some who are likely, but not assured, to get offers, including Maikel Franco and Jorge Soler.

But there are at least three Royals who may not be tendered or offered extensions. Let’s see who they are.

A KC Royals catcher pressed into service by injuries to Salvador Perez may soon become a free agent.

The KC Royals’ Meibrys Viloria is a major league anomaly. That he made it to the big leagues before playing even an inning above Class A ball and has yet to see Triple A are distinctions he owes primarily to the health of Salvador Perez.

Perez’s August 2018 thumb injury was the first in a unique sequence of events that led to Viloria’s big league debut. When it became obvious Perez’s thumb required rest, backup catcher Drew Butera started the Aug. 29 game. The team didn’t play the next day.

Then, on Aug. 31, the Royals traded Butera to the Rockies and, suddenly needing a catcher, recalled Cam Gallagher from Omaha. But that made Gallagher KC’s only catcher.

With the active roster full, the Royals gambled and delayed adding a catcher as the hours ticked away to the Sept. 1 roster expansion date. Then they dipped down to Class A Wilmington for Viloria; he debuted started behind the plate Sept. 2 and doubled home two runs. He finished the season with a .259 average in 10 games.

Perez injured his UCL the following spring training and the Royals acquired Martine Maldonado to replace him; when they traded Maldonado to the Cubs in July, Gallagher moved into the starting role and Kansas City, again in need of a backup, recalled Viloria. He hit .211 with one homer in 42 games.

Viloria was set to begin 2020 in Double A but, with the minor league season lost to COVID-19, was assigned instead to the KC Royals’ alternate training site. Once again, though, Perez’s health contributed to another callup: a mid-August vision issue sidelined him and Viloria returned to back up Gallagher. He hit .190 in 15 games.

That the Royals trust Viloria’s catching is obvious. But he hasn’t measured up to his .280 career minor league average (skewed somewhat by a .376 campaign at Idaho Falls in 2016), a flaw perhaps owing to never experiencing the transitional stage Triple A pitching can provide. As his .215 average suggests, Viloria simply struggles against big league hurlers. That doesn’t bode well for his KC future.

Compounding the problem is Kansas City’s overall catching picture. The Royals will certainly extend Perez’s contract for all the obvious reasons; Gallagher is clearly the main backup; at No. 13, MJ Melendez is among mlb.com’s Top 30 Royals prospects and has more power than Viloria; Sebastian Rivero was just added to the 40-man; and the club is high on Kale Emshoff, an undrafted free agent with some pop they signed last summer.

Viloria, then, might not have a bright future with the Royals and could be a non-tender victim.

His long career with the organization may be coming to an end for a KC Royals outfielder.

There isn’t much left to say about Bubba Starling. Sadly, the superbly athletic, once-promising multi-sport star has reached the point where keeping him in Kansas City makes little, if any, sense.

Chief among obstacles to Starling remaining with the Royals is hitting. His 91-game, two-season .204/.246/.298 slash just isn’t good enough and suggests his struggle with big league pitching won’t end well. And his much ballyhooed potential outweighs his actual minor league performance: Starling has a .244 career average in parts of eight minor league seasons; although various injuries robbed him of playing time, .244 doesn’t project at all, and he hasn’t come close to repeating the .310 in 72 Triple A games that convinced the Royals to promote him to the majors in 2019.

Then there’s the sheer abundance of talent in the KC Royals’ outfield. Whit Merrifield has center or right locked down for the foreseeable future. Alex Gordon’s retirement left a gap in left which Nick Heath, Franchy Cordero, Khalil Lee, Kyle Isbel, and maybe Seuly Matias if he goes unpicked in this month’s Rule 5 draft, are expected to fight hard for.

And finally, there’s the newest Royal. Michael A. Taylor, a seven-year veteran of the Washington Nationals’ outfield, signed with Kansas City Monday—it’s hard to believe General Manager Dayton Moore secured his services without giving serious thought to playing him regularly, especially given the $1.75 million (with another $1 million in incentives) he reportedly signed for.

There is the fact, of course, that the Royals immunized Starling from the Rule 5 draft by keeping him on the 40-man roster. But that really doesn’t mean that much for a player in his position. Perhaps they feared receiving only the $100,000 draft price if another club plucked him away and wanted to try striking a more lucrative trade, or decided to give him another chance in spring training and, if that goes well, on the 2021 roster. The former is unlikely, the latter a probable exercise in futility.

The notion of letting Starling go isn’t new to this space. Nor should it be for the KC Royals, which makes him a viable nontender candidate.

The Royals have until tomorrow night to tender contracts. Will they tender everyone, nontender Scott Blewett, Meibrys Viloria and Bubba Starling, or choose other players to let go?