KC Royals: Making the case, Blue Jays free agents

Can any Toronto free agents help the KC Royals, who’ve already signed two other big league free agents?

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 take a look at the Toronto Blue Jays’ free agents.

The KC Royals, frequently a team content to adopt a “wait and see” approach to the annual winter rite of baseball free agency, instead moved quickly last week and signed starting pitcher Mike Minor and outfielder Michael A. Taylor. The back-to-back moves—reports of Minor’s return to Kansas City surfaced late Sunday and the Royals announced Taylor’s signing the next day—were clearly designed to fill the club’s starting rotation and add a new center fielder.

The Royals still need a bat with some pop and another starter wouldn’t hurt given the possibility Danny Duffy could move to the bullpen or be traded. And third baseman Maikel Franco’s non-tender may require KC to search for another infielder.

It just so happens that the Toronto Blue Jays, a team that hadn’t been to the postseason since 2016 but squeezed into a 2020 Wild Card, entered the offseason with nine free agents, including some starting pitchers and utility infielders the Royals might want to consider.

One starter, lefty Robbie Ray, reduced the field of Toronto free agents to eight when he re-signed with the Jays just days after hitting the market. And Minor’s signing may have cooled the interest Kansas City reportedly had in starter Matt Shoemaker.

That leaves a couple of infielders and pitchers the Royals might want to peruse.