Are the KC Royals working on a blockbuster signing?

With the field of lefty hitters narrowing, could the KC Royals be talking to Yasiel Puig?

Most Royals’ followers long ago dismissed the notion of Yasiel Puig becoming a Royal. Any thought of the former Dodger star coming to Kansas City simply didn’t deserve a second, especially considering the Royals’ oft-expressed desire for a new lefthanded power hitter. The fact Puig is righthanded logically disqualified him from consideration.

Or so it seemed. The club’s failure so far to land a lefty bat grows increasingly conspicuous with the recent narrowing of the market, and the unlikelihood of Jackie Bradley Jr. agreeing to join the Royals leaves the field thin. But perhaps more important to the Puig discussion is an interesting statistic.

Puig, it seems, hits righthanded pitching pretty well. The proof is in his career .285/.350/.495 line against righties which, interestingly enough, is far better than his .255./.343/.419 against lefthanders. It defies baseball’s logic, its conventional wisdom, and much of its statistics.

So it is that if the Royals can’t reel in a lefty bat, Puig may be the next best thing. He hits righties like a lefty. And the idea of Puig in Kansas City isn’t so far-fetched anymore: the Royals want the kind of power against righthanded pitching he can deliver, and they can provide Puig with what he needs most—a place to play. KC and Puig both haven’t found what they need, so the right deal would be mutually beneficial.

Suddenly, the thought that General Manager Dayton Moore and his staff might be working on Puig doesn’t seem strange. We shall see.

There’s another righthanded power hitter the KC Royals could approach this winter.

Imagine Dayton Moore’s search for a power hitter ending not with a lefty, and not with Yasiel Puig, but instead with another righthander who hit 18 home runs last season, which extrapolates to 48.6 over a full-length slate.

Imagine also that this player hasn’t hit less than 23 home runs since 2015, and averages 27 homers and almost 100 RBIs per 162 games.

Imagine Marcell Ozuna playing for the KC Royals.

It could happen—no less an authority than Jim Bowden suggests in The Athletic (subscription required) that Kansas City is among the teams that would be good destinations for Ozuna, whose eight-year career includes stops in Miami, St. Louis, and Atlanta.

Like Puig, Ozuna matches up well with righthanded pitchers (.272/.332/.453 career line) and would be a fine alternative if KC’s search for a lefty comes up empty. (Not surprisingly, he’s even better against southpaws, as his .294/.349/.517 slash against them proves).

Ozuna is an outfielder by trade and spends more time in left than anywhere else, which fits the Royals nicely because, with Alex Gordon retired, that’s the most logical place for a new bat. He certainly won’t bring a Gordon-level glove, and he probably isn’t as good defensively as Puig (who also isn’t as good as Gordon was), but he has the power and punch Moore wants.

Because Ozuna won’t have trouble finding work before the season starts, he’ll be more expensive than Puig. Will principal owner John Sherman sign a big check? It’s nice to think so, and nice to think Ozuna would talk to the KC Royals.

Could a deal for a Trevor not named Bauer be in the KC Royals’ immediate free agent plans?

No, there’s no reason to believe KC ever considered Trevor Williams, Pittsburgh’s once-promising starter who really hasn’t panned out as hoped and who the Pirates DFA’d in November. (He apparently has a new deal with the Cubs, anyway). Nor are there signs the Royals had any interest in bringing Trevor Cahill, whose best years are probably behind him, back.

That leaves Trevor Rosenthal. The fireballing reliever rejoined manager Mike Matheny, for whom he worked in St. Louis, last season, and took away Ian Kennedy’s closer job via a stunning reclamation of his Cardinal form. Faced with inevitable trade deadline rumors, Rosenthal publicly pronounced the Royals to be his team of choice, then professed similar affection for San Diego after the Royals shipped him to the Padres. That’s not surprising considering he pitched so well there (four saves, no runs, one walk and 17 strikeouts in 10 innings across nine outings).

Because the Padres gave Rosenthal his fifth taste of postseason play and are far more likely than the Royals to give him another one soon, and have a far better team and much more money, logic says he’ll return to San Diego. And Toronto’s recent signing of former Padres’ closer Kirby Yates, whose 2020 injury made trading for Rosenthal necessary, should increase the Padres’ interest in him.

All that makes a Royals-Rosenthal reunion improbable, but not entirely impossible. He clearly liked playing in Kansas City and grew up in nearby Lee’s Summit; the club would welcome him back at the right price. It’s hard to believe that the Royals ever wrote him off completely, or he them, so something could be afoot. Considering the potential competition, it’s a process that might require some time and quiet deliberation.

In the end, perhaps Kansas City is the famous, but always anonymous until the last minute “mystery team” working quietly behind the scenes on a major free agent. One never knows. The most likely scenario may be that the Royals are, due to competition or by their own design, out of the major free agent market until at least next winter. But a big, big signing would be much better. Maybe it’s in the works.

Only the Royals know why they’re being quiet. The rest of us should find out soon.