11 crucial contract decisions await the KC Royals

The KC Royals shouldn’t offer 2023 contracts to these four players.

Determining definitive non-tenders shouldn’t be hard for Kansas City. For one, Ryan O’Hearn, sometimes a first baseman, sometimes an outfielder, sometimes a DH and sometimes a pinch hitter, needs to go. The good bat off the bench he had this season (.367/.406/.567 as a pinch hitter) isn’t enough to offset his disturbing .219/.293/.390 career line. It’s that simple.

Adalberto Mondesi presents a more difficult, yet uncomplicated, decision. The torn ACL he suffered in April was the latest of a perplexingly long string of career-derailing injuries and more evidence of his unreliable health. And Kansas City is packed with talented young infielders—no matter where they play, Bobby Witt Jr., Michael Massey, Nate Eaton and Nicky Lopez will make the Royals’ a hard lineup for Mondesi to crack. He’s become too big a question mark.

Kansas City should also cut Brad Keller. Yes, he’s twice been named the team’s Pitcher of the Year, but he’s never won more than nine games and has lost 14 twice and 12 once in five seasons. He succeeded neither as a starter (6-13, 4.93 ERA) nor a reliever (0-1, 6.23) this season, and his unpredictability and inconsistency make him expendable.

The Royals can easily afford to non-tender pitcher Luke Weaver, who they picked up from Arizona in the trade deadline deal that sent Emmanuel Rivera to the Diamondbacks. Working exclusively out of Kansas City’s bullpen, the righthander went 0-0 with an excessive 5.59 ERA and allowed eight of 14 inherited runners to score. He went 1-1, 7.71 in 12 appearances with Arizona.

Four KC Royals pitchers pose the most difficult tender/non-tender decisions.

Considering the shaky status of Kansas City’s pitching staff, it isn’t surprising four hurlers present Kansas City with hard choices.

Josh Staumont represents perhaps the most difficult decision. The fifth-year righty served as closer Scott Barlow’s setup man for much of the season but, after going 2-1, 3.67 in the first half, went 1-2 with a 2.531 WHIP and 13.50 ERA after the All-Star Break. He also missed two weeks with a neck strain and didn’t pitch again after right biceps tendinitis forced him to the Injured List in late August.

All that should give the Royals pause; Staumont may no longer be the setup man they want him to be. His second half numbers aren’t easy to dismiss, and whether he can return to form from tendinitis remains to be seen.

Can his track record save him? After an unremarkable (0-0, 3.72) 16-game big league debut in 2019, he was 2-1 with a 2.45 ERA in 2020 and 4-3, 2.88 with five saves in 2021. And although he fights control at times, he owns career 10.13 K/9 and 26.1 K% marks.

In what could be a closer call than many might think, the Royals will probably tender Staumont.

Taylor Clarke went 3-1, 4.04 after KC signed him in December, but suffered two oblique strains in the second half of the campaign, the last coming just days after he returned from the first. That a pair of oblique strains were the primary causes of Adalberto Mondesi missing most of the 2021 season might render bringing Clarke back questionable.

Amir Garrett brought a fiery demeanor to the Royals, who acquired him by trading Mike Minor to the Reds, but his 4.96 ERA was high for a reliever and he walks too many batters (6.35 BB/9).

Given its shortage of relievers, look for the club to tender Clarke and Garrett.

Then there’s Kris Bubic, too infrequently the kind of pitcher the Royals expected when they made him the 40th overall selection in the 2018 draft. Bearing an already troubling 7-13 record before this season began, he went 3-13, 5.58, hardly the kind of effort meriting a full-time major league rotation spot.

But because the Royals are frighteningly short on reliable starters, they’ll probably give Bubic another year.

The KC Royals should definitely tender two pitchers and an infielder.

Unless the Royals sign pitcher Brady Singer to a lucrative long-term deal, which is almost a given for the club’s now undisputed No. 1 starter, they’ll tender him a 2023 contract.

Singer flourished after spending three early-season weeks at Triple-A Omaha and finished, due in part to his increased usage of the changeup he eschewed for so long, 10-5, 3.23 with a 2.05 BB/9. His return to Kansas City is guaranteed; time will tell what contractual form it takes.

Less likely to receive an extension, but a lock for a tender, is reliever Scott Barlow. Kansas City’s closer saved a career-high 24 games and has 40 over the last two seasons. He also improved his 2021 2.42 ERA to 2.18.

Labeling infielder Nicky Lopez a “definite” tender target might be surprising, but makes sense. Although he didn’t repeat the stellar season he had in 2021—instead of hitting .300, he slumped to .227—that he remained versatile with starts at shortstop, second and third, played 141 games, and stayed off the Injured List make him the best choice for utility infielder next season, especially considering Adalberto Mondesi’s maddening injury history, baggage Lopez doesn’t have.

Who will the Royals tender, and who will they let go?