4 free agent former KC Royals the club shouldn't pursue

The Royals could use another outfielder, but not this former top prospect

Struggling Kansas City drafted Wil Myers in the third round of the 2009 amateur draft. He debuted in rookie ball that summer and soon became a force at the plate and a prospect clearly destined for the Kauffman Stadium outfield.

Progressing nicely through the Royals' farm system, Myers was little match for Double-A and Triple-A pitching in 2012 — between Northwest Arkansas and Omaha, he homered 37 times, drove in 109 runs, and slashed .314/.388/.600. That he'd see Kansas City in 2013 seemed beyond dispute.

But the Royals, believing a return to contention was imminent and needing pitching to move them closer to it, packaged Myers and others up in a postseason bombshell deal with Tampa Bay that brought them James Shields and Wade Davis and helped drive the club's 2014 and 2015 World Series trips.

Myers, however, hit only 19 homers and batted .252 in two seasons for the Rays before they traded him to San Diego, where in eight seasons he hit .254 with 134 homers. He signed a one-year free agent deal with Cincinnati last winter and hit .189 before the Reds released him in late June.

Myers' glove, adequate but not stellar, could be of some use in the corner outfields for the Royals, and some might welcome his return to the organization with which he started and showed so much promise. But he'll be 33 in December, the club has good younger outfielders who shouldn't be blocked, and he hasn't hit at least 20 homers since 2017. The Royals don't need to pursue Myers.

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The Royals shouldn't consider bringing back Adalberto Mondesi

Kansas City is a franchise unafraid of reuniting with some of its former stars and giving second chances to ex-players who weren't stars. But when it comes to Mondesi, the club must resist any temptation it might have to make him a Royal again.

The case against a Mondesi reunion isn't hard to make; it borders, in fact, on open and shut.

He simply gets hurt too often; staying on the field is a challenge he hasn't overcome. Yes, he did play all but one game in 2020, but that was the 60-contest pandemic season, the brevity of which disqualifies it as a reliable measure of Mondesi's durability.

The better Mondesi metric is, of course, his unfortunate, frustratingly long injury history, a litany of ailments capped by two oblique strains and a hamstring injury in 2021, and a torn ACL that ended his 2022 season in April. Only once has he played 100 games or more (102 in 2019), and he's otherwise reached 75 only once (2018). The Royals finally gave in to all the injuries and traded him (and minor leaguer Angel Pierre) to Boston for Josh Taylor early this year.

Some might suggest Mondesi is a risk worth taking. They'll say, accurately, that he can be magnificent when he's not hurt. The hard truth, though, is that Mondesi is a risk the Ryals have taken before but the return, while occasionally stellar, hasn't been sustainable.

And then there's what happened, or more accurately didn't happen, after Mondesi joined the Red Sox. He didn't play for them. Not at all. Instead, he spent the season trying to recover from his ACL tear and the surgery it occasioned.

Little has been heard of Mondesi since the campaign ended. Will he play again? As good as Mondesi can be, Kansas City shouldn't be the place that question is answered.

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