KC Royals: 3 arbitration players that won't be back for the 2024 season

Taylor Hearn

Projected arbitration salary: $1,700,000

Let's get this one out of the way. There was no positive way to slice reliever Taylor Hearn's time in Kansas City. It started with the Royals acquiring him shortly after he was designated for assignment by sending away fan-favorite Nicky Lopez. That trade happened nearly three months ago, but fans have not forgiven the Royals for that move still.

Hearn had a deep hole to dig out of with Royals fans. He only dug deeper once he took the mound. He made his Royals debut on August 10 in a losing effort against the Boston Red Sox. He allowed his first run two days later against the St. Louis Cardinals, then the wheels fell off a week after he made his debut. All told, Hearn was a net negative pitcher in a Royals uniform.

FanGraphs has a statistic called shutdowns and meltdowns. Shutdowns are good for pitchers when they increase their team's winning percentage by a certain amount. The opposite is meltdowns, where the pitcher is a negative contributor. In Hearn's eight appearances, he had no shutdowns and three meltdowns. That is hardly a positive look.

How can the Royals justify paying him nearly $2 million next season? They can't. He was a below-replacement pitcher with no peripheral metrics to say he would turn things around. Kansas City was his third organization this season for a reason.

The Royals bullpen is bad, but Hearn only made it worse in his limited time.

Josh Taylor

Projected arbitration salary: $1,300,000

Out of all the veteran relievers optioned to Triple-A Omaha to start this season, Josh Taylor had the best season of all of them. That is not saying much though. Philosopher Michael Scott once said, "The only time I set that bar low is for limbo." Well, that group set the bar even lower.

The Red Sox sent Taylor to the Royals in exchange for former top prospect, shortstop Adalberto Mondesi. Like this list, Mondesi was set to see a raise in arbitration and the Royals likely did not see his worth and jettisoned the maligned infielder. It is hard to believe that the Royals likely won this trade, as Mondesi did not play an inning for the Red Sox in 2023.

Once Taylor made his Royals debut, he was a pleasant surprise. He had some meltdown performances, such as a three-run inning surrendered to the Baltimore Orioles on May 2 or the subsequent two-run inning against the Oakland Athletics three days later. But he struck out batters at a great pace in his first 15 games, fanning 34% of opposing batters. He still walked 11% of batters, but it was a great tradeoff for him throwing 65% of his pitches for strikes.

When a pitcher suddenly struggles, it usually signals the worst. Taylor had back-to-back multi-run outings in late May. His fastball lost velocity, his location was not as sharp, and Taylor just did not look like himself. He made his last appearance for the Royals on May 27. Kansas City placed him on the 15-day IL the next day, citing left shoulder impingement. A month later, MLB.com's Anne Rogers reported that Taylor needed surgery on his lower back.

That is the last that we have heard of Taylor. Ne rehab, no bullpens, nothing. Taylor missed all of 2022 with a lower back strain, making the surgery and his limited availability over two seasons a major concern. I am not opposed to the Royals re-signing him to a minor-league deal, but paying him arbitration money seems like a sizeable gamble with little payoff.

Josh Staumont

Projected arbitration salary: $1,200,000

Another member of that reliever group who started the season in Omaha was surprisingly Josh Staumont. The Royals selected Staumont in the second round of the 2015 MLB draft and he had lived up to expectations through the 2021 season. But a down 2022 changed his trajectory and the 2023 season did little to correct it.

I was high on Staumont's return. He came back to the team two weeks after Opening Day with a good reason behind his minor-league stint.

“A lot of it was just kind of tweaking little things here and there, trying to make sure that we’re being as consistent as possible,” Staumont said about his return. “And some of that just comes with extra reps and stuff like that. It’s good. So we’re just happy to kind of keep the ball rolling. I’ve been throwing really well through spring training all the way up to here. So we just got to kick it up a notch and do it up here basically.”

He had a successful return and those good feelings lasted all of a month. From April 18 to May 23, Staumont pitched 14 1/3 innings with an impressive 2.84 FIP and 3.14 ERA. He struck out 18 batters to walking 8, an acceptable ratio. The fastball velocity was down by far, but a new-look slider offered potential. Building a formidable arsenal is key for any pitcher to extend their career, and Staumont needed another great pitch.

Then things turned for the worse quicker than a hiccup. His next five appearances saw Satumont give up seven earned runs, while his strikeout-to-walk ratio plummeted to one for one. A 13.50 ERA and 7.11 FIP signaled something was wrong with the veteran, especially because of how ineffective any pitch was against opposing batters.

Staumont landed on the IL after his June 5 appearance with a neck strain. He suffered a setback later that month, inducing more testing from professionals. When it was all said and done, the Royals sent the 29-year-old pitcher to the 60-day IL on July 14 ahead of him needing thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. There is no timetable for his return, unfortunately, casting his MLB future into doubt.

The Royals faced a similar issue with Brentz last season. Instead of paying Staumont an MLB contract for possibly minimal production, the team should consider non-tendering him in favor of a minor-league contract that keeps him in the system past his recovery timeline.