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

Change is coming to Kansas City. It has to. The KC Royals are below .500 for the seventh season in a row and last in a woeful AL Central. Faces are changing in the front office, experienced ballplayers may be on the move, but more change is needed at 1 Royal Way.

The KC Royals need pitching help, but not from these three.

The MLB roster shifts in many different ways through the offseason. One way that the Royals and other teams retain players is through arbitration. The gritty of that process is this: players under team control negotiate with the team and determine their salary for the upcoming season. Third parties and counsel can get involved with the negotiations later on down the road, but it boils down to players talking salary with the team who own their playing rights.

In some cases, a team can non-tender a player if they think his arbitration raise is greater than his worth in the coming season. For example, the Royals non-tendered Jake Brentz and Nate Webb last offseason. That opened two spots on the 40-man roster and made them free agents.

Looking at the pitching side of the house, there are some clear non-tender candidates in Kansas City. General Manager J.J. Picollo said that both the bullpen and rotation needed improvements ahead of the 2024 season. The idea of addition by subtraction exists everywhere, even in the MLB. MLB Trade Rumors published their projected arbitration salaries, thanks to Matt Swartz's formula. Who are some players the Royals will be better without paying in 2024?