Winter Meetings Questions: A blockbuster for the KC Royals?

The Winter Meetings, baseball's annual festival of trades, free agent signings and rumors, officially began this evening in Nashville, and the KC Royals, led by general manager J.J. Picollo, will be there.

The Kansas City contingent will arrive with plenty of hard, important work to do. They Royals are, after all, coming off a thoroughly embarrassing last-place season and, although they looked better in the second half, there is so far little reason to believe Kansas City will field a significantly improved roster when the 2024 campaign opens at Kauffman Stadium in late March.

Just how much Picollo will, or can. accomplish this week remains to be seen. His is a team not blessed with the kind of deep, roster-wide talent with which he can tempt other clubs on the trade market, nothing strongly suggests principal owner John Sherman will give Picollo enough money to lure big-name, top-tier free agents to Kansas City, and a currently-packed 40-man roster means the Royals won't have a pick in Wednesday's Rule 5 Draft unless they open a spot, which doesn't seem very likely.

So, how might these meetings go for the club? What are some of the unanswered KC questions as they open tonight?

Do the Royals have a blockbuster deal up their sleeves?

Hopefully, but don't count on it. Too many of the best free agents, most notably Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, and Cody Bellinger, aren't in Kansas City's conversation and never will be, and the Royals simply don't have the big guns required to consummate a major trade unless they put Bobby Witt Jr. on the block, which won't happen.

Moving on...

Will the Zack Greinke situation get resolved at the Meetings?

Whether Zack Greinke returns to the Royals for another season won't make or break the club. Even should he return to the form he displayed in 2021, his last good season before he rejoined Kansas City for the 2022 campaign — he went 11-6 with a 4.16 ERA for American League champion Houston — Greinke's supporting cast probably won't be good enough to fully exploit such a resurgence.

That doesn't mean, however, that fans aren't interested in what Greinke decides to do. Their excitement was more than palpable when before the 2022 season began he signed a one-year deal to come back to KC, and he pleased them again last winter when he re-upped with the Royals for his 20th big league season.

But Greinke is 6-24 since becoming a Royal for the second time, and his 2-15, 5.06 performance this year suggests he might be done.

And although the Royals probably shouldn't bring him back, Picollo will likely accommodate Greinke if he's ready for a 21st season and wants it to be with the Royals. Both sides of this equation have been quiet, however, and aren't saying what will happen one way or the other.

Will the Winter Meetings add any clarity to the Greinke matter? Perhaps, but they certainly aren't required to get the two sides together. Picollo has more pressing business to attend to, so don't expect any big Greinke news this week.

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