Report: Royals Reunion With Zack Greinke Will Take Compromise

Kansas City still has a chance of re-signing Greinke, but it's far from a certainty.

The Kansas City Royals' offseason moves have been mainly centered around their pitching. Hiring new pitching coach Brian Sweeney to help lead the way and signing veteran arms like Ryan Yarbrough and Jordan Lyles to add depth to the rotation are respectable starting points, although the bulk of the 2023 results will come from young players.

Atop the rotation, Brady Singer is looking to build off a breakout 2022 campaign. Behind him, players such as Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic and Jonathan Heasley will compete for innings. There's a multitude of players competing for a very finite amount of available spots, but that still hasn't stopped the rumors surrounding the possibility of (another) Zack Greinke reunion to stick around all offseason.

Back in November, it appeared that Greinke was more likely than not to return to Kansas City for his age-39 season. Midway through December, things didn't look bleak but were far from optimistic. With a couple more rotation or rotation-adjacent arms to account for now, it remains to be seen whether Greinke will find himself back in that picture. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic published an article on Monday morning providing a bit more detail about the situation between Greinke and Kansas City, saying that both sides may need to budge a bit in order for a deal to get worked out:

For Greinke to return to Kansas City, he probably would need to accept a low base salary that could grow with incentives based on innings pitched, according to sources familiar with the team’s thinking but not authorized to speak publicly. The Royals are leaving the possibility open, even if it potentially would leave fewer innings for their younger pitchers.

Greinke, 39, means that much to their fans, their franchise.

This offseason has indeed featured some hefty contracts being handed out to quality veteran pitchers, with many players securing deals worth $10 million or more in average annual value. Rosenthal notes that the Royals have feared all along that Greinke's 2023 salary demands would fall in line with that, but there's a kicker: The former American League Cy Young Award winner played this past season on a $13M deal. Emptying the pocketbooks to a certain degree wasn't an issue a year ago, so why is something resembling that contract — or even a small jump to $15M — serving as a roadblock? Unless the asking price is that much more significant, the Royals don't have much of a leg to stand on there.

Of course, the contract process is one filled with bargaining and leverage plays. Greinke and his camp have every right to get a contract they view as sufficient, and the Royals have every right to dig their heels in at a resistance point. Despite this particular part of the team's offseason dragging along, one thing has remained a constant: Kansas City has been linked to Greinke at every step of the way. Whether this process ends in a new contract for 2023 remains to be seen, but Rosenthal's latest tidbit reiterates that there's more work left to do for the organization and its potential Hall of Fame free agent.

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