Royals Surprisingly Cautioned Against Signing Orioles $105 Million Superstar
One thing is certain for the Kansas City Royals: the current offense simply isn't good enough.
The Royals learned that firsthand in the 2024 postseason when the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees held them to just 12 runs in six games. If superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. isn't doing Herculean things to carry the lineup, this Royals team has a bottom-half offense.
Signing another big bat to pair with Witt in the middle of the order should be one of the top priorities on Kansas City's offseason to-do list. However, not everyone agrees at this point on who the Royals' top free-agent targets should be.
Orioles outfield slugger Anthony Santander, who hit 44 home runs this season, has been a name connected to the Royals as a solution to the lack of power in the lineup. Eric Treuden of FanSided poured cold water on the suggestion, saying Santander would be a terrible fit in Kansas City.
"The issue with Santander is the fact that he's going to command a large contract and he hasn't really done much outside of slugging loud home runs and capitalizing on hitting behind the Orioles' endless supply of strong, young bats... He did a decent job of hitting the ball hard in 2024 but ... not much else," Treuden said.
"Santander doesn't draw any walks, he's only ever posted an OPS north of .800 one time in his career and he can't play defense to save his life. A player who hits the ball over the fence as much as him feels like an obvious candidate to record an OPS above .800 every year, but the only other time he's done it outside of 2024 is in a 37-game stretch in 2020."
Santander's big year likely landed him a big contract, as Tim Britton of The Athletic recently projected him for a five-year, $105 million deal. Whether someone is a good fit shouldn't always come down strictly to dollar signs, but the Royals have historically been more cost-conscious than most teams.
If the Royals don't sign Santander, though, they had certainly better sign someone else who can do similar things offensively. Rolling into 2025 with an unchanged lineup and hoping for more progress would be a fool's errand for Kansas City.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org