Yankees Disappointing $8 Million Trade Acquisition Is Solid Royals Bounce-Back Option
The Kansas City Royals won't be at the forefront of free agency this winter, but they should still be busy.
After vaulting themselves from last place to the playoffs in 2024, the mood is positive around the Royals as a whole. But they have some huge roster holes to fill in if they want to contend for a pennant moving forward, with the outfield sticking out like a sore thumb.
Hunter Renfroe, Kyle Isbel, and MJ Melendez do not make for a promising outfield on a title contender, and the Royals don't have a lot of financial wiggle room to go out and add a star, either via free agency or a trade. Whoever they get will have to help the lineup become greater than the sum of its parts.
There aren't a ton of promising low-budget free agents available this winter, but one sticks out as a possible bounce-back candidate if the Royals can get the most out of him: former New York Yankees left fielder Alex Verdugo.
Verdugo, 28, was one of the centerpieces of the Boston Red Sox trade that sent Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had a solid, if unspectacular, four-year tenure in Boston, but cratered in his one-year stint with the Yankees, tanking his value before free agency.
After starting the year strong, Verdugo slashed a putrid .205/.267/.287 in his final 80 games in New York. That date coincided with Verdugo's emotional return to Boston, when he homered in his first at-bat back at Fenway Park, but immediately went into a prolonged slump thereafter.
Excepting the 2024 season, however, Verdugo's career norms would be a more-than-acceptable stand-in for what the Royals are looking for out of a corner outfield bat. He had a .765 OPS/106 OPS+ in his first seven big-league seasons between Los Angeles in Boston.
Verdugo should fit right within the Royals' ideal price range for a free-agent acquisition, unless he has a stronger market than most would expect. He made $8.7 million in his final year of arbitration, and Tim Britton of The Athletic projects him for a one-year, $8 million contract.
Kansas City has to get creative and take some swings this winter. Verdugo isn't the star cleanup hitter fans might be clamoring for, but he just might catch lightning in a bottle away from the pressures of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry.
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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