In my last installment of “Playing Picollo,” I made a series of trades to reshape the Royals’ roster, leaving me with about $40 million to spend in free agency. The bullpen remains the biggest need, but there are still holes to fill in the outfield and rotation, and a couple of high-profile free agents have caught my eye. Unfortunately, I can’t have everyone, so I’ll have to make some tough choices. And before I’m done, I may have one more trade up my sleeve.
If you’ve listened to the Royals Rundown
podcast much since the season ended, you know I desperately want to sign both Seiya Suzuki and Adrián Morejon. Unfortunately, they’re probably the two best players at their positions in free agency, so the bidding is going to be high on them. The Athletic predicts them at 5 years/$120 million and 3 years/$42 million, respectively. Technically, I could fit those two contracts into my roster, as their combined AAV comes to $40 million. But, realistically, I would guess that The Athletic is a bit low on at least one of them, and that would give me no wiggle room to do anything else. So I’m going to have to choose.
It’s a difficult choice. The bullpen needs help even more than the lineup does, but Suzuki would represent possible inroads into the Asian market that the Royals have thus far been unable to penetrate. It’s such a difficult choice that, instead of making it, I’m going to make one more trade first. I actually got both Jacob Milham and Max Rieper to sign off on this one.
Trade: Seth Lugo to Astros for Tatsuya Imai
This is a classic swap of dud contracts in the hopes that the players do better with a change of scenery. My favorite example will always be the time the Royals sent Jonathan Sanchez to the Rockies for Jeremy Guthrie. Imai is the clearly better pitcher, but he still wasn’t very good. And the real problem is that if he rebounds, he’s gone, because his contract is a series of player options. However, if he’s bad, you’ve got to pay him another $19 million in 2028. But I’m going to bet on Brian Sweeney getting him pitching well enough that he’ll decline to exercise that option.
Another benefit from the Royals’ perspective is that Imai has more recent bullpen experience. He finished the season in the Astros’ pen, so we can probably start him there and feel more comfortable about it than we would have with Lugo.
OK, time to make that choice.
Free agent signings
LHP Adrián Morejón, 3 years/$45 million
The Royals need depth more than they need a star, so I’m going to take the cheaper of my two preferred free agents and use the savings to bring in more guys. In case you’re unaware of how good Morejón was last year, he accrued almost 3 fWAR as a reliever. That’s nearly impossible to do. He had a 2.83 ERA and a 22.4% K-BB%. He’s going to be an exciting new closer and allow us to shift everyone else in the bullpen back a step, strengthening the whole unit.
I gave him a bit more than the projection because I think that’s what it would take to outbid everyone else. I’d probably even be willing to go as high as $50 million, but I’d want to start deferring some of that if possible.
LHP Steven Okert, 2 years/$16 million with a mutual option
I’m giving Okert a mutual option here with a $4 million buyout to push some of that money down the road. Okert doesn’t have a prediction on The Athletic’s article, so I looked at the reliever deals they have on there and knocked a couple million off because he’s comparable to at least some of those guys. Okert wasn’t great until two years ago, when he joined the Astros, but he’s been lights-out ever since, with good K-BB% figures and ERAs to match. I traded Daniel Lynch IV and baseball is chock full of left-handed hitters now, so I want to make sure my bullpen is stocked with them.
OF Taylor Ward, 1 year/$10 million
That’s the projected offer from The Athletic, and based on how poorly his season ended, I’ll do it. I think it’s worth the risk to see if he can rebound a bit. He can also platoon in left field with John Rave while Dylan Crews and Carson Roccaforte handle center field. I don’t plan for either position to be a strict platoon, of course. We need to play the hot hand regardless of the pitcher, but having the option to flip handedness and pinch-hit should give Matt Quatraro the flexibility to get the most out of his lineup.
RHP Hiromi Itoh, 3 years/$30 million
Since I didn’t get Suzuki but I did trade for Imai, and Kansas City isn’t known for its huge Asian population, I’d like to add Itoh here – coming from the Nippon Ham Fighters of the NPB – to give us a strong foothold in the Japanese market and hopefully to help both pitchers adjust to MLB. I don’t think Itoh is going to be in high demand because of his slight frame and lack of velocity despite his real NPB success, but that might mean he’s ripe to take a chance on a team that’s willing to take a chance on him.
As I’ve repeatedly written and spoken about, I simply don’t believe free agency is a good way to build a roster these days. So I did most of my work through the trade market, but I feel pretty good about these free agent signings to fill the remaining gaps. There are a number of relievers I’d offer minor league deals to for depth, including A.J. Minter, Evan Phillips, Derek Law, and Craig Kimbrel. They might get major league deals elsewhere, and good for them. I don’t think it’s smart to spend a ton of money on the bullpen, especially past the top guy or two. Guys surprise in both good and bad ways all the time and you don’t want to be locked in.
Final roster
Before I give you the 26-man roster, here are the guys I’m cutting from the 40-man to fit the four new free agents:
- Alec Marsh
- James McArthur
- Steven Zobac
- Ben Kudrna
I could have chosen Carlos Duran instead of any of them. And I really like McArthur, so actually, yeah, let’s make that switch.
- Alec Marsh
- Carlos Duran
- Steven Zobac
- Ben Kudrna
Anyway, here’s the new 26-man roster, first the position players (all new players in bold):
- C Salvador Perez
- C Carter Jensen
- 1B Vinnie Pasquantino
- 2B Michael Massey
- 3B Maikel Garcia
- SS Bobby Witt Jr.
- OF Jac Caglianone
- OF Carson Roccaforte
- OF Dylan Crews
- OF Taylor Ward
- OF John Rave
- UT Nick Loftin
- UT Tyler Tolbert
And the pitchers:
- SP Reid Detmers
- SP Noah Cameron
- SP Michael Wacha
- SP George Kirby
- SP Hiromi Itoh
- RHP Ryan Feltner
- RHP Lucas Erceg
- RHP Nate Pearson
- RHP Tatsuya Imai
- LHP Adrián Morejón
- LHP Anthony Gose
- LHP Steven Okert
- RHP Tony Gonsolin
Isaac Collins, Connor Thomas, Steven Cruz, and Nolan Hoffman all have options, so I can safely demote them to the minors. The relievers will all be up at some point. Collins probably will, too, assuming the entire outfield doesn’t stay healthy for the entire season.
While we’re at it, let’s imagine the lineups against left-handed and right-handed pitching.
Against right-handers:
- C Carter Jensen
- SS Bobby Witt Jr.
- RF Jac Caglianone
- 3B Maikel Garcia
- 1B Vinnie Pasquantino
- 2B Michael Massey
- DH Salvador Perez
- LF John Rave
- CF Carson Roccaforte
Against left-handers:
- 3B Maikel Garcia
- SS Bobby Witt Jr.
- RF Jac Caglianone
- DH Carter Jensen
- LF Taylor Ward
- 1B Vinnie Pasquantino
- 2B Nick Loftin
- C Salvador Perez
- CF Dylan Crews
Again, you don’t have to do it strictly by handedness. If Crews is hot and Rocc isn’t, then let Crews hit righties for a bit, etc.
Overall, I think this is a pretty decent roster considering how much work there was to do to get it where it needed to be. That’s not a perfect lineup, but I think it would be better than last year’s. And my new starting rotation has a much better history of health than the one the Royals started 2026 with. The silver lining with all those guys going down with TJ surgery last year is that some of them should return in midseason to help fill in the gaps as this team accrues its own injuries.
I even came in under budget! I added $43 million in salary obligations, but dropped around $3 million by demoting players and saved myself $4 million in the Lugo/Imai swap. That brings me to approximately $162 million spent.
The 2028 season is a completely different problem, and maybe I should be more concerned about that. But as a GM who is focused on building my roster through trades as opposed to just promoting from within or signing a lot of free agents, I think if we need to make adjustments downward in spending for 2028, I’ll be able to find takers for some of my expensive players as the prospects I still have rise through the ranks to fill those gaps.
What do you think of this roster? Would you be excited if this is what the Royals actually did?
