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We all know the Royals need to improve their roster for next season. Merely maintaining the status quo and hoping everyone at least maintains while a handful improve is a fool’s errand. As good as Bobby Witt Jr. is, he can’t put up 10-WAR seasons every year. The Royals finished with four Silver Slugger finalists* but also a subpar offense.
*How bad does the rest of the lineup have to be for 44% of the starters to be counted among the best in the league and still finish as one of the worst offenses overall? It boggles the mind.
The question that remains, then, is how the Royals should go about adding to their roster. They have multiple options, but all of them have pros and cons. Let’s enumerate them one more time.
- Free agency costs only money, but traditionally, it involves either overpaying for proven talent that could begin diminishing at any time or betting on a bounce-back candidate. The Royals have a budget; we can argue all day long about whether they should spend more or not, but ultimately, they will always have an upper limit.
- Trading from pitching depth sounds great, because the Royals have so many starting pitchers, but that was the thought process to led to them dealing Brady Singer last offseason, and Jonathan India turned out not to be the sure thing they thought he was. Then every starting pitcher got hurt. The Royals have shown a near-miraculous ability to turn lead into gold when it comes to starting pitching, but if you run out of guys, you run out of guys.
- Trading prospects is always scary because maybe Blake Mitchell will never find his power stroke again after a broken hamate bone, or maybe he’ll turn into a perennial All-Star with a bit more time to heal. Plus it makes it more difficult to backfill the roster as current players continue aging.
Plus, one of the reasons the Royals are in this mess to begin with is that they don’t have very many talented prospects at the higher levels, which are the kind most teams will want for good MLB talent.
So, yeah, pros and cons. But which way do you weigh them? Vote below!
