According to FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal, the Royals are close to signing 38-year-old outfielder Reggie Sanders to a two-year contract worth about $10 million, perhaps partially because Mark Grudzielanek, a teammate of Reggie's with the Cardinals a year ago, signed with Kansas City last week. Still, if the report is true, Sanders becoming a Royal will be an upset. Just nine days ago, Royals GM Allard Baird declared his club "pretty much out of the Sanders thing."
The Royals presumably stepped up their pursuit of Sanders almost immediately after Jacque Jones spurned their offer of three years and $15 million, instead opting to join the Cubs for an extra million bucks and a better chance to compete. Trust me: the Cubs did the Royals a massive favor by taking Jones off the market for that price. As I've discussed in a previous post, Jones is nothing more than a platoon player who became massively overrated once an already-thin free-agent market for outfielders became thinner after Brian Giles re-signed with the Padres.
Despite the fact that Sanders is eight years Jones' senior, I view paying him an average of $5 million over the next two seasons as much less of a risk than I do paying Jones $5 million for the next three. A walking testimonial to how an outstanding commitment to conditioning can prolong athletic careers, Sanders has managed to avoid having his production slip from age 33 to now, what is usually considered a baseball player's decline phase. Looking at it simply, Sanders has posted OPS figures of .886, .779, .912, .797, and .886 over the last five seasons. Additionally, he's hit right-handed pitching nearly as well as he has lefties over the last three seasons, making him easy to put in the lineup against anybody.
It's difficult to predict what's going to happen with a player this old, but I don't think he's a candidate to suddenly collapse and be a total hinderence to his team overnight. Either way, giving Sanders a short-term contract fits in with the direction of the ballclub and, unless it takes Baird out of the hunt for another starting pitcher, is about as good of a use for his remaining resources as there is.I've seen a lot of teeth-gnashing over the addition of Grudzielanek, mostly because it seems to make acquiring infielder Esteban German pointless. To clear that up, it's important to understand that German was never viewed as a solution at second base, only as a candidate for the job if Baird didn't find an established, reliable guy to play the position. German still fits in with the club, only in a diminished role as a very useful utility man who draws walks and wreaks havoc on the basepaths.The Royals non-tendered Ken Harvey on Tuesday night, hopefully ending the Kansas City portion of The Big Contact's career. I don't know why, but I still find something extremely humorous in the irony of his career groundball-to-flyball ratio (2.33), and his number of stolen bases in 271 games (3). Or maybe I just hate him because he doesn't know what happens when a hitter sees four balls before three strikes.Finally, although I won't officially be 21 until Saturday, KRB celebrated its last significant birthday last night with friends and family. Thanks to everybody for the great gifts, especially Regina for the Royals wall clock (so I can tell when the losing will once again commence), Meagan for the awesome John Mayer poster, and most of all, The Official Parents of KRB, Don and Linda, for footing the bill at dinner. Thanks guys!
L-R: Dad, Mom, Regina, Richard, Meagan, and KRB
L-R: Regina, KRB, Joe, Richard, and Meagan
This entry was posted
on Thursday, December 22, 2005 at 12/22/2005 01:52:00 AM.
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