Zack Grienke watching Royals' offseason moves

by Eli Greenspan on Nov 12, 2009 7:02 PM EST Comment 3 comments

Royals ace Zack Grienke did not hold back in expressing his disappointment over the Royals' 2009 season. The Royals really should listen to Grienke, considering he emerged as the face of the franchise after the 2009 season.

"We'll see when the offseason comes what all we do," Greinke said. "I thought we'd be better than we've been, but we kind of proved this year that we still need more than we have to compete."

Mike Jacobs was a flop, and the injuries to Alex Gordon and Coco Crisp certainly hurt their chances. Their prize from the 2007 offseason, Gil Meche, has put up three straight double-digit losses, and finished the 2009 season with a 5.09 ERA.

The Royals need to make an investment on an impact player, because Alex Gordon is struggling to live up to potential, and Billy Butler's biggest test will come next season, when we'll see if he can continue to swing a hot bat.

If the Royals have another disappointing season, and Grienke has another Cy Young-like season, we should expect to hear whispers of a Grienke trade.

Grienke isn't eligible for free agency until after the 2012 season, but he is looking to sign an extension if the team doesn't invest more in winning. If the Royals can't lure any top players on the free agent market, then they'll likely have to shop Zack Grienke for a boatload of young prospects.

Grienke will turn 30 during the 2012 offseason, meaning his value could be at its peak coming into the 2011 season. The Royals would be smart to consider making that move so they can start the rebuilding process, because right now they are in a state of funk.

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the royals

are fuckkkkkked, theyve been rebuilding now for 25 yrs

Pujols takes out "I" in BIG and "A" in MAC, previously considered to be an unyielding, consonant threat

by DESTROYER on Nov 13, 2009 8:15 AM EST reply actions

Complete Makeover

This team needs to sell off as many parts as it can, ala Pittsburgh. They are way too far from contention with so many holes to fill that free agency is not an option (even if they had money to burn). Thankfully, Moore says he understands this. Regrettably, Moore simply cannot be trusted to make smart trade decisions.

The Teahen trade was a step in the right direction, but it illustrates how far up against it KC is. They basically split one mediocre player into two mediocre players. Fields has the upside to be worthwhile, but he is the perfect Royal: high strikeouts, low walks, bad defense. Moore has to fundamentally alter his approach if he is going to build a winner.

The problem Moore is faced with now, is that he has no one outside of Greinke, Butler, or Soria for whom he could get a decent return. He can’t trade Guillen, DeJesus has limited value at best, he might get a useful role player back for Alberto Callapso, and Meche is injured and pricey.

And there is not much to get excited about down on the farm either. The top two hitting prospects Moustakas and Hosmer struggled mightily this year. Furthermore, they play 3rd base and 1st base respectively, which happen to be occupied with the Royals’ only two bright spots in the lineup. There is some hope on the pitching side though, which is why Meche and Soria probably need to be shopped.

One of those bright spots in the lineup, Gordon, is fast running out of leeway to develop. Admittedly, the injury kept him from gaining any traction this year. But if he struggles again in 2010, it’s Jeremy Hermida or Delmon Young territory. Can Moore get anything much for Gordon? He might be able to flip him for a blocked prospect somewhere, but I doubt the hall would be huge.

Which is the other problem Moore faces. At the winter meetings, he’ll be the GM standing next to the GM with the “I’m With Stupid” tee-shirt. The league must know they can dump their Yuniesky Betancourts on him, or sell their Mike Jacobs for top dollar. He’s dug himself a hole that he will have to be extremely crafty to get out of. I have a hard time seeing it happen.

My suggestion would be to trade Meche (even if you have to eat some money), Soria, Callapso and DeJesus, and at least take offers on Gordon. If you have to throw Gordon into one of those deals to get the value needed to rebuild, do it. I’d contemplate Butler or Greinke as well, but those two are definitely young enough and good enough already to be worth building around.

I was really excited about the direction of this team before last winter. There is still some hope if Hosmer, Moustakas, and Crowe develop into quality players. If Moore makes a winner out of this franchise over the life of his now EXTENDED contract, I’ll gladly tip my hat to him and eat the cyber paper this post is written on.

by Bradsbeard on Nov 13, 2009 3:08 PM EST reply actions