MLB free agency: Latest on Royals’ pursuits of Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas

Royals general manager Dayton Moore has provided an update on the club’s plans of possibly trying to re-sign Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas — two mainstays to their recent success that included a World Series crown three years ago.

During an interview with Soren Petro of 810 AM’s The Program, Moore said the Kansas City’s big “priority” is to bring back Hosmer at first base before trying to get Moustakas to come back to play third base.

Moore said that the Royals and Hosmer, who has starred at first base for the club for all seven years of his major-league career, have “had a lot of discussion over the last week.” But, Moore said he “can’t say we’ve made much progress” in their talks.

Moore did admit that the two parties have “exchanged contract numbers.” However, he followed that up by saying it “doesn’t make sense for a team like us to set the market on a player like Hosmer.”

Hosmer has received multiple seven-year offers this offseason, one coming from the Padres and one coming from the Royals — the organization that drafted him back in 2008 with the third overall pick and. The figures of each offer have been disputed by Hosmer’s agent, Scott Boras, and in multiple reports.

Hosmer is coming off a 2017 season in which he posted career highs in WAR (4.0), batting average (.318), on-base percentage (.385), slugging percentage (.498), OPS (.882), hits (192) and games played (162). He also blasted 25 home runs for a second straight season while winning his fourth Gold Glove award and his first Silver Slugger award.

Along with the Royals and Padres, the Cardinals had also expressed interest in Hosmer. However, Hosmer’s camp wants to get as much money and as many years as it can for his deal because he is 28 years old and is in his prime years.

As for Moustakas, who along with Hosmer helped the Royals win the World Series in 2015, Moore said that the Royals “have options” to play third base, but is not ruling out signing his former two-time All-Star to play the hot corner again.

In addition, Moore said that Moustakas has “had some expectations that were a little different, places he wanted to play.” Moreover, Moore said that Moustakas’ intentions were “clear from the beginning that we weren’t a high priority.”

The 29-year-old Moustakas is coming off his best season of his career, posting career highs in home runs (38), RBI (85), slugging percentage (.521) and OPS (.835). In his seven seasons in Kansas City, he has produced a career .251/.305/.425 slash line while earning All-Star selections in 2015 and 2017.

Moustakas has drawn interest from the Yankees and the Mets, but the Mets’ interest appears to be over after they signed Todd Frazier. But, Moustakas is also a Boras client and is more than likely looking to get paid handsomely this offseason after making only $8.7 million last year.