Monday, December 17, 2012

Royals Sign Two More Minor League Free Agents

Last week the Royals added two more Minor League Free Agents to the fold. Here's are some quick thoughts on each of the pair.

Mitch Canham

You might remember Canham as the catcher of the back-to-back College World Series champion Oregon State Beavers. Thanks to the success of his college career, Canham was selected 57th overall in the 2007 draft by the San Diego Padres. In six professional seasons, Canham has hit .254/.335/.361 with just 23 homers in 474 games. Behind the dish he has caught 21% of would be base stealers out of 523 attempts.

Canham will join Manny Pina, and Julio Rodriguez to provide some catching depth at the upper levels. I don't see a scenario in which he plays an inning at Kauffman Stadium.

Xavier Nady

Xavier Nady has a bit stronger pedigree than Canham. Nady has played in 939 career games at the Major League level and in that time he has hit .270/.324/.432. He's never been much of a fielder and he hasn't hit much since 2008. Nady likely will receive a non-roster invite to big league camp, but the odds of him seeing Kansas City are pretty slim.

If you are an individual that believes the Nady signing puts Jeff Fancoeur on alert, you are wrong. This is purely a depth move. Since we are on the subject of Francoeur, I do believe that Kansas City should be on the look out for a low cost upgrade. While Frenchy was pretty pathetic all around in 2012, in the past he has been strong against left handed pitching. One creative solution would be to finding a platoon partner for the Frenchman in 2013. This is not to say that the Royals will actually consider implementing such an arrangement.

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