Royals Add Depth, Poised for Playoff Push

With eyes on contention for 2013, the Royals announced the signing three Minor League free agents on Wednesday afternoon. Obviously, for any team that is giving any sort of thought on truly contending depth is critical. A 162 game season is a grind and you can't take any chances in losing ground simply because of an injury to a bullpen piece or fourth outfielder.

Today the Royals added relievers Dan Wheeler and George Sherrill, as well as speedy outfielder Wily Taveras. All three of these players have achieved some form of Major League success and it wouldn't be a huge stretch to envision any of them providing some small contributions at the Major League level in 2013. Here's a brief rundown on each of the three players.

Dan Wheeler

Wheeler spent most of the 2012 season in Triple-A Columbus for the Cleveland Indians. In 36 appearances he went 3-3 with 5 saves and a 2.32 ERA. Dan Wheeler is probably best remembered for a three year stint in Tampa during which he averaged roughly 67 appearances a season and recorded a 3.24 ERA.

In the two season since that time, Wheeler has thrown 61.2 innings between Boston and Cleveland to an ERA of 5.25. Interestingly, Wheeler's drop in performance directly coincided with the shelving of his slider in favor of a cutter. The cutter was likely a big factor in Wheeler's rising ground ball percentage, but he has sacrificed one of his best weapons in favor of it. Hopefully, Wheeler can find his slider and become the effective pitcher that he once was in Tampa Bay and before that Houston.

George Sherrill

Entering the 2012 season, I thought George Sherrill was an attractive option as a lefty specialist out of the bullpen. Despite Sherrill missing the entire 2012 season due to Tommy John (he likely won't be healthy until May), I still think he is a good option in this capacity. For his career, Sherrill has absolutely dominated left handed hitters, allowing a triple slash of .186/.245/.285.

Quite simply, a Minor League contract for George Sherrill provides the Royals with a solid bullpen piece that will require no 40-man roster spot until the time he is needed at the Major League level. All Sherrill really needs to do to be a valuable Major League piece is get healthy. At this point in time the Royals really don't have a loogy on the roster that has near the track record of Sherrill.

Willy Taveras

It must be hard to be the first outfielder acquired by an organization that just traded away their top prospect who happened to be an outfielder. As Royal Revival contributor Dan Ware stated, this signing feels like deja vu. In fact, given the Royals bizarre affliction with speedy outfielders, it is almost surprising that it took this long for the Royals to get their hands on Taveras. (Although, I do recall rumors of their interest in him in the past.)

For an interesting read on Taveras's incredible ability to get on base via infield hits, check out this post by Fangraphs writer Jeff Sullivan. According to the post, Taveras is a career .500+ hitter on bunts and out of any player with 500+ plate appearances between 2002-2012, he has more infield hits and bunt hits per plate appearance than any other player. Jeff's conclusion? Dude needs to bunt more.

Taveras is a good depth piece to have in the Minor Leagues. His skill set screams fourth outfielder and while he can't hit a lick, he's the kind of guy who could provide a critical stolen base on a cool September night. What we shouldn't do is pretend like the Taveras addition is a warning signal to Jarrod Dyson or Lorenzo Cain who are both, without a doubt, and without question better players than Willy Taveras.

Wrap Up

These are good additions by the Kansas City front office. These types of signings go without praise and notice in many instances, but in every Major League playoff chase there will be players that come up with timely hits or key strikeouts that weren't in the picture on Opening Day. Creating depth is a good thing and while the Royals may have strong bullpen depth or a quality fourth outfielder already there is no opportunity cost for stashing away these types of players in Omaha.

If the Royals truly plan on contending in 2013, depth will be key. It won't be as key as the James Shields acquisition. However, the Royals need to continue to find ways to marginally improve. Hypothetically, if they are an 85 win team right now, they need to push themselves to become an 86, then an 87, then an 88 win team. There likely aren't many more big moves that the club can make, so depth, good in-game managing, quality roster shuffling, and incremental gains in value will go a long way in pushing Kansas City over the top. Good work today.

Royals Add Mijares

The Royals announced earlier this afternoon that they had signed former Twins lefty Jose Mijares to a one year deal worth $925K. Mijares would have been a first time arbitration eligible for 2012, so the Royals control his rights through 2014. Kansas City will look to Mijares to be the LOOGY for the 2012 bullpen. Entering the off season the Royals were clearly in search of a pitcher to fill this role after watching Tim Collins struggle with control throughout 2011.

The Mijares signing has came with much praise from Royals fans in the twitterverse. He boasts a career 3.16 ERA and through 2010 posted a 7.6 K/9 to a 2.8 BB/9. Also for Twins lefties with 150+ innings Mijares ranks fourth all time in ERA. But all is not necessarily well with Mijares.

It would be unfair to ignore Mijares' 2011 season. He posted a 4.59 ERA, a 4.88 FIP, a 5.80 xFIP, as many walks as strikeouts and a fWAR of -0.3. Make no mistake, these are terrible numbers and because of them I'm hesitant to proclaim Mijares as the late inning lefty.

Interestingly enough part of Mijares problem in 2011 was rumored to be a weight issue. Dayton Moore has already stated that Mijares weight is down and he has looked great in the Venezuelan Winter League where he has posted a 1.29 ERA with 7 Ks and no walks in 8 innings pitched. Dayton Moore also allegedly told ESPN analyst and former GM Jim Bowden that he had saw Mijares a lot last season and the fastball continued to sit between 92-95 mph.

I find this last piece of information a bit interesting considering Fangraphs had Miajres average 2011 fastball velocity at 89.8 mph, a far cry from 92-95. Of course I'm not suggesting that Dayton Moore and his staff don't know how to use a radar gun, because I'm sure this is a talent that the Royals front office is proficient at. But what is also strange is that even prior to 2011, the highest average velocity that Mijares had ever posted was 91.9 mph.

Mijares appears to be a good addition to the bullpen, on the condition that he truly does have his weight down and can return to pre-2011 form. The Royals wanted to add a true weapon against lefties and even including 2011 Mijares has owned lefties to a line of .212/.276/.331. You can always use another bullpen arm and Mijares brings something to the table that the Royals didn't have in 2011. I endorse the move, but considering the cost would've been more excited had the Royals signed George Sherril for a similar contract to the $1.1 million pact he signed with Seattle. Unfortunately, Sherril, having played in Seattle before, has a soft spot for the city and elected to return; what can you do?

With Mijares, a deep Royals bullpen just got deeper. At this point there will likely be multiple quality arms getting ticketed to Omaha for the simple fact that there won't be enough room in the Royals bullpen. There were rumors earlier in the off season that the Royals decided that given the high cost of free agent starters would just build a killer bullpen, at this point the pen definitely looks like it could be deadly in 2012.

Let's Talk Lefties

The Royals made some news in the twitter circles late last night and early this morning as they continued their search for a lefty specialist. First PioDeportes tweeted around midnight that the Royals are aggressively pursuing Japanese Left Hander Tsuyoshi Wada.

Wada is 30 years old and has compiled a 91-56 career record with a 3.37 era in the Nippon Professional Baseball League. According to his scouting report on NPB Tracker, ) Wada has a three-quarters delivery. Wada is said to have good late movement on his fastball that has hit 91, but normally sits in the mid to upper 80s. The site also states that Wada has a solid-average slider and change up.

The author of the scouting report also claims that Wada at one point grew a reputation for being home run prone, but this problem has diminished over his professional career. Also, on the positive side is Wada's wife, swimsuit model Kasumi Nakane.

If you recall when the Boston Red Sox, signed Matsuzaka they also brought on board Hideki Ojakima. So let's not jump to any conclusions that Wada could be the Okajima, while Darvish is our Matsuzaka. ...but wouldn't that be sweet?

This morning the Royals were also reported to be pursuing lefty George Sherrill. last season Sherrill was dominate against lefties posting a 32:1 K:BB ratio. I know we already have a strong bullpen, but if the Royals can get Sherrill on a one year deal I would pounce. This bullpen really does have the potential to be dominating.

Nothing has happened yet, but the Royals definitely aren't done this off season. Stay tuned.