SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Dozens of players in shorts and T-shirts navigated around each other in the weight room at the Royals' spring training complex Monday, like boats in a busy port. The right of way went to those in the midst of another set of pull-ups or a core exercise.
Spring training won't start for another three weeks for some of them -- longer, for others -- and there were 60 players at the complex, from major leaguers like
Billy Butler to minor leaguers like
Irving Falu.
David Lough had shared in the first hitting group of the morning, with
Mitch Maier,
Jarrod Dyson and
Eric Hosmer, and Lough sprayed line drives over shortstop. He had wintered at his Ohio home, so there is a practical benefit for him to get to Arizona early -- to be outside. But he recalled that in the past, you might see only a handful of guys at the complex at the end of January.
Now there are
60 guys, an enormous turnout. Some, like
Johnny Giavotella, are here because they have to be; Giavotella had some minor hip surgery and has been getting treatment. But a lot of the players are presumably absorbing at least some of the cost for food and housing to be here.
So many of them have played in the minor leagues together, and won in the minor leagues together, and there is a feeling among them that their time is coming in the big leagues. The Royals won 17 of their 29 games and ranked third in OPS in the American League for the
month of September, as Hosmer and
Mike Moustakas and others settled in.
The fact is that a lot is out of their control. The
Detroit Tigers won the AL Central last year and just spent $214 million to sign one of the best power hitters on the planet -- about the same as the combined payroll of the Royals in the last
four seasons. The
Cleveland Indians, like Kansas City, have a young and developing team.
The Royals don't yet know what they'll get out of
Jonathan Sanchez, as he shifts to the AL after pitching for the
San Francisco Giants for the last six seasons, or from
Aaron Crow, an All-Star reliever who is looking to transition into the rotation. Kansas City finished 29th in
starters' ERA last year, and the Royals will not be relevant until that gets much better.
The Royals are expected to try to retain homegrown star
Alex Gordon, who is coming off his best season. Hosmer is a rising star and time will tell whether the Royals invest in him in the way that the
Tampa Bay Rays did with
Evan Longoria and the
Milwaukee Brewers did with
Ryan Braun. Hosmer can't possibly know how he would react, he explains, until there's an offer on the table. The same is true for Moustakas,
Danny Duffy, Wil Myers and some of the other high-end talents.
But the Royals appear completely invested in each other, for now, and you can see that in the way that
Joakim Soria helps the younger players with their work, and the way that catcher
Salvador Perez interacts with the others and talks about doing what he can to play in as many games as possible.
Jeff Francoeur is not here yet, but he will be, and other players say that even if he hadn't hit in 2011 -- and he did, collecting 71 extra-base hits -- he would have been worth whatever he was paid, for the way that he made the best days even more fun and the worst days tolerable.
Francoeur came up with the
Atlanta Braves, as did Kansas City GM Dayton Moore, so it's not a coincidence that the atmosphere around the team is full of respect and expectation and professionalism. As other players arrive in other camps, that won't be universal for the 30 teams.
It's a good start to 2012 for the Royals, who are laboring to end their 26-year streak of not making the playoffs.
The Fielder signing isn't going to
change the Royals' plans, writes Rustin Dodd.
The Royals have gone green, with
solar panels.
[h3]Notables[/h3]
•
Chipper Jones says 2012 might not be
his last season.
Here are Jones' all-time rankings:
Hits: 2,615 (75th)
Runs: 1,561 (53th)
Doubles: 526 (36th)
Home runs: 454 (33rd)
RBIs: 1,561 (40th)
• The Theo Epstein talks are on the
back burner, as Nick Cafardo writes.
Baseball executives are fascinated to see how commissioner Bud Selig resolves this, because it will set a precedent on the market value of general managers.
"On one hand, Bud probably doesn't want to force the Cubs to give up a lot, because he doesn't want to create a situation where a GM costs as much as an All-Star player," said one GM. "On the other hand, he doesn't want the Cubs to get away with giving up almost nothing, because he won't want to create a situation where GMs are easily jumping from one team to another to take a president's title, the way that Theo did.
"If I were Bud, I wouldn't even get involved. I'd make them settle it."
One way Selig could stay out of it is insisting the
Chicago Cubs and
Boston Red Sox finish the compensation issue, while imposing fines on both organizations for each day that the thing is unresolved.
• The
Philadelphia Phillies scouted
Chad Qualls late last season and tracked his fastball in the mid-90s, and while they are hopeful that
Jose Contreras will be back and effective again, they added Qualls as something of a safety net. This is the
final piece for the Philadelphia bullpen, writes Bob Brookover.
•
Victor Martinez had the
first of two surgeries.
• Bill Shaikin has new stuff on the
sale of the
Los Angeles Dodgers.
[h3]Moves, deals and decisions[/h3]
1.
Mark Teixeira may lay down some
bunts.
2. The
New York Yankees hired
Jim Hendry.
3. Dan Connelly writes about the
Baltimore Orioles prospects that
might be trade bait. It's incredible that a Rule 5 pick is ranked among Baltimore's top 10 prospects.
4.
Edwin Jackson likely
won't pick the Orioles. It'd be one of the worst places for an established free-agent starting pitcher to go, unless he was signing for
huge dollars, because he'd be landing on the worst team in the AL East, while pitching in an offense-rich park.
5. The Orioles' signing of a young Korean pitcher is
drawing criticism.
6. The Tigers could wind up using as many as
10 guys at the DH spot.
7. The
Houston Astros signed Livan Hernandez.
8. The
Texas Rangers promoted some
scouts.
9. Signing
Roy Oswalt would go against everything the
Rangers have stood for, writes Gerry Fraley. If they do sign him, trading
Matt Harrison could
be an option, says the pitcher.
10. Evan Longoria has no regrets about
signing his contract.
11. The Indians picked up a guy who will
compete for a bench job.
12. Oswalt would
make sense for the
St. Louis Cardinals, writes Bernie Miklasz.
13. The Indians would still like to settle some
arbitration cases, writes Paul Hoynes.
14. The Cubs' brass is learning about the organization's
new facility.
15. The
Arizona Diamondbacks agreed to terms with a couple of
arbitration-eligible guys.
16. The
San Diego Padres reached an
agreement with a pitcher.
