MLB Contracts: The worst contract on every team
By Bill Felber
10. Kansas City Royals
Ian Kennedy, 5 years, $70 million, 2016-20. Boras Corp.
It was probably team pride that possessed the Royals to view Ian Kennedy as a logical addition. They signed him coming directly out of a World Series championship with the aim of replacing Johnny Cueto, who was to be lost to free agency.
What the Royals overlooked was their own imminent need of a rebuild, and the unlikelihood that a 30-something journeyman starter fit anywhere into that rebuild. In short order, Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas were gone. Fate, in the form of a fatal car crash, removed pitching phenom Yordano Ventura. The Royals quickly sank from 95 victories in 2015 to just 81 in Kennedy’s first year, then to a mere 58 in 2018.
In that context, precisely what value was Kennedy’s $61 million deal bringing to the club? He had never been an audience draw, and since signing he has produced just a 19-33 record. Obviously that’s attributable in part to the miserable team surrounding him. But Kennedy has contributed to that misery, producing a 5.38 ERA in 30 starts in 2017.
In response, the Royals reduced his 2018 workload, funneling starts to prospects of the stripe of Heath Fillmyer, Erik Skoglund and Jacob Junis. While that make sense from a developmental standpoint, it also re-enforces the question of what the Royals get from the $32 million they still owe Kennedy through 2020. The Royals now project him as no more than a fourth starter entering 2019.