Kansas City Royals: Three offseason free agent targets
By Nick Stevens
After the retirement of Alex Gordon, the Kansas City Royals have a hole in the outfield.
The Kansas City Royals will have the near-impossible task of replacing outfielder Alex Gordon after his 14-year career with the Royals came to an end after the 2020 season, a task that won’t happen this winter.
Franchy Cordero will get an opportunity to fill the open outfield spot, but injuries continued to haunt the extremely-talented outfielder after coming over to Kansas City, the same issue that haunted him in San Diego. If he can stay healthy and click in 2021, Cordero makes the Royals lineup a more improved unit, but that’s a big “if”.
One way the Royals could upgrade their lineup is to sign Robbie Grossman to provide outfield depth and someone in the lineup who can get on base.
Grossman slashed .241/.344/.482 with 22 extra-base hits (eight home runs) and eight stolen bases in 51 games last season with the Oakland A’s. With a career on-base percentage of .350, Grossman’s 10.9% walk rate in 2020 was the lowest percentage of walks he has drawn since 2015, but it’s still a solid number and typically sits much higher across a full season. His ability to get on base is greatly needed in Kansas City.
Only Salvador Perez (.353) recorded a higher OBP than Grossman last season as the Royals finished 27th in the major leagues in OBP (.309).
Jurickson Profar is also an option here and brings in the ability to play second base, but after a solid season in San Diego last season, he may be in search of a bigger contract than what Grossman commands. If the Royals want to wait out his market, there’s always the chance he remains unsigned and forced into a more team-friendly deal that would benefit Kansas City.