This offseason, the Kansas City Royals have made some notable additions. They’ve signed a list of players that includes Hunter Renfroe, Garrett Hampson, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, and Will Smith. Prior to the signings, the team also acquired Kyle Wright and Nick Anderson via trade from the Atlanta Braves. General Manager J.J. Picollo has spent $105 million on free agents this offseason. In addition, he’s done the dirty work of trading away other pieces like Edward Olivares, Jonathan Heasley, Taylor Clarke, & Jackson Kowar. Despite those moves, there are still more that they could make to further improve the team via free agency.
Aroldis Chapman
We saw Chapman have a resurgence with the Royals last season before
trading him to the Rangers as a part of their eventual World Series Championship run. His numbers did decrease some with the Rangers. His FIP, H/9, & BB/9 all increased while his ERA+ dropped from 182 to 121. Still, those are all still above-average numbers. Chapman — who will be 36 entering the 2024 season — would be a viable option as another strong left-handed reliever and may want to come back to enjoy more success with the Royals.
Jordan Hicks
Jordan Hicks has always been an extremely polarizing reliever in his big league career. When looking over his Baseball Savant profile, his arsenal displays a sinker he used 64.4% of the time in 2023. Velocity-wise, he averaged 100.1 mph, topping out at 104.3 (he did reach 105.1 mph in 2018 when he was a member of the Cardinals). Hicks also relies on a sweeper, which he used 19.8% of the time in 2023. He rounds out his arsenal with a four-seam fastball (10.7%) a slider (3.5%) and a changeup (1.6% usage).
Hicks’s main sticking point throughout his big league career thus far has been control. He owns a career walk rate of 12.8% — nearly 4% higher than the league average. It could be worth it for the Royals & Hicks to try & reach a deal considering the success they had last season with Aroldis Chapman’s resurgence. Perhaps they could do a similar thing with Hicks.
