It's official, as reported by Scott Boras' public mouth piece John Heyman, Mike Moustakas will be signing with the Royals pending a physical. The deal is worth $5.5 million in base salary with $2.2 million in incentives for 2018. There is also a mutal option for 2019 for $15 Million and a $1 million buyout should one side back out (which is a certainty).
I have very mixed emotions on this matter, but as a Royals fan first, they are mostly positive. This salary for 38 homers, and .272 Avg and 85 RBIs is the best value a Wal-Mart subsidary has every offered it's customers. We also get to see a recent ICON come back to the K, if only for a year, it will still be better than watching 150 Lucas Duda Strikeouts, or Ricky Nolasco fountain balls. In fact, this may have made the Royals somewhat relevant again. Are we competing with the Indians for the Central……..Nope. But will we be competitive and fun to watch while giving the minors another year to germinate? I think more so than yesterday.
Now I said I have mixed emotions about this, and that is because I feel bad for Moose. I feel bad that he got jobbed by the system. All-be-it a system he agreed to, but still. The Royals offered him $17.4 million dollars as a qualifying offer in November. He was advised by Super Douche Scott Boras to turn it down and test the open market. He then was rumored to have a 3 year $42m dollar offer from the Angels (according to multiple unverified reports, again maybe just Boras trying to drive up the market), he turned that down as well. But as described here earlier this week, the matches seemed thin. So he came back home and took a huge pay cut. (Moose and Kendrys Morales, both Boras clients, took less than the qualifying offer to sign with the Royals…..is KC the place Boras likes to dump his failed work?)
For the first time in like ever the Royals held the upperhand on Scott Boras. Due to the draft pick compensation and international player pool money associated with signing Mike Moustakas, no team was willing to take a flier on a one year contract. Add in the insanely high level of third base/general free agents next year, many teams were saving up for runs at the Machado/Donaldson/Harpers of 2019. And GMDM knew this. So when the second week of games in Arizona hit, and Moose was still being locked in the stable by Boras, Dayton knew he could check in with Moose. And did he ever save.
Moose is currently the 7th highest paid player on the Royals. That is insane. And what is the most satisfying about this whole deal is that we FINALLY pulled one over on Scott Boras. I wonder if Moose finally had to step up and say I want to sign this deal.
By any account this is a great deal and I am excited. But I bet no one in KC is more excited than the Moose Jeep/Antler guy! I bet that thing is rambling all over the Cut-Off today!
