Excuse us whereas we regulate our Top 50 Free Agents listing. Coming off their first postseason look since 2015, the Royals have determined to maintain the band collectively. On Sunday, the crew introduced that Michael Wacha has signed a three-year contract with a membership choice for a fourth yr. Royals starters ran a 3.55 ERA in 2024, second solely to the Mariners. Their 16.7 WAR trailed solely the Braves. Now that Wacha is locked up long-term, Kansas Metropolis is about to return eight of the 9 pitchers who began a sport for the crew in the course of the 2024 season, led by ace Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, and Wacha. The one exception is midseason acquisition Michael Lorenzen, who has entered free company.
Wacha joined the Royals as a free agent earlier than the 2024 season, inking a two-year, $32-million take care of a participant opt-out. After working a 3.35 ERA and placing up a career-high 3.3 WAR, he was all however sure to train that opt-out. As an alternative, the 33-year-old is about to remain in Kansas Metropolis by way of a minimum of 2027, his age-35 season. He’s additionally assured to roughly double his profession earnings thus far. The deal ensures Wacha a minimal of $51 million and may very well be value as a lot as $72 million. In response to Mark Feinsand, Wacha will earn $18 million within the first two years. In 2027, he’ll have a base wage of $14 million, with efficiency bonuses that might push it to $18 million. If the Royals train their 2028 choice, Wacha’s wage will characteristic the identical 14/18 construction. If they refuse the choice, they’ll pay him a $1 million buyout. As Anne Rogers reported, 5 of the ten largest contracts in franchise historical past now belong to gamers on the present roster. Wacha joins Lugo, Bobby Witt Jr., and Salvador Perez, who seems on the listing twice thanks to 2 separate extensions, in that membership.
The 2025 season would be the first since 2019 during which Wacha doesn’t pitch for a brand new crew. He got here up in 2013 and pitched for the Cardinals till 2019, then signed a succession of one-year offers with the Mets, Rays, and Pink Sox. In 2023, Wacha signed with San Diego on a convoluted one-year deal that featured a membership choice for 2 extra years (which the Padres declined), and participant choices for 3 extra years (which Wacha declined).
Wacha supplied the Royals a few vital issues in 2024. By all accounts, he slot in effectively. Kansas Metropolis’s rotation was notably close-knit, huddling collectively within the dugout to conduct a postmortem as quickly because the starter got here out of the sport. The 12-year veteran labored to add a slider on the request of the crew. “Ton of credit score to him for being open and keen to try to experiment,” mentioned assistant pitching coach Zach Bove. “It’s been cool to see his development on that pitch.” The slider didn’t carry out notably effectively, nevertheless it might need offered some hurt discount, as stuff fashions hated it lower than they hated his sinker and cutter.
The opposite factor Wacha supplied? Lots of stable innings. Regardless of lacking three weeks resulting from a fractured foot, Wacha pitched 166 2/3 innings, surpassing 135 for the primary time since 2017. He doesn’t get many strikeouts, however he avoids walks and has advanced right into a contact supervisor over the previous three seasons:
Wacha ran a 3.35 ERA and a 3.65 FIP in 2024. The anticipated stats preferred him much less. Despite the fact that his 32.5% hard-hit charge ranked within the 92nd percentile, he ran a 4.05 xERA and a 4.14 xFIP. A part of the rationale he was in a position to outperform these numbers is as a result of Kauffman Stadium, with its spacious outfield, is a pleasant place to be a fly ball pitcher. If, like Wacha, you throw a sinker that rises as a lot as most pitchers’ four-seamers, you respect it all of the extra. Wacha was additionally in a position to leverage his all-rise arsenal right into a 15% infield fly ball charge, the very best of his profession and the second-highest amongst certified starters.
After working a mixed 5.11 ERA from 2019 to 2021, Wacha has put up the most effective three-year stretch of his profession. Since 2022, he has a 3.30 ERA and a 3.87 FIP to go together with 7.5 WAR. His success has come on the again of his changeup. In response to Baseball Savant, the pitch was value 17 runs in 2024, which made it the Seventeenth-most priceless pitch in baseball (amongst changeups it trailed on solely Cristopher Sánchez’s).
Holding Wacha round till his mid-30s leaves a pair questions for the Royals. The instant one is how rather more cash they’ll spend to enhance the crew for 2025. Retaining Wacha and your complete beginning pitching corps have to be reassuring, however Kansas Metropolis’s offense ranked twentieth in wRC+ in 2024. Even Bobby Witt Jr. can solely achieve this a lot by himself. The crew had 5 completely different gamers with a wRC+ under 93 take a minimum of 350 plate appearances. Simply 38% of the Royals’ plate appearances have been taken by above-average hitters. For reference, we talked all season about how top-heavy the Yankees offense was, however they have been method above the Royals at 51%. On that entrance, the Wacha deal positively appears cheap. He’s returning for lower than the worth of the qualifying provide and simply $2 million greater than he made in 2024 ($1 million extra when it comes to common annual worth). If J.J. Picollo and firm went into the offseason intending so as to add, this transfer shouldn’t cease them, and it might give them the liberty to commerce one in all their youthful back-end starters.
The second query is how a lot Wacha will have the ability to contribute over the subsequent three (or 4 seasons). It’s reassuring that his fastball velocity ticked up 1.5 mph from 2023 to 2024, nevertheless it’s nonetheless under common. One absolutely wholesome season doesn’t put aside the sturdiness considerations. He missed time with shoulder irritation in 2020, 2022, and 2023, and shoulders typically don’t begin getting more healthy in your fourth decade. Wacha made 29 begins in 2024, a mark he had reached simply twice earlier than, and neither of the earlier seasons got here on this decade. Even when he does stay comparatively wholesome as he enters his mid-30s, it might be unreasonable to anticipate a repeat efficiency of arguably the most effective season of his profession. Beating your FIP as a fly-ball pitcher is a harmful sport. It’s a kind of issues that works till it doesn’t, and the Royals have signed on to learn the way lengthy Wacha could make it final. Wacha has parlayed a few wonderful seasons into some long-term safety with a membership that lastly appears targeted on profitable. But when the Royals are intent on making it again to the postseason, they’ve nonetheless acquired work forward of them.
