Kansas City Royals Grossly Overpay For Ian Kennedy

All offseason, the Kansas City Royals have searched the free agent market for starting pitching, and they finally got their guy. Well, they got a guy in Ian Kennedy. However, Kennedy isn’t exactly the caliber of pitcher the Royals need, and to make things worse, they drastically overpaid to get him.

The Kansas City rotation lacks a true ace. Both Edinson Volquez and Yordano Ventura are quality pitchers, but they’re not capable of being the ace of a staff on a team that’s hoping to make a third consecutive trip to the World Series. But Kennedy isn’t the ace they need either. At this point in his career, Kennedy is a mid-rotation starter at best, and he does little for Kansas City’s rotation than provide additional depth. Committing to five years and $70 million to a pitcher for the sake of depth is way too much.

Moreover, the Royals already have plenty of rotation depth. Kansas City re-signed Chris Young to go along with Danny Duffy and Kris Medlen to fill out their starting five. Even before the signing of Kennedy, the Royals had a rotation that was strong and rock solid from top to bottom, despite missing a true ace. After spending $70 million to sign Kennedy, nothing has changed, except Kansas City has slightly more depth and can better survive an injury to one of its starters.

The Royals also have experienced big leaguers Chien-Ming Wang and Dillon Gee signed to minor league deals, as well as a couple of top prospects in Kyle Zimmer and Miguel Almonte who should be ready for a big league promotion at some point in 2016. With or without Kennedy, the Royals were never going to struggle to find adequate rotation depth. What they needed was a true ace, and Kennedy is certainly not that.

The Royals are rather new to spending large sums of money on free agents, but surely they’re smarter than to commit five years and $70 million to a pitcher who’s an average starter at best, on top of also losing their first-round draft pick to sign him. The price the Royals paid for Kennedy was way too steep; they didn’t need more rotation depth enough to spend $70 million.

If Kansas City wanted to open up the checkbook, they should have at least gone after a pitcher who could help Volquez and Ventura front the rotation, such as Scott Kazmir or John Lackey. Instead, they overpaid for a mediocre pitcher like Kennedy.