The 2021 Kansas City Royals had two key players heading into Friday’s arbitration deadline without an offer. Early Friday afternoon, Kansas City agreed to terms with Brad Keller and Adalberto Mondesi for the 2021 MLB season.
Brad Keller’s deal settled at $3.35M, and Mondesi’s deal is worth $2.525M. Both deals are one-year deals, so both players will go through the arbitration process yet again next offseason.
Earlier this offseason, the Royals agreed to contracts to avoid arbitration with several other big-league players, such as Jorge Soler, Hunter Dozier, Franchy Cordero, and others.
2021 Kansas City Royals: Did KC Overpay?
According to MLB Trade Rumors, Brad Keller was estimated to get anywhere from $2.4M to $4.3M. As for the young Royals shortstop, Adalberto Mondesi was estimated to make anywhere from $2.1M to $3.8M.
Did the Royals overpay these players? Not even close. Since Dayton Moore took over as the clubs acting General Manager, he has done a great job avoiding arbitration hearings. Both Mondesi and Keller are still young and have lots to prove. Keller is the team’s ace and looks like he will be the Opening Day starter for the 2021 Kansas City Royals.
As for Mondesi, he has shown signs of being an every-day shortstop for the Royals throughout his young career, however, Mondesi has dealt with injuries throughout his career and needs to play a full 162-game season. With lots of infield prospects in the minor leagues for KC, Mondesi needs to show he is the future at the shortstop position before players like Bobby Witt Jr. make it to the Majors.
What This Means for Kansas City
What this means for the 2021 Kansas City Royals is that they have their ace pitcher and their young infielder under contract for the next season and don’t have to worry about any arbitration talks until the next offseason.
Brad Keller had a solid 2020 season despite a shortened season. Keller finished the season with a 5-3 record, holding a 2.47 ERA. Keller now enters his fourth season with the Royals and hopes to build off a solid season in 2020.
As for Adalberto Mondesi, he appeared in 59 of 60 games and struggled to start the season. Despite the early struggles, Mondesi was able to turn it around and ended the season batting .256, with six home runs, 26 RBIs, and 22 stolen bases along the way.
With these two deals, the 2021 Kansas City Royals still have around $20M to spend to add a couple of pieces before spring training. Jurickson Profar is still on the Royals’ radar as February fastly approaches.
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