Royals agree to 1-year deal with OF Lane Thomas

KANSAS CITY -- The Royals have agreed to a one-year, $5.25 million deal with veteran outfielder Lane Thomas, sources told MLB.com on Thursday night.

The club has not confirmed the contract, which is pending a physical and includes $1 million in incentives. The Royals are at 38 players on their 40-man roster, so a corresponding move is not needed.

The 30-year-old Thomas is a buy-low bounceback candidate and a right-handed hitter who can play center field, all items the Royals were searching for when looking at the free-agent market for outfielders who can provide some length to the bottom of their lineup. They missed out on re-signing Mike Yastrzemski, who inked a two-year, $23 million contract with the Braves on Wednesday, but had a list of free agents to continue to go after as they left the Winter Meetings.

Thomas spent the last year and a half with the Guardians and went through several ups and downs. After joining Cleveland in a Trade Deadline deal with the Nationals in 2024 -- the Royals expressed interest in adding him then, too -- the outfielder batted .148 in his first 29 games for Cleveland. But he turned it on in September, with a .560 slugging percentage, and Thomas’ grand slam in Game 5 of the ALDS against Detroit and Tarik Skubal helped send the Guardians to the ALCS. There, Thomas’ double preceded a game-tying home run by Jhonkensy Noel in the bottom of the ninth in Game 3 against the Yankees, which the Guardians won in 10 innings.

<

Lots of relievers acquired. The two interesting ones are
Long ago Cleveland draft pick Shane Armstrong this year's equivalent of last two year's signings of over the hill closers. Except Armstrong had one of his best seasons last year.
If I recommend correctly we drafted him the same year as Cody Allen who came and went as our closer quite a while ago.

Peyton Pallette, has been rated among top 10 prospects for his former club and spotted in at No. 18 now for Cleveland.

Barsted and Holderman are a couple of not very exciting picks as were Festa and Kent when we signed them last year.
Briehl a lefty is even less exciting. And now that Armstrong is coming on board someone will have to be DFAd.
Since Noel is gone already, next will either be the least inspiring of these new old relievers or JRod

Return of Shane Armstong caused me to look up the draft where he and Allen and Cody Anderson were the 3 A's among the draft picks
A pretty solid crop of Cleveland picks in 2011:

1st round: LIndor quite possibly Hall of Fame
way down in the 20's: Cody Allen had a very fine career and is on to other things
Armstrong solid long-time middle reliever
Cody Anderson, Ryan Merrit and Shawn Morimando all had some major league starts
Eric Haase long time part time C, 1B, DH, sometimes OF.

Even though the draft was marred by $1,8M signing of 2nd round high school pitcher Dillon Howard who showed up in camp out of shape, had PED issues, and was gone within a couple brief seasons. Then went to college and played a little football. One of our biggest disaster picks.

Return of Shane Armstong caused me to look up the draft where he and Allen and Cody Anderson were the 3 A's among the draft picks
A pretty solid crop of Cleveland picks in 2011:

1st round: LIndor quite possibly Hall of Fame
way down in the 20's: Cody Allen had a very fine career and is on to other things
Armstrong solid long-time middle reliever
Cody Anderson, Ryan Merrit and Shawn Morimando all had some major league starts
Eric Haase long time part time C, 1B, DH, sometimes OF.

Even though the draft was marred by $1,8M signing of 2nd round high school pitcher Dillon Howard who showed up in camp out of shape, had PED issues, and was gone within a couple brief seasons. Then went to college and played a little football. One of our biggest disaster picks.

Got to believe that the Guardians were in on Lane Thomas and Rob Refsnyder as RH platoon players. Both got higher than projected contracts.

Mets Interested In Austin Hays

The Mets have interest in free agent outfielder Austin Hays, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Hays was previously connected to the Royals but that was before Kansas City signed Lane Thomas and acquired Isaac Collins.

Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger still on the open market

An outfielder who can crush lefties is still worth something. The Mariners just gave Rob Refsnyder $6.25MM for a similar profile.

The Mets have also been frequently connected to Luis Robert Jr. in rumors. He has flashed a borderline MVP upside but has been fairly Hays-ian in the past two years. He has struggled to stay on the field and provided subpar offense but with big numbers against lefties.

Harrison Bader still unsigned among a dwindling group of available options in free agency.

Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte is unlikely to land in Atlanta

[ The window for adding some offense is slowly closing ]

<