{"id":514174,"date":"2026-01-11T00:13:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T00:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/514174\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T00:13:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T00:13:20","slug":"royals-predicted-as-dark-horse-landing-spot-for-814-ops-free-agent-from-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/514174\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals predicted as dark-horse landing spot for .814 OPS free agent from Yankees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/kansas-city-royals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kansas City Royals<\/a> aren&#8217;t known for big free agent splashes.<\/p>\n<p>But free agency is currently dragging on for the big-four hitters: Kyle Tucker, Bo Bichette, Alex Bregman and Cody Bellinger.<\/p>\n<p>The longer it goes, the more chance of something weird happening.<\/p>\n<p>A team not thought to be in the running may swoop in and take advantage of the slow-developing market.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s what <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25352066-dark-horse-landing-spots-kyle-tucker-bo-bichette-and-top-mlb-free-agents\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bleacher Report&#8217;s Joel Reuter<\/a> thinks could happen with the Royals and Bellinger. In a new article on Friday, Reuter broke down a potential dark-horse landing spot for each of the prominent hitters still available, and he picked the Royals for Bellinger.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/detroit-tigers\/news\/how-tigers-tarik-skubal-reached-record-setting-contract-conflict\/b404f175bd525d03fb9f5d6f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">How Tigers, Tarik Skubal have reached a record-setting contract conflict<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bellinger is coming off his best season in half a decade, having slugged 29 home runs and put up an .814 OPS while enjoying his time in Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>The lefty would play outfield in Kansas City, where he&#8217;s actually an above-average fielder in a way you wouldn&#8217;t expect from a guy that also plays first base.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;(The Royals) don&#8217;t often make splashy free-agency moves, but Bellinger could be a transformative addition to their lineup, joining Bobby Witt Jr., Maikel Garc\u00eda, Salvador Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino,&#8221; Reuter writes. &#8220;With Isaac Collins, Kyle Isbel and Jac Caglianone as the current projected outfield, there might be no team that would benefit more from upgrading in the grass.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Man, that outfield looks even worse once it&#8217;s spelled out like that. Even if the Royals don&#8217;t get Bellinger, they should be trying to add someone else to that group.<\/p>\n<p>Bellinger would be the headline-grabber, though, and with the Royals trying to compete in a so-so AL Central Division, it&#8217;s the kind of signing that could push them toward a division title.<\/p>\n<p>More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kansas City Royals aren&#8217;t known for big free agent splashes. But free agency is currently dragging on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[5,936,2123,55,2596,2595,4,252],"class_list":{"0":"post-514174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-royals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kansas","10":"tag-kansas-city","11":"tag-kansas-city-royals","12":"tag-kansascity","13":"tag-kansascityroyals","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115873579358813774","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}