Welcome to the offseason

With the World Series over and the Milwaukee Brewers the rightful champions, it’s time to end my annual postseason sabbatical. After all this time, and as the cliché goes, I hope this edition of the newsletter finds you well.

Even though we’re yet to November, I plan on pacing myself as much as possible to keep the newsletter productive during what is shaping up to be a lengthy lockout once the current CBA expires on December 1. When the owners lockout the players (an unnecessary move at this point in the process), the baseball world will grind to a halt. Sadly, we’ve seen this movie before, so we know the baseball desert that awaits. The Winter Meetings will be cancelled. There will be few or no negotiating sessions though the holidays. The urgency will return when we should have camps opening in February.

It’s going to be a colder winter than usual.

As for what I plan to do here, there will be some player profiles, some random (i.e. wrong) free agent guesses and, of course, I'll cover any news that happens over the next month ahead of the lockout. Along with the usual baseball foolishness. So hit that subscribe button if you haven't so we can make this offseason journey together.

The first order now that the offseason is officially underway is for teams to massage their 40-man roster. There will probably be a flurry of activity ahead of the lockout and for now at least, it's business as usual. The Royals saw Jonathan India, Craig Kimbrel, Luke Maile and Josh Rojas officially become free agents on Thursday. On Monday, this quartet will be free to negotiate with the rest of the teams in the league. I can’t imagine a scenario where any of these guys will be back with the Royals.

Late Thursday, word came down that Carlos Estévez will soon join them on the market as the Royals declined his $13 million club option. They’ll hand over $2 million instead as a buyout. Estévez recorded one out all year and gave up a walkoff grand slam. It wasn't what anyone was looking for.

Tony Gonsolin, who signed a major league contract in August and also appeared in one game for the Royals, had his 2027 option picked up. His outing was in September against the White Sox where he looked good for two innings before the wheels came off in his third frame of work. Still, you could see some of that old magic that made him appealing to the Royals. For next season, the oft-injured pitcher will be officially on the books for $2.5 million, although there are reports he can earn up to $6 million in performance incentives.

Once the Royals move their players off the 60-day IL, the Royals will have 38 players on the 40-man roster.

What did you think of the postseason? Overall I thought it was fine, helped by the fact the Brewers and the Rays won their respective leagues. I also low-key enjoyed the fact that the higher seeded team won every matchup in every round. Underdogs are fun, but seeing good teams advance is satisfying. My only issue: The dominance of the Milwaukee nine removed any semblance of drama from these last couple of weeks. They are such a complete ballclub that this October felt akin to 1984 when the Detroit Tigers steamrolled to victory or 1989 when it was the Oakland A’s getting down to business after coming up short the year before. While nothing is ever certain in these playoffs, especially with the expanded format, but once the Brewers started throwing haymakers at the Dodgers in the NLCS, it all seemed settled.

A couple of stray World Series thoughts as we process a long winter (and probably spring) ahead...

• I felt the similarities between the Brewers and the 2015 Royals in that both teams played a form of what I’ve taken to call Total Baseball in that they do just about everything right. Strong starting pitching? Check. A selfless move-the-line batting order? Uh-huh. A lockdown bullpen? For sure. Clutch hits, including home runs? Yep. Hell, both teams check the box with salt of the earth managers who are refreshingly honest.

There was a moment in the dying moments of the NLCS where the broadcast was doing the obligatory crowd shots and found a woman who looked like she was about to pass out. It was a combination of stress and disbelief. It was the most relatable thing I saw all October, making me think of when I had to take a seat while in the upper tank at The K for Game Four of the 2014 ALCS. I seemed to have gotten a bit lightheaded. When something is unfolding in front of you that you never, ever thought would happen, it can hit hard. I sure she rallied and partied in an appropriate manner.

As we know, winning a championship after suffering through years of heartache makes the moment all the sweeter.

• As a self-proclaimed broadcast geek, I have to wonder why American broadcasting networks hate their viewers so much. After a summer spent watching the World Cup on Univision to dodge the audio assault from Fox soccer announcers, I found myself regularly wondering if we really need nine innings (or more) of John Smoltz who was seemingly getting paid by the word? No, we don’t and I found myself often wishing he would just shut up. There are moments where he does bring up an interesting point or two regarding strategy and whatnot, but for the most part in this World Series he was shockingly unprepared. Fox does a huge disservice by having him on the broadcast. Maybe someday TBS will get the rights to the World Series and they can have Brian Anderson, Ron Darling and Jeff Francoeur on the call. Anderson, the Brewers TV guy when not on national assignments is a pro. Darling is part of the best booth in baseball for the Mets. And Frenchy is really, really good at providing commentary to the point that I wish we could’ve enticed him to stay in Kansas City at the end of his career.
• I’m not surprised the early television ratings for the World Series were, while down, better than expected. While the five games weren’t exactly what I would call crisp baseball, even casual fans can appreciate when the two best teams in the game face off for the championship. It also helps that both teams embraced the moment and seemed to just have fun playing the game.
• Speaking of the keep-the-line-moving mentality of the Milwaukee lineup, I’m going to be thinking about the fifth inning of Game Three for a long, long time. It was epic baseball, a symphony of exit velocity, launch angle and perfectly placed hits. In an October with close games and seemingly few extended rallies, this inning was unforgettable.
• I know newspapers are struggling for survival, but I can’t help but continue to be disappointed by the lack of baseball coverage provided by the Kansas City Star. It wasn’t difficult to come up with a local angle with Grain Valley’s Jacob Misiorowski and Park Hill’s Aaron Ashby both playing key rolls for the Brewers. They should’ve sent someone to cover this Series.
• Remember when we had Andy McCullough writing about the Royals at The Star? He had the World Series wrap for The Athletic. It is, as you would expect, exceptional.

As McCullough points out, the Brewers have not had an easy road even though they’ve qualified for October in eight of the last nine seasons. They’ve made several trades along the way of key players including pitchers Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes, Devin Williams and Freddy Peralta. Not all of those deals yielded players who landed on their postseason roster. They filled the gaps through a strong international presence, outstanding scouting and exceptional drafts. It’s not an easy blueprint to replicate, but when you look at what Milwaukee General Manager Matt Arnold has done on the trade front, you have to wonder about how the Royals have failed to capitalize on peak return on some players they should’ve dealt. Missed opportunities equal missed postseasons.