Submitted by: Greenwave15
July 11, 2019
Athletics
| Name | Age | Level | P1 | P2 | Availablility | Years | AFV | Salary | Surplus | Low | Median | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kennedy | 34 | Majors | SP | Very high | 1.5 | 5.3 | 24.7 | -19.4 | -19.4 | -18.4 | -17.4 | |
| Merrifield | 30 | Majors | 2B | OF | Medium | 4.5 | 70.9 | 25.5 | 45.4 | 43.4 | 47.9 | 52.5 |
I don’t think the Royals tank Merrifield’s trade value by packaging him with a negative asset. These are lost years for KC and they want as much player capital as possible. Kennedy is a sunk cost, so the Royals have a lot more to gain by holding onto him unless some team thinks a lot more of him than the projections do (which you could see the projections missing a starter-reliever conversion). Plenty of failed starters have found new life in the bullpen (Wade Davis, Will Smith, and Liam Hendriks are just a few examples that passed through KC) and waiting until Kennedy has established that he’s legit in the bullpen shrinks the acquiring cost of a team (thereby increasing return) and increases the confidence that Kennedy will be valuable out of the bullpen in the future.