@rustindodd: The Royals have received calls on a number of players, including Kelvin Herrera, Whit Merrifield, Scott Alexander and Danny Duffy. This isn't too surprising. They're good players. KC is willing to listen.

@rustindodd: Royals are focused on building their farm system back to 2010 levels — though a complete teardown is unlikely. Team sees value in maintaining a culture. That makes some players hard to move.

Oh sure, now you want him...

Dayton Moore translation - Royals will resign Hosmer and reload.

Now that he's free and they're in position to take risks on post-hype guys and see what happens?

Sure!

Resign Hosmer.

Have him have an amazing first half of 2018. Have the Royals absolutely blow.

Trade him for a haul of prospects.

Eh I don’t think you can have it both ways....if you’re gonna rebuild, tear the damn thing down entirely and rebuild the right way.

If Hos, Moose, etc. aren’t coming back it’s inevitable so why not get a head start on things and cash in on guys while their value is very high or before it’s too late.

He won't bring back "a haul" if he's signed to a pricey contract

@JonHeyman: Padres, thinking big, remain strongly in mix for Hosmer.

I would be sad for Hosmer if that's where he landed, because they're a mess and that park would suck for him, but glad for the Royals and for the money.

Need this to shake out soon. Where KC goes and what the rebuild looks is going to set the course for KC.

How much of a rebuild do you think we'll see? I mean are we talking total teardown....? Salvy and Duffy on the table?

They seem more amenable to a total tear down than most expected before the offseason, but we'll see. Can only place so much stock in what the GM says publicly.

I think if they don't get Hosmer, they'll look at more of a complete tear down. If they keep him, they'll go into a more moderated effort and try to get things ramped up in 2019 and 2020.

Royals couldn't take the PR hit if they traded Salvy and lost Hosmer to free agency.

That does seem an odd fit for them; Petco made some changes to give lefties a fair shake a couple of years ago but it's still pretty damn hard to do much in that park, especially for left-handed hitters.

That said, Hosmer is more of a line-drive hitter who puts some balls over the wall that are simply liners that don't drop. He may actually be able to take advantage of the OF there to become more of the modern day Will Clark I kindof expected him to be.

The obvious difference between him and Clark is the strikeouts. Clark was a tough AB every single time he went to the plate. Hosmer, as you know, is noisy as hell up there and falls into prolonged funks where he couldn't hit a beach ball with a tennis racket. But if he went to SD and realized that he can simplify his approach, drop closer to 18-20 HRs and make it up by hitting more doubles and getting on base more, it might actually be good for him.

4 years ago I looked at Freddie Freeman and Eric Hosmer and had no idea who the better player would be. Then in 2013 Freeman seemed to embrace ihis line-drive approach. He came to really understand his strengths as a hitter and exploded by catering to them. I'm not convinced Hosmer's ever truly done that. Perhaps getting to a park (and getting a big contract) will allow him to focus less on the difficult task of turning liners into homers and more on the much easier job of turning groundballs into liners.

If they don't get Hosmer signed, I would still say it's less likely they unload everything. That's just not the way you "rebuild". You always keep some key pieces - especially affordable ones and guys that can positively influence club-house culture. Would Duffy, Salvy, Merrifield or Hererra get traded? Maybe one of them. It's more likely we would see smaller deals for vets like Hammel, Maurer, Buchter, Soria or even younger guys like Cuthbert, Alexander, Bonifacio and Soler, because we have alternatives in the minors.

Keep in mind, "focused on re-stocking" the minor leagues does not necessarily mean trading every marketable player for top-5 prospects from other orgs - especially if you've paid attention to Dayton's recent history. It would likely be some combination of smaller deals, trading for draft pool and international money along with maybe one "big" deal.

That's not the way teams have 'rebuilt' since the implementation of the present draft rules.

Teams rebuild now by absolutely gutting their squads, losing 105 games, getting themselves huge draft pools so they can go over slot on talent in the middle rounds and squirreling away their top assets in the minors for as long as they can to clump their service time into identifiable windows.

Many teams will focus precisely on moving their 'core' assets because those are the guys who are going to be gone by the time that window arrives or leaving their prime. They'll also get the best return.

Some teams refuse to engage in it and I think they'll suffer for it (the Cardinals). Others embrace it fully and they'll be rewarded for it, IMO (The White Sox are the most recent example; the Cubs and Astros are the most obvious).

If you're going to rebuild, you tear it down to the studs. I'd hold onto Duffy until the trade deadline if I were them; let him re-establish his value. Perez? I'd absolutely shop him around as catchers are tough to find. The problem is that most contenders have one. I'd give the Angels a call and see what's left in that barren system of theirs. They're going to make a hard push now that Otani is there and they can't keep wasting Trout. Maldonado...sucks.

That system is so bad it might be hard to put a deal together with them, but Adell, Canning and Thaiss might makes sense; a big-time toolsy OFer in Adell, a good 'pitchability' righty in Canning that's probably gonna be in an MLB rotation by 2019 and a 1b with helium and an advanced approach in Thaiss. If you could convince them to include Chris Rodriguez in there - huge tools but short on results as a HS pick - you'd have to pull the trigger.