The Kansas City Royals are among the teams that have been listed as potential suitors for the Texas Rangers free agent pitcher C.J. Wilson. At this point, several teams are in the race and Jerry Crasnick says the tiebreaker might be the team that’s willing to guarantee Wilson for one more year than any other — making it a sixth year. That might be a major stretch for any teams.
Wilson had an amazing year last year for the World Series runner-up Rangers, throwing a career high 223 innings with a 2.94 ERA and going 16-7 in the process. He also struck out a career high 206 hitters. He’s easily the top free agent pitcher on the market along with Mark Buehrle.
Yet is that worth the money and the risk for the Royals? I don’t think so. The reality is that Wilson has only been a starter at the ML level for two seasons and he just pitched well in a contract year. Wilson certainly had a great year and had a very good one before this, so there’s no denying his talent and how he will likely keep up the good numbers for several years, but that will pay top dollar for a mid-market team to a pitcher into his 37th year — that’s just not good for business. Perhaps other teams have money to burn, but that’s not the case with the Royals and they are going to have to be more calculated than that. Which means that it’s likely the KC Royals are now out of the C.J. Wilson sweepstakes — if they were ever really in it in the first place.