Things are falling in place at a furious pace the past few days as this morning the Kansas City Royals have signed Kyle Davies to a contract, avoiding arbitration. Dick Kaegel reports the deal being worth $3.2 million for 2011 (and some people were upset at giving Bruce Chen $2 million guaranteed). Davies was 8-12 with a 5.34 ERA last season for Kansas City while earning $1.8 million. The once-heralded former 4th round selection of the Atlanta Braves was traded in 2007 to the Royals for reliever Octavio Dotel.
The 27-year-old has been consistent since joining the Royals, however it has been consistently underachieving in this case. I imagine Davies will likely beat out Sean O'Sullivan for the 5th spot on the Royals starting lineup in 2011 and likely will be evaluated with great scrutiny as the pitching prospects continue to rise throughout the major league system and become closer to joining the big league club. The bright spot (if you can refer to it as one), is that Davies' FIP last season season was 4.46. If he can lower his ERA to something in the mid 4s and with presumed good defense behind him, Davies has potential to be a serviceable 5th starter. This is will definitely be a telling year for Davies as he either needs to turn the corner and show something or he will soon fall behind the wave of prospects. I would be happy with a mixture of both.
As a final note to the Kansas City Royal signing of Robinson Tejeda, the agreement was for one year and $1.55 million. Billy Butler is now the only current Royals player not signed for 2011.