Third baseman Hunter Dozier and the Kansas Metropolis Royals have agreed to a four-year extension, value $25 million, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Per ESPN, the deal features a fifth-year choice for $10 million. It additionally has escalators and bonuses that might max the deal out at $49 million over 5 seasons.
Dozier, 29, has been one of many Kansas Metropolis’s most impactful hitters over the previous few seasons. In 2019, he hit 26 house runs and recorded 84 RBI. Final season, he did not make his debut till Aug. 9 after testing constructive for COVID-19. In 44 video games, he hit six house runs and recorded 12 RBI.
Extending Dozier signifies the Royals view him as their beginning third baseman for his or her subsequent run of contending groups, which they consider might start as quickly as this season, although the 2022 seems extra doubtless.
As well as to extending Dozier, the Royals have made a string of strikes this offseason to purchase veterans comparable to first baseman Carlos Santana, left-hander Mike Minor and reliever Greg Holland. Additionally they traded for former Crimson Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi, the 2017 AL Rookie of the 12 months runner-up and the beginning left fielder on Boston’s 2018 World Collection-winning workforce. Nonetheless solely 26, Benintendi struggled final yr, enjoying simply 14 video games within the pandemic-shortened season due to a rib damage.
“The Royals wanted a ready-made left-handed bat for a workforce they consider will contend for a playoff spot this yr,” Sports activities Illustrated‘s Tom Verducci wrote of the deal. “Benintendi is their new Alex Gordon.”
The Royals have completed in fourth-place within the AL Central in every of the previous two seasons. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2015, after they received the World Collection.
Together with Dozier, Benintendi and Santana, Kansas Metropolis’s lineup additionally contains former All-Stars Whit Merrifield and Salvador Perez, and Jorge Soler, who led the American League with 48 house runs in 2019. Perez is their solely place participant remaining from their 2015 workforce.
