Two league sources confirmed to ESPN.com that the Royals have inked RF Alex Rios to a one-year $11 million deal. The Royals have reportedly always liked Rios, as they tried to trade for him during the trade deadline back in July, but needed to clear Billy Butler’s salary first, so obviously they couldn’t get it done. Now with Butler’s departure to Oakland and the very likely possibility of Nori Aoki signing with a new team, KC now has the room to sign Rios, as he will be the right fielder in 2015.
Alex plays a solid right field, as he has been a consistent player over his 11-year career that has produced on average batting .278 with 1680 hits and 352 doubles in 1586 games. Over the last 3 seasons he has put up numbers that are worth the $11 million, as he batted .287 with 16 homers and 164 hits over an average of playing in 148 games between 2012-2014. The only negative about his hitting performance of recent is his lost for power, as he only hit 4 homeruns in 2014 with Texas, but he did not lose all of his power as he hit 30 doubles and 8 triples to help replace the absence of homers. KC should expect him though to get back to hitting at least 15 homers, as Kauffman Stadium is a fly-ball park, as it ranked 11th in homerun factor even with KC placing last in homers with just under 100. With Alex’s all around good bat, he will most likely fit into the 6 or 3 hole creating a dominant lineup from top to bottom.
Hitting is not Alex’s only strength though, as he is also a good fielding player. One thing that was absent in right field for the Royals in 2014, was a good arm, as Aoki might had had a good glove and speed, but his arm was not all that great. An above average arm is what Rios brings to Kauffman, along with a good glove and speed, as his range factor per 9 innings in 2014 was 2.39 while the league average was 2.26. KC might had had arguably the best outfield defensive in 2014, but it could very well be even better in 2015 now that Kauffman Stadium has 3 good arms with great speed and a combined range factor of 2.49 (well above league average in 2014) with Alex Gordon (back-to-back-to-back gold gloves in LF), Lorenzo Cain (2014 Wilson Defensive player of the year in CF), and Alex Rios, will be the look of the outfield for 2015.
Overall this signing is an A+ as the Royals certainly did not overpay for the dynamic underrated right fielder and it is only for a bargain of 1 year, but can Alex recover from his 2014 power drought to help bring KC some needed homeruns? That is the question.
