For a dozen years, Royals Review hosted the annual SB Nation MLB Offseason Simulation, where 30 writers from the 30 team sites would get together digitally over the course of a weekend and, well, simulate the offseason. For five of those years, I ran the Royals, fake trading and signing free agents like a madman. This year, the simulation is on hiatus.

Maybe that’s a good thing; my fake offseason last year was a hot dumpster fire. But in some ways, that makes it easier, as I can make deals all I want in my head without bidding against a real person. So without further ado, let’s take a look at the 3 things I’d go out and do this offseason for the Royals if, you know, I was king of baseball for a day.

1. Sign Ha-Seong Kim to play third baseThe Royals need, among other things, an everyday third baseman. The Royals need, among other things, a leadoff hitter.

The Royals built a name for themselves by playing good defense and by running the bases aggressively and efficiently. What if I told you that there is a free agent out there who can fulfill every one of those needs? That player is Ha-Seong Kim.

Hailing from Korea, Kim came to Major League Baseball in his age-25 season. An excellent defender, Kim won the NL utility player Gold Glove in 2023, where he split time at second base, third base, and shortstop. Offensively, Kim is the ideal leadoff hitter for Kansas City.

Over the past two years, he’s posted a . 342 OBP and has stolen 60 bases. How much will Kim cost?

The median crowdsource figure at Fangraphs is four years at $18. 5 million per year, for a total of $73. 5 million.

I don’t know if he’ll get that, but regardless, the Royals have the money—they’re at about $105 million in projected payroll at the moment, which is $10 million less than last year. And next year, Salvador Perez and Hunter Renfroe will fall off the books, freeing up over $25 million. 2.

Trade Brady Singer for an outfield batBrady Singer is a very obvious trade candidate, so much so that we’ve already discussed his name in trade-related articles multiple times this offseason. This is for two clear reasons: one, Singer is a good starting pitcher, the type of player that teams always covet. And second, the Royals already have starting pitching strength outside of Singer.

With Kansas City’s poor offense, it makes sense that they might consider trading Singer for a position player. There are a couple of intriguing infield players that Singer could be traded for, but I think the clear thing to do is to trade Singer for a corner outfielder. Availability aside, a couple of intriguing names for me are Luke Raley, a Mariners corner player who has a 129 wRC+ over the last two years, and Lars Nootbaar, whose career OBP for the Cardinals is .

348. But maybe the most realistic is a guy like Jake McCarthy. The Diamondbacks outfielder put up a 3 WAR season in 2024 by just being a solid all-around player.

He immediately becomes Kansas City’s starting right fielder. Now, depending on who is available, the Royals may have to give up more in addition to Singer or could get multiple players back. 3.

Sign a bounceback starting pitcherSo much of the Royals’ 2024 improvement came from Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha. Both players were mid-tier starters who had some potential flaws and therefore didn’t command the money that some of their peers did. However, they both did excellently.

In this particular scenario we’re operating in, the Royals would trade Singer and his $8 million or so salary. That would be some extra money to play with, and I think signing a bounceback starting pitcher is the way to do it. I have three clear personal favorites here.

Shane Bieber won’t be returning until the summer, but when healthy, he’s a special, special talent. Walker Buehler closed out the World Series and has struggled with injury over the last couple of seasons, but he is also a game-changer if healthy. Finally, Jose Quintana, who Royals fans were very familiar with, has had an up-and-down career in his post-White Sox days.

But he has been reasonably effective over the last few years as a soft-tossing innings eater, and in 2022 he was worth 4 WAR. Any one of them would be in the $10-$15 million range for a year or two. And with that…my fake offseason is done.

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