{"id":258709,"date":"2025-11-03T01:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T01:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258709\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T01:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T01:37:07","slug":"royals-decline-mutual-option-on-michael-lorenzen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258709\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals Decline Mutual Option On Michael Lorenzen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Royals have declined their end of the $12MM mutual option in Michael Lorenzen<\/a>\u2019s contract for the 2026 season, MLB.com\u2019s Anne Rogers<\/a> reports.\u00a0 Lorenzen will instead receive a $1.5MM buyout and enter free agency.<\/p>\n

The veteran right-hander first came to Kansas City in a trade from the Rangers prior to the 2024 deadline, and Lorenzen delivered 28 2\/3 innings of 1.57 ball down the stretch for the Royals even though a hamstring strain kept him on the injured list for about a month.\u00a0 The two sides reunited on a one-year free agent last winter worth $7MM in guaranteed money \u2014 a $5.5MM salary for 2025, and then the $1.5MM buyout.<\/p>\n

Mutual options are almost never mutually exercised, so both sides surely viewed the contract as just a one-year pact.\u00a0 Lorenzen\u2019s numbers weren\u2019t as sharp in 2025, as he posted a 4.64 ERA, a subpar 21% strikeout rate, and a host of other uninspiring Statcast metrics over 141 2\/3 innings (starting 26 of 27 games).\u00a0 Lorenzen\u2019s 4.16 SIERA at least outpaced his ERA by almost half a run, perhaps due to a solid 6.4% walk rate that matched the righty\u2019s career best.<\/p>\n

Kansas City brought Lorenzen back with the idea that he could eat innings at the back of the rotation, and he ended up being particularly important given how many Royals starters missed time on the IL.\u00a0 The injury bug bit Lorenzen himself in July when an oblique strain sidelined him for a month, but over the last three years, Lorenzen has quietly averaged 141 2\/3 innings per season.<\/p>\n

Lorenzen\u2019s lack of velocity and strikeout ability will limit his earning potential, and he\u2019ll probably get just one-year offers since he turns 34 in January.\u00a0 But plenty of teams are in need of back-end rotation help or starting depth in general, plus Lorenzen\u2019s past history as a relief pitcher makes him a candidate to be converted into a bullpen role on a postseason roster.\u00a0 Kansas City has enough rotation depth<\/a> that another deal with Lorenzen is probably unlikely, but the Royals could look to trade a starter and then re-sign Lorenzen to fill that void later in the winter.\u00a0 This is exactly what the Royals did last offseason, in trading Brady Singer<\/a> to the Reds and then signing Lorenzen about six weeks later.<\/p>\n

The Royals\u2019 other option decisions include a $5MM mutual option with Randal Grichuk<\/a>\u2019s services for 2026 (with a $3MM buyout), and a $13.5MM club option Salvador Perez<\/a>.\u00a0 It is expected that Grichuk\u2019s option will be declined and Perez\u2019s option will be either exercised, or the team will negotiate another multi-year extension with the longtime catcher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Royals have declined their end of the $12MM mutual option in Michael Lorenzen\u2019s contract for the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,152349,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-258709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-michael-lorenzen","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}