It's his last year of arbitration, and I think he got $4.7 million, which isn't unreasonable for a ******, but relatively high-innings starting pitcher in their last year of arbitration. Rather than non-tender one of GMDM's 1st draft picks, they decided to pay him a starter's price in arbitration, and then make him a reliever (which is amazingly stupid for a low-budget team with a decent bullpen). If he was starting and could give them 150+ innings as a 4th-5th starter, I'd be okay with the $5 million, but to tender him when he was pretty clearly headed to the bullpen is pretty ridiculous. The money could've been better spent elsewhere.
Chen is also making $5+ million this year, in the 2nd year of a 2-year deal. The Royals have a penchant for pulling guys off the scrap heap, and then giving them 2 year deals after they give the Royals one good year (when there is very minimal demand for their services otherwise). There was NO reason to expect that Chen or Francouer would continue to perform at that level for 2 years considering they had yet to perform well for over one year at a time since they made it to majors.
They've been running the team on sentiment and Jesus-riding dinosaur logic for years and have to go.
