What signing Starling Marte means for the Royals

The Royals added another outfield bat over the weekend.

What do we make of the move?

We'll tell you in this edition of Lockdown Royals.

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It's been a while since we've talked about a big league acquisition for the Royals.

It had been really over a month and a half that I can recall a major league deal move.

Let's call it that.

The match strong move to me was the last notable one.

Yes, the Royals had made a couple of minor league deals here and there.

Unless I'm planking on somebody, that would have been the last major move by the Royals.

That was until actually late on Friday night, I want to say it was, when there was a report

coming out that the Royals and Starling Marta were close to a deal.

Now this was a little bit more interesting than the typical Jeff Passon tweet where it's

breaking.

The Royals have signed such and such.

We know those guys have all the inside information of what front offices are wanting to do and

which players are leaning toward what organizations.

But this was kind of a fun one to track because it was first reported from Janssen Pooholes

on Twitter at Janssen Pooholes that the Royals and Arte were close to a deal.

And it came out very late on Friday.

I had to double check to make sure that it was a legit tweet.

It was from a legit source because you don't always see it that way.

But obviously this was somebody that had the inside info on Starling Marta and we come

to find out the next day around mid afternoon that from Mark Finestein but also first reported

by Janssen Pooholes that the Royals had agreed to a one year deal with Starling Marta and

it is a major league deal, not a minor league deal.

So what does this mean for the Royals?

How does this all shake out?

And for starters, I will say this.

Starling Marta is not taking it back from anybody in that lineup.

Like they are not signing Starling Marta because they're not confident in Jack Caguione or

they're not confident in Isaac Collins.

This is purely a good depth move and bringing in a guy that last year, if you put those

numbers in the Royals outfield, they would have been the best numbers that anybody produced

over 100 game stretch.

Now Marta at 37 years old is no longer an everyday player.

So even if he does thrive early on in the season, that's not signaling to Matt Quattrera

when the Royals coaching staff to play him over Collins or play him over Caguione.

If anything, this gives insurance to a guy like Jack Caguione where if he goes out there

and struggles in April, they can turn to somebody who was in a above average bat last year

and really entering his mid-30s a couple of years ago, he still put up good seasons.

He put up good numbers.

He was good for his time with the Mets when he was healthy.

He had a good run with the athletics.

We of course know all about his time with the Pirates as well.

This is a guy that is a even hitter, either facing lefties or righties.

Now I put out there on Twitter that I see him as a platoon option.

I think some people misconstrued that with him being a true platoon partner like we're

going to see in center with his bell and Thomas, that's not going to be the case here.

But what it allows Matt Quattrera to do is against tough lefties, you know, you're not forcing

Jack Caguione in the lineup every single day.

At the end of the day, he is somebody coming off a year in which he hit sub 180.

I don't know if it's the best thing to go into the year saying he's an everyday player.

If it doesn't work out, then oh well, we're just going to continue to make him play through

it.

I'm going to see Jack Caguione out there for 140 to 150 games this year.

But there's a right and wrong way in going about his development and his maturity.

It is always a good thing to have a fallback option, where that's really for the royals

as a team here.

Well, best case scenario, Cag's opens the year on fire, looks great, you never look back.

But Marta is a good bench back to half.

He can spell Caguione against a tough leftie.

I advise that Collins needs a day off, Starling Marta can play.

He can spell Carter Jensen against a tough leftie as a DH in that lineup.

And the other part to this, which leads me to my next argument of why it's a good move

for the royals, would you rather have Starling Marta as an option off the bench, or would

you rather have Nick Lofton or DiRome Blanco?

Now, Nick Lofton could still make the roster.

And I've seen a couple of people say that he would still be their pick to make the roster

as a utility guy.

My front runner is Josh Rojas, just because with the defensive versatility, early performance,

he's hitting the ball well, he's striking the ball pretty hard.

And that to me has put him in the top spot.

We're also 10 games into spring training.

Nick Lofton could, could without question, take that spot from him.

But this does show up three spots on the bench.

And if I'm the royals, I'm only carrying 13 position players, nine starters for guys

on the bench.

Michael Massey, Lane Thomas, and now Starling Marta have those three.

It's a much better bench than you had a year ago, because there's certain things these

guys do well.

You know, Lane Thomas can hit lefties.

We know Michael Massey's a good defensive option at second base, and now can play a little

bit of the outfield.

Starling Marta is the best bat of the bunch, and you can use him late in the game.

You also can start him.

But I'm not wanting to see Starling Marta out there for 130 games this year.

That would just be malpractice, in my opinion.

He played 98 games last year.

He was an above average bat for the meds.

I'd shoot for that total.

He is 37 years old.

There is no reason to overexpose Starling Marta or take it bats away from Caglione or

Jensen or Collins, because he starts the year well.

This is somebody that can start for you, can start against tough lefties, but also he

can start against righties.

He's not like Lane Thomas, who's more so tailored toward crushing lefties, and not that great

against right-handed pitching.

It was a good move, though.

I'm not going to be upset by it, and I've said this before over the last 24 hours, so

I guess I haven't said it to you guys yet that have been listening.

But you have somebody here that raises the floor of the bench, and that's probably been

my term of the off-season in raising the floor.

There just were so many guys on the bench last year that you didn't know if they were going

to give you much.

You were hopeful, and you said, okay, well, if Nick Loftin can get rolling, I like him

in that spot, or if Tyler Tolbert can get rolling, I like him in that spot.

And Tolbert has his strengths of being a pinch runner, and a base dealer, who's also very

versatile defensively, and he did hit 280 last year.

I also want to see more guys on the bench that have done it for an extended period of

time at the big league level.

And a guy like Starling Marta does make your bench a lot better, and it's how you view

it, too.

I know there will be people in the comment section going, I hate it.

37-year-old outfielder makes no sense to bring him in if he's not going to be an everyday

player.

And that's where I'd say, I'm going to push back a little bit.

It would be a negative move, in my opinion, if you brought in Starling Marta to start

over Collins or over Jack Cagliot.

This is to give those guys insurance.

If you view this as a bench option, and somebody that can play anywhere from 90 to 100 games

for you, and hit 270, have an OPS plus of 111, that is a solid move.

It's comparable, in my opinion, to what Mikey Stremsky brought the Royals.

And even Mikey Stremsky hit in the 220's when it was all said and done.

And he was an above average bat when he looked at OPS plus and WRC plus, and that's what

it is with Starling Marta.

He's not as good of a defender as Mikey Stremsky.

He's also no longer as versatile as a guy like Mikey Stremsky was.

But you bring in somebody who is bat first.

And you didn't have many bat first guys on the bench last year.

And I don't know exactly when this deal is going to be finalized.

To me, though, this is a guy that in April.

If you wanted to take the route of, let's make sure Cagliones are starter, and let's make

sure our gentsons are starter.

But if there are some games where we can give them a break and take that pressure off them

being an everyday guy, Starling Marta is a good option to pivot to.

Where if you didn't have them, you'd be looking at Nick Lofton or DiRome Blanco or Tyler

Tolbert being the guy to replace him.

Marta is an upgrade over all three of those guys.

And it's not a super expensive deal.

I'm sure that it's going to be someone that ballpark of two to six million on a one-year

deal.

And you're not viewing him as a guy to change the lineup.

You're viewing him as a guy to give you another option if one of these young players

doesn't start the year as well.

Think about last year when guys were struggling and MJ Melinda's at Hunter Renfrel were

not playing up to standard.

They didn't have anybody to pivot to.

They had to go down the triple A and get Drew Waters to come in who was fine for a point

in time.

They want to make sure though there's another guy to pivot to if Caglione or Jensen

or Collins is either either not 100% or they're not playing well to begin the year.

Because sometimes just making them play through struggles, I see the benefits to it.

It also can be hurting your team if they're really not playing well.

Last year there was an extended period of time where Jack Caglione in that average and

him learning right field was a liability to the team.

But you wanted him to play through it because there were no other options.

Now you have somebody who's an experienced season vet who put up good numbers last year

and is projected to do the same in a limited role for Kansas City in 2026.

Did you like the signing of Starling Marta over the weekend?

Let us know in the YouTube comments below.

When we come back, the royals were finally on TV on Saturday afternoon and they dominated

the Rockies.

In my opinion, I was more stoked to see someone like Cole Reagan's on the mound and his

stuff look really good in his first outing of spring training.

We'll dive into that next on Lockdown Royals.

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We are back here on Lockdown Royals and the Lockdown Podcast Network.

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I know a lot of you were happy over the weekend to see the Royals on your TV.

They were streamed on MLB Network, it was also the Royals app as well and you got

to see an absolute bludgeoning of the Colorado Rockies and if you're into that sort of stuff

and getting fired up about spring training wins, then Saturday was perfect for you.

You did get to see a grain slam in the first inning by Nick Lofton, you saw 116.5 mile

an hour double from Jack Cagliome, a couple other homers later on in the game and it was

all off a old friend Michael Lorenzen, which did pay me because I like Michael Lorenzen a

lot and I want him to be one of the better arms for Colorado and who knows.

Trade deadline comes around again.

The Royals need another swing starter.

I would never hate to see Michael Lorenzen back in Kansas City but it was a rough one for

him.

He might have been working on some stuff which made it easier for the Royals to tee off

on him and so really from a number standpoint, a statistical standpoint, you take away

maybe everything with a grain of salt and go 16 runs is all fine and dandy but there

were a lot of hitable pitches out there and the Royals did what you're supposed to do

with those hitable pitches and put a charge in them.

On the pitching side of things, we got to see Cole Reagan's go out there and I thought

his stuff looked really, really good and to me, I don't care about the ERA for Cole

Reagan's in spring training.

I don't care about the strikeout numbers in spring training.

I am just looking at the pure stuff and I'm focusing on his health because that needs

to be a main takeaway when watching a guy like him or takeaways I should say.

His stuff looks as good as it did on Saturday, the rest of the way.

I got no reason to doubt what Cole Reagan's is capable of doing in 2026 and it's not

that spring training tells you everything.

I just spent the first two to three minutes of this segment talking about how the numbers

really don't matter at the end of the day.

If he leaves camp though, healthy and feels good and he's not fighting mechanics, the

stuff is there, the stuff's going to play up to be a front line guy and I've stood

by my take of the only thing that can get in the way of Cole Reagan's being a top five

arm in the American League is durability, is his health and he made the mature decision

and sitting out of the World Baseball Classic which now, you know, considering all the guys

that are going to be leaving early terror schools making like one start and throwing 55 pitches.

Joe Ryan's hurt, he's not going to be able to throw.

There would have been an opportunity for him to start so I'm sure he's bummed about that.

He wants to have that normal build up though and in start number one, I'd be lying if

I said I wasn't anxious at all or I wasn't nervous because we've seen now with pretty

much everybody in this rotation them have this slower build up.

Nobody's going out there and maxing out Noah Cameron today was throwing 90 to 91 with

this fastball and no, I'm not concerned by it and he didn't look all that good.

You're working on certain things and you're not airing it out at 98, 99 or trying to

max out in a measly Monday afternoon spring training game against the angels.

When it comes to Cole Reagan's though, we've seen him have these unbelievable spring training

starts going back the last two years.

I mean, I remember two years ago, he had a start where he was throwing it at 100 to 101.

His arm just felt incredibly good and what happened that year?

Well, he threw North of 190 innings, struck out North of 200 and was a top five arm in

the American League.

Last year, he had a pretty fine build up.

There was no concerns there and then he just never looked right from the get-go and

no, I talked to him a couple weeks ago and he said, I felt great leaving camp last year,

felt as good as I did in 2024.

It kind of has that sense that out of this camp, this is the best he's felt and it's

going to be such a focus to make sure that everything goes according to plan.

He worked his tail off to rehab and get back on the mound to close out the year where

some guys would say, why wouldn't I just take the rest of the year off?

Why wouldn't I just go into the off season, be a hundred percent and not worry about

it whatsoever?

But there was that risk at the end of 2025 that he returned to the mound and then got

hurt again and then therefore delayed the beginning of his off season.

Yet he worked his tail off to rehab, get back out on the mound and in the final month

of the year, he looked like vintage co-regants.

Whether you want to buy into that or not, it leads me back to my point that when he feels

good, when he's healthy and his stuff is on point, he is going to be a top arm in this

game.

He is going to be a workhorse.

He is going to be your strikeout guy, your 200 strikeout pitcher, which everybody needs,

every contender needs at the front of the rotation.

When you don't have that, it puts so much more pressure on your offense to win in October.

And last year, though the royals were in the hunt for, I would say a chunk of the second

half, they really bottomed out toward the beginning of September.

They made it difficult to climb out of that hole where they were chasing Cleveland and

Detroit and Boston and Houston.

I mean, they just put themselves in a bad spot.

When I look at the greatest rotations out there, though, and I look at the teams that

can make a deep run in October, you almost always need that true number one.

And there's nobody else in this rotation that has the upside to be a number one like

him.

He plays a part in this and he was throwing 97, 98 on Saturday afternoon.

Do I want to see him throw it that hard for all the spring training starts?

I don't.

I totally live with 95 and 96 with consistency as long as it stays around that 95 and 96.

Whenever he's down in 93 to 94, not saying it's worrisome, but coming off the year where

he was injured, my red flag would go up just to make sure everything's all right.

If he does break camp feeling all right, looking good, stuff looks good.

They get back that guy in the rotation.

Now I know a couple of you two that have been listening for a long time.

You're not as high on Cole Reagan's.

You think that 2024 is the outlier and he is an injury prone start.

What I can say that maybe it's not even refutable that when he's healthy, he is a great arm.

Not to me has always been a constant and yes, durability and availability is measured

in a player.

It kind of gets lumped in with how talented you are.

You can be a great player.

If you're never available, well, you're not much of a great player.

I wouldn't want to see though 2025 overshadowed just how good he's been since joining the

royals.

He was fantastic in 2023 when he got traded over.

He was fantastic in 2024 and great in the postseason and yet in 2025, I would hate to

see the trust in Cole Reagan's fall off a cliff just because he dealt with two separate

injuries.

Now he goes into this year and he's hurt and he only makes 10 to 15 starts.

Well then now we get back to that point of all right.

Is he just an injury prone guy and do you start looking to somebody else in the offseason

of being your true number one?

The stuff though is going to lead the way for him.

He gives you 200 endings this year or even just 180.

I got no doubt in my mind the numbers are going to look good.

That's how high I am in Cole Reagan's.

I'm buying more stock in him.

You can call me a Homer for that.

You can call me very pro Cole Reagan's.

I know we have some anti-Cole Reagan's people in the comment section.

I'm much higher on him than maybe you are.

Now where do you stand when it comes to Cole Reagan's?

Do you have big expectations for him going into 2026 or do you see him battling through

more injuries or just neverly returning to form that he had in 2024?

Let us know in the YouTube comments below.

When we come back another royal is joining a team in the world baseball classic.

Who is it and what will their role be?

We'll tell you next on Lockdown Royals.

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We are wrapping up this Monday edition of Lockdown Royals and the Lockdown podcast network.

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We did also have more news over the weekend where the window Avala is joining the World

Baseball Classic for team Venezuela.

He threw on Sunday for the Royals and wasn't all that spectacular.

But he is now another young arm that Royals fans get to watch and he might have that opportunity

to shine for team Venezuela who's still top five in betting betting odds or being a betting

favorite to win the world baseball classic, which begins this week now team USA will play

on Friday.

If you're into watching team Italy, they play on Saturday.

Notice team USA again as well.

They have Brazil and Great Britain as their first two matchups.

So yes, baseball season is, I mean, it already kind of was upon us.

The World Baseball Classic though gives us that real baseball field.

Great atmospheres, a great competition.

We know that team USA is the betting favorite going into this one.

We found out from any Rogers via macro trail that Bobby would junior is going to be leading

off for team USA, which is why he was leading off in the last couple of games before he

headed down just training camp for team USA.

This is more so about Luinda Ovalo though and him being a late addition, which isn't

the worst thing in the world.

He's been having a normal build up in camp and this gives him that opportunity, even if

he doesn't break camp with the Royals to showcase a lot.

And you guys saw from some of my reports at a surprise Arizona how high macro trail is

on a guy like Luinda Ovalo viewing him as a front line starter down the road.

He might have some opportunities to start for team Venezuela.

I'd be surprised if he did.

There might have to be a couple of hiccups along the way for team Venezuela.

So he will probably start in more of a long relief role for the bullpen and in this tournament,

you do need those guys and you need those guys to be effective.

His stuff though should absolutely play up in an tournament like this.

And this is the fun stuff to follow because we saw with both Carlos or not Carlos

to step.

I mean, he will be pitching for team D.R.

But the last time the World Baseball Classic was happening was 2023.

So Carlos Hernandez is who I was trying to think of their key pitch for team Venezuela

and his stuff was ridiculous.

Now it never really translated to success for multiple years in Kansas City.

He was okay in 2023.

Then when he took over the permanent closures role when they moved Scott Barlow, he just

didn't have the stuff anymore.

But I thought it gave him a good leg up to begin the year.

Pitching in that atmosphere against competition like that, it only bettered him.

And Carlos Hernandez back then draws some comparison to Luinda Ovalo or vice versa.

Luinda Ovalo draws some comparison to Carlos Hernandez where you know as a young arm, he's

got the pure stuff.

And Carlos Hernandez moved up rather quickly in the Royals organization, a guy that made

the jump from I want to say hi to the big leagues in the COVID year.

Luinda Ovalo moved rather quickly through the system.

Now he's a guy that they scouted as an international prospect.

Now he's one of those players though where is he really better suited for AAA or is

this stuff good enough to be in the Royals' bullpen when they break camp at the end of March?

To me, the World Baseball Classic is going to give us a better measurement than maybe

spring training would have.

Because if he goes out there and Pitch is well and his 95, 96 plays up 97, 98, I know

that atmosphere is not going to be equivalent for April baseball in the regular season.

The stuff, the spin, the movement, the horizontal run to his fastball sink action and then

his curveball, which is his best pitch, that all looks good in the World Baseball Classic

and games they're trying to win when they're facing other greats around the sport.

That's where you can make a name for yourself.

And no doubt in my mind, the Royals are going to be watching these games intently.

Because as for everybody else there where you have a stevez with Team DR, you've got Seth

Lugo for Team Puerto Rico, you've got Salvi and Mike Hell, you've got Bobby for Team USA

and Michael Waka.

What do all those guys have in common?

Now I'll throw up any best wentio in here for Team Italy.

All those guys have secure spots on the roster and we know what the role is going to be.

The reason I didn't include Jack Caglione there is this to me can show everybody out there

maybe how ready he really is.

Now it is going to be a adjustment, it's going to be a shift.

We saw MJ Melendez play well for Team Puerto Rico in the 2023 World Baseball Classic and

it didn't really translate over into 2023.

Now for Caglione is a position player in Lewin D'Avala as a bullpen offer team Venezuela.

Those two guys can make the most out of this opportunity.

I want to see every Royale do well, but everybody else had his mention other than Caglione

and Lewin D'Avala, they aren't going to change my opinion of how good they are or what

to expect from them in 2026 based on how they do in the tournament.

For some reason, I'm kind of viewing it that way for Caglione and Avala.

Avala goes out there, it is a X factor for Team Venezuela's bullpen, a team that as I

brought up has top five betting odds to win the tournament and Caglione looks good when

Team Italy plays.

I got a little bit more juice going into the regular season.

I like a little bit more of what those two guys might bring you and for him to be this

late edition, it does him wonders compared to what he would have gotten down in surprise.

Yes, he might have been able to start a game or two, he might have been able to go in

extended relief out of the bullpen.

This is better though.

He's going to be pitching in front of sold out crowds.

Players go in crazy, he's going to be facing the best of the best out there and you're

not having that in surprise right now with all these players going in the world baseball

classic.

Him dominating against AAA and AA guys in Arizona doesn't do it for me.

Him going out there and throwing big ennings against Team DR or Team Puerto Rico or Team

Japan or Team USA.

That to me would signal a better start to the year for Luinda Avala than he would have

been if he got two to three innings per outing pitching against minor leagueers in Arizona.

Are you excited about seeing Luinda Avala for Team Venezuela and the World Baseball

Classic?

Let us know in the YouTube comments below.

That's going to do it for another edition of Lockdown Royals and the Lockdown Podcasts

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