Why Did the Kansas City Royals Pay so Much for Gil Meche?

Every baseball season some teams get criticized for overpaying players during the offseason. Sometimes the speculation is warranted, other times the analysts over exaggerate. In this article I want to talk about one of the over exaggerations. There is nothing wrong with what the Kansas City Royals are doing.

Let me explain. This past offseason the Kansas City Royals decided to sign Gil Meche to a five year, 55 million dollar contract, or 11 million dollars a year. Gil Meche is really a pretty good pitcher but that is all he is. Last year Gil Meche posted an 11 - 8 record and a 4.48 ERA. Just to compare that to some other players, Albert Pujols made 11 million in 2005 and even now makes 14 million. So the Kansas City Royals are paying Gil Meche almost as much as the Cardinals are paying Albert Pujols.

The year before this one the Royals paid Reggie Sanders 5 million dollars a year, more than he has ever made even though he had one of his worst seasons. It is pretty clear the Kansas City Royals are making bad decisions. Well not really.

Let's think about the Royals' situation for a minute. None of the top stars like Barry Zito, Alfonso Soriano or Jason Schmidt are going to play for the Kansas City Royals no matter how much money they offer. Really the Kansas City Royals probably couldn't even convince the second or third tier free agents go there no matter what they offer.