Kansas City Royals Don't Expect to Retain James Shields?

The Kansas City Royals are in the World Series for the first time since 1985, but the New York Daily News reports that the team knows it’s likely potential free agent ace James Shields will sign elsewhere this winter.

By advancing to the World Series, the Kansas City Royals seem to have finally ended the second-guessing of the James Shields trade, which sent top outfield prospect Wil Myers and others go to the Tampa Bay Rays for Shields and Wade Davis nearly two years ago. But the New York Daily News reports that the team know’s it’s likely that Shields will sign somewhere else this offseason, barring a willingness to take a “hometown discount” contract.

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While it’s expected that Kansas City will make a sincere effort to resign Shields, a team such as the Boston Red Sox might (or might not) be willing to offer the right-hander a four-or-five-year deal, and the Royals would likely not be comfortable trying to match an offer that long. The Royals will almost certainly offer Shields a qualifying offer of $15.3 million for the 2015 season, ensuring draft pick compensation for the Royals even though Shields will likely decline the offer. Still, a team like Boston, with money to spend and a protected first-round pick, thanks to having one of the worst records in the league in 2014, would certainly be interested in Shields’s services.

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Kansas City Royals Don’t Expect to Retain James Shields?

By Ed Carroll | Oct 17, 2014

The Kansas City Royals are in the World Series for the first time since 1985, but the New York Daily News reports that the team knows it’s likely potential free agent ace James Shields will sign elsewhere this winter.

More from Kansas City Royals