Kansas City seemingly never had much hope of re-signing Alex Gordon and now Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports that the free agent outfielder has informed the Royals they have “no chance” of bringing him back based on their current offer.
Jim Bowden of ESPN.com says the Royals’ offer was four years and around $50 million, which would barely be better than not making any offer given than he’s likely to sign for at least twice that much.
Gordon is a Gold Glove-caliber corner outfielder with a good but not great bat and on a four- or five-year deal it wouldn’t be surprising to see him surpass $20 million per season. During the past five years he’s hit .281 with an .809 OPS while consistently rating among the best all-around outfielders in baseball.
Kansas City will receive a first-round draft pick as compensation for Gordon signing elsewhere after a decade in the organization and the Royals figure to pursue mid-level veteran free agents to replace him. That is, unless Gordon’s stance leaking to the media motivates the team to significantly increase their offer.
