Ervin Santana is almost certain to leave Kansas City as a free agent and the Royals announced that they’ve replaced him in the rotation with Jason Vargas, signing the left-hander to a four-year contract. Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com says it’s worth $32 million.
Vargas was traded from the Mariners to the Angels for Kendrys Morales last offseason and threw 150 innings with a 4.02 ERA, missing time with a blood clot in his arm pit.
He’s a 30-year-old soft-tosser with a 4.30 career ERA, but Kansas City should be a good home ballpark for masking Vargas’ homer-related issues and before the blood cot he’d thrown 193, 201, and 217 innings the previous three seasons.
Vargas is a decent enough mid-rotation starter, but much like with Jeremy Guthrie last offseason the Royals are making a very long and expensive commitment to a mediocre 30-something starter. The Angels didn’t make Vargas a qualifying offer for fear he’d accept the one-year, $14.1 million deal, so they won’t get any compensation for his departure and he won’t cost the Royals a draft pick.
