Lorenzen agrees to one-year deal with Royals

KANSAS CITY -- The Royals reunited with Michael Lorenzen on Wednesday, signing the right-hander on a one-year contract.

According to a source, the deal is worth a guaranteed $7 million with a mutual contract option for 2026. Lorenzen will make $5.5 million this season as part of the Royals’ pitching staff, and the mutual option is worth $12 million with a $1.5 million buyout if the club declines. There are also performance incentives in the deal.

The Royals were aggressive early in the offseason, checking off their two major priorities by re-signing starting pitcher Michael Wacha and trading for leadoff hitter Jonathan India. Since then, they’ve opted to wait out the market and see how things developed.

That has led to a quieter winter. But all along, a reunion with the 33-year-old Lorenzen made sense. The Royals expressed their desire to find a veteran pitcher who could fill a variety of roles, whether out of the rotation or in the bullpen as a multi-inning reliever.

There was no one better suited for that on the market than Lorenzen, and the Royals should know -- they dealt for him at the Trade Deadline last year to do just that.

After being acquired from the Rangers for reliever Walter Pennington, Lorenzen posted a 1.57 ERA in 28 2/3 innings. He missed time with a left hamstring strain but otherwise impressed in a small sample size. In total with the Rangers and Royals in ’24, Lorenzen threw 130 1/3 innings with a 3.31 ERA.

Those innings should help the Royals cover some of the 179 2/3 innings lost in the rotation when they traded Brady Singer to the Reds for India. The Royals think highly of their young pitching contingent to help in the rotation, but adding a veteran arm like Lorenzen will help with depth and innings.

Kris Bubic returned to the mound as a reliever last year after Tommy John surgery, thus he’ll likely be limited in innings in his first year back as a starter. The same, to a greater extent, goes for Kyle Wright, who did not pitch at all in 2024 after shoulder surgery.

The Royals also have Alec Marsh and Daniel Lynch IV returning as competition for a rotation spot.

But Lorenzen also brings value in the bullpen. Since debuting as a two-way player in 2015 with the Reds, Lorenzen performed mostly as a swingman until 2022, when he signed with the Angels as a full-time starter. Since ’22, Lorenzen has a 3.90 ERA, with a 1.24 WHIP in 381 innings, mostly as a starter.

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Lorenzen spoke highly of his short time with the Royals, especially the work he did with pitching coaches Brian Sweeney, Zach Bove and Mitch Stetter. Lorenzen also heaped praise on catcher Salvador Perez, and the Royals liked what Lorenzen added to their clubhouse last season. They expressed their interest early in the offseason to bring him back, and it was just a matter of getting to an agreement on the dollars and years.

With just over a month to go until Spring Training begins, adding Lorenzen helps the Royals shore up their pitching staff. They’re also still looking to add a middle-of-the-order bat that can inject some power into their lineup as they seek ways to improve the roster heading into 2025.