With Major League Baseball’s roster deadline looming on Tuesday afternoon, the Kansas City Royals made a flurry of roster moves including a one-year deal with first baseman/outfielder Ryan O’Hearn.
The Royals also designated three players for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster. Left-handed reliever Jake Brentz, who underwent elbow surgery in July, outfielder Brent Rooker and right-handed relief pitching prospect Nathan Webb were all designated for assignment.
With those slots available on the roster, the Royals added right-handed pitching prospect Alec Marsh, minor-league catcher Freddy Fermin and outfield prospect Diego Hernandez to the 40-man roster.
MLB teams have until 5 p.m. CT to set their 40-man roster/major league reserve list and protect players from next month’s Rule 5 Draft. Marsh, Fermin and Hernandez would have been exposed to the draft and possibly snatched by other organizations.
Marsh, a highly regarded prospect drafted in the competitive balance round of the 2019 MLB Draft, and Hernandez, an athletic left-handed former international signing out of the Dominican Republic, are both rated among the top prospects in the Royals farm system by Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com.
Fermin, a strong defender behind the plate, made his major-league debut this season when the Royals brought up a cadre of minor-league players for the road trip to Toronto while 10 players were on the restricted list due to the vaccination mandate to enter Canada.
The O’Hearn deal avoids arbitration and gives the Royals one less ball to juggle with the MLB non-tender deadline on Friday. His deal will pay him $1.4 million with an additional $250,000 in performance bonuses, according to a source with knowledge of the contract.
O’Hearn, a left-handed slugger who could benefit from the new rules banning infield shifts, is still under team control through 2024. This would’ve been his second of three arbitration-eligible years.
O’Hearn, who made his MLB debut in 2018, was one of only four players on the active roster for the entire 2022 season, though he played sparingly and primarily served as a bat off the bench. He played in 67 games and made 145 plate appearances. He led the Royals with 32 plate appearances as a pinch hitter, and he slashed .367/.406/.567 in that role. He led the majors with 11 pinch hits, which included his only home run of the season.
Brentz, Rooker and Webb are now eligible to be claimed off of waivers by another club. Though all 30 clubs are currently facing a similar roster crunch ahead of the MLB deadline.
Brentz made 72 appearances with a 3.66 ERA and 10.7 strikeouts per 9 innings in 2021. He’d been viewed as one of the key pieces at the back-end of the Royals’ bullpen entering the 2022 season.
Brentz struggled early in the season before going on the injured list. He tried to rest, rehab and return this season, but he ultimately had surgery. He was not expected to be ready to pitch again until late next season.
The Royals acquired Rooker in the trade that sent catcher Cam Gallagher to the San Diego Padres at the trade deadline in August. He appeared in 14 games (29 plate appearances) in the majors with the Royals.
Baseball America ranked Webb, a Missouri native and graduate of Lee’s Summit High School, the 26th-best prospect in the Royals’ system prior to this season. He struggled with injury and poor results this season, but he finished the year at Triple-A.
