Kansas City Royals announced on Tuesday that they have agreed to a two-year deal with first baseman Carlos Santana.
While Royals declined to give details on financial terms, Santana will reportedly earn $17.5 million in the next two seasons. He can increase his salary further via various bonuses.
Santana joins Royals after Cleveland Indians rejected the club option on his contract and made him a free agent. The 34-year-old veteran played 60 games in the shortened 2020 MLB season but struggled to be impactful as he batted .199 while contributing with eight home runs and 30 RBIs.
Still, Kansas City hopes that Carlos Santana can re-discover his form from some of the previous seasons when he was playing on an All-Star form. He is just one year removed from his career-best outing in 2019 when he sported a .281 batting average with 34 homers and 94 RBIs.
“One of our objectives this offseason was to add a middle-of-the-order bat, someone that would blend in well with our current group, make us a lot better,” said Royals general manager Dayton Moore of the move. “Carlos certainly does that.”
Bringing in Santana is the latest move in the Royals’ surprisingly busy offseason. They previously brought in reliever Mike Minor and outfielder Michael Taylor while also locking the majority of their arbitration-eligible players to new contracts.
