Royals Sign Hochevar

Well, Dayton Moore has gone and done it. He signed Luke Hochevar to a four-year major league contract—making Hochevar the fourth number one selection in the last twenty years to be awarded a spot on the 40-man roster. Other terms of the four-year deal weren’t released, but an article running on he Royals’ website says that Hochevar is “believed to have received a guaranteed $5.2 million over the length of the contract with incentives” which “could boost” the contract “to about $7 million.”

I love the fact that we finally got Hochevar signed. With the minor league baseball season set to shut down in a few weeks, at least Hochevar will get a few innings under his belt in our system. But this business of giving him a guaranteed roster spot really irritates me. The three other number one picks in the last twenty years to get such honors were Alex Rodriguez (1993), Pat Burrell (1998), and Delmon Young (2003). Rodriguez wasn’t playing fulltime for the Mariners until 1996. Burrell didn’t play at the major league level with the Phillies until 2000. And Young has put up impressive numbers in the Devil Rays farm system, but he has yet to get an at bat with Tampa Bay.

Maybe Hochevar didn’t give Moore any options. Maybe it was a guaranteed roster spot, or he’d sit out another season. If that’s true, I guess Moore made the right decision, but I still don’t like it. But now that the deal is done, let’s forget about the details. I want the guy in uniform and I want to see what he’s got. If he’s as good as he’s made out to be, our rotation may be a year or so away from finally having a legitimate ace for the first time in over a decade.