Royals Considering Suppan

Talks with Miguel Batista are cooling down, and some reports say that he may be headed to Seattle. So, it sounds like the Royals are turning their sites to Jeff Suppan—which I’ve been in favor of since he became a free agent after the season ended. As I said about Suppan during the first Royals Roundtable over at Royal Ingenuity:

I’d love to see Moore resign Jeff Suppan. The guy is a rock in any rotation he joins and right now, the Royals are in desperate need of such. You can pencil Suppan in for 30+ starts and 190 innings every season. And the guy knows how to win. He’s won 106 career games—39 of which came in a Royals uniform. He cost the Cardinals $4 million last season, and he’s sure to garner more after the post season he had, but if we were willing pay Paul Byrd $7.5 million to be a Royal before last season, we’d darn sure better be willing to pay a guy like Suppan that amount of money.

Well, as you know, the winter meetings blew salaries all out of proportion after they’d been kept in check in recent seasons, so Suppan’s stock went up as guys like Gil Meche received $11 million per year. Sounds like Suppy may cost the Royals around that same price if they hope to ink him. Is he worth that much? Who is to say? But if Gil Meche is worth that much, then Suppan is as well.