Bruce Chen, Kansas City Royals reach two-year $9 million deal – MLB News
To increase the strength of their bullpen, the American League central club, Kansas City Royals have agreed to a two-year $9 million deal with promising left-hander pitcher Bruce Chen on Wednesday in Kansas City. A person familiar with deal agreed to give
information on the condition of anonymity as the club has not announced the information yet.
Chen will receive a total of $11 million as $2 million has been added an incentives, while he will get $4.5 million each year.
"Bruce has been our most consistent pitcher over the last two years," Royals’ general manager Dayton Moore said. "He's someone we count on -- for not only his leadership, but his ability to be a consistent performer in our rotation."
It is a great raise for Chen, who received $2 million this past season with only $1.5 million incentives. 34-year-old Chen will appear in physical test next week before the deal is announced, according to sources. Last year, as Chen had to rest a whole month
because of the strain problem, the Royals will be looking to assess his enthusiasm for the coming season. However, his performance at the end of the season forced the club to raise his pay. He tossed eight shut-out innings against the Minnesota Twins in the
final outing of the season.
His performance had also forced a couple of clubs to get him a deal, but the Royals did not feel like allowing him. The Royals’ general manager Dayton Moore expressed his ambition to develop a devastating rotation. Danny Duffy, Luke Hochevar, Felipe Paulino
and Sanchez are in the front row while Mike Montgomery, Vin Mazzaro, Nate Adcock, Everett Teaford and Luis Mendoza are likely to come in for the pitcher.
"We'll continue to look," Moore said. "I mean Chen, Sanchez and Hochevar probably solidified themselves in our rotation. But we've got competition with Paulino, Duffy, Crow, Teaford, Mendoza and Montgomery -- and we're still going to be very open-minded
and aggressive to continue to add pitching."
Chen has been playing in Major League Baseball for the last 13 years. However, he did not stick to one team for more than two years and played for ten different clubs. In his past two seasons, the right-hander has shown his consistency with the Royals, getting
12-7 two years ago and 12-8 this past season.
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