Royals - Signed Olivo

Terms are undisclosed, but I'm guessing it's a fairly inexpensive contract, as I'm giving Moore the benefit of the doubt and assuming that Olivo's the backup catcher, which is something the Royals probably wouldn't be interested in paying through the nose for. The Royals could do far worse for a backup catcher and if you look at the catching depth in the upper levels of the system, they would have. A lot of teams, with a reasonable defensive starting catcher, would probably do better with a player like Adam Melhuse or Tom Wilson were years ago, but with Greinke and Bannister and eventually, Hochevar and some others, the Royals might be smarter to have a good defensive plan B behind Buck.

2008 ZiPS Projection - Miguel Olivo
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              AB   R    H  2B 3B  HR RBI  BB  SO  SB    BA   OBP   SLG   OPS+  RAR  DR   WMV ($M)
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Projection   410  50  102  20  2  13  58  15  96   5  .249  .281  .402    76     4   3   $1.75
2009?        405  48  100  19  1  12  57  13  97   4  .247  .277  .388    72     1   2   $1.28 
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Opt. (15%)   441  64  121  25  4  17  68  21  94   8  .274  .316  .465   101    20   5    
Pes. (15%)   362  37   81  15  1  10  42   9  94   3  .224  .246  .354    55    -7   0     
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Top Offensive Comps:  Jim Hegan, Chris Widger