STOP THE PRESSES

Zack Greinke just signed a 4-year extension with the Kansas City Royals.

I'm going to type that again.

Zack Greinke just signed a 4-year extension with the Kansas City Royals.

Honestly, I can't believe DM got this done. I suppose it speaks to his negotiating ability. I'm starting to think more and more that Rany was right when he said:

"And while all the motion this winter hasn’t produced a lot of movement, it has at least produced the perception of movement in the minds of a lot of people – and people who happen to play for the Kansas City Royals are likely to perceive the acquisitions of established major league players a lot more positively than you or I. I’m not sure the Royals are any better than they were at the end of last season, but if they look better to Zack Greinke, and that factors into his decision to sign a long-term deal, then suddenly you have to look at the acquisitions of Jacobs, Farnsworth, Bloomquist et al in a much different light."

I feel like this is exactly what happened with Zack. He saw that his team was making moves that appear to be moving the team in the right direction, regardless of whether they are objectively positive moves. Your average player won't know too much about sabermetrics or why Mike Jacobs' 32 HRs in a lineup are worth significantly less than one would think due to his horrendous on-base capabilities, but he does know that he hit 32 homeruns last year, and that stat shows up on the backs of all the baseball cards.

Suddenly, all of Dayton's confusing and downright questionable moves this offseason don't look as bad. They now start to look like bridge players to serve the dual purpose of encouraging KC's young talent that the front office is trying to make this team a contender again and fill stopgap roles until players like Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Kila Ka'aihue, Tim Melville, and others are ready to be everyday ML contributors (Kila is likely already there).

Dayton, you have regained the trust of much of the Royals fanbase. Congratulations on this move, and congrats to Zack.

One further note: Taylor and I met Zack and Kila at one of the Royals Caravan events. I will post pictures as soon as I get them uploaded.