This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

KANSAS CITY -- At the end of a 106-loss season in 2023, the Royals stated their desire to compete in the near future and to surround their young core -- specifically Bobby Witt Jr. -- with pieces to help them win.

But it can’t be easy to lure free agents to a team that is trying to pull itself out of a rebuild, even with a superstar like Witt on its roster. And the Royals aren’t even shopping in the upper tier of available players. The Royals have to sell players on a vision, as opposed to the win-now pitch (and massive contracts) from teams like the Dodgers and Yankees.

“When you’re coming off the season we came off of, trying to pinpoint who you want and why we would be appealing to them was where we had to close the gap a little bit,” general manager J.J. Picollo said.

• Lugo brings 'special gift' to Royals' rotation

There were plenty of factors that helped close that gap in order to bring right-handed starter Seth Lugo to Kansas City.

One of the main factors was opportunity. The 34-year-old proved he could be a starter this past season with the Padres, and he wanted another chance to be in a rotation. With the Royals, he not only gets a chance, but he’ll be considered one of their top starters. Another factor was location, with Kansas City being in the middle of the country and easier travel to his family in Louisiana.

Then the conversation turned to the upside of the Royals. Playing with Witt has been a major talking point for the Royals with players they’re trying to bring in, according to sources -- something the team is not surprised about, given the 23-year-old’s breakout season, but an exciting point to realize. The respect Witt has garnered from his peers in two seasons is impressive.

“You look at some of the young guys on this club, they’re future superstars,” Lugo said. “You’ve got Salvador [Perez] back there behind the dish. The experience he’s got -- right before I got to the big leagues, it was Royals-Mets in the World Series. So seeing what the organization has, it seemed like a great fit for us.”

Lugo bought into the Royals’ vision of surrounding their young core with veteran players who have different experiences throughout the game. It didn’t hurt that they had also just signed reliever Will Smith over the weekend. One of the more respected players in the game, Smith has been on the past three World Series champion teams -- the 2021 Braves, the ‘22 Astros and this year’s Rangers.

It seems as though his presence and voice have sparked quite a bit of interest in what the Royals are trying to achieve. And the Royals aren’t done adding, either. Reliever Chris Stratton’s deal should become official soon, and the Royals are interested in bringing in one more starter and an outfield bat.

“Seth’s been on a long journey with the Mets and then San Diego, so I think he understands that this takes a little bit of time,” Picollo said. “If you can take some players who have Major League experience and they see the pieces that are in place, we become a little more attractive. And when we signed Will over the weekend, that might have been an indication to other free agents that the Royals are willing to go out there and get players who have experienced the postseason and maybe that jump-started it a little bit.

“We have Will and now Seth, others may have interest in coming to Kansas City as well.”

Of course, there’s another part of it we can’t ignore: Money. Lugo’s third year of the contract is a player option worth $15 million. There’s a lot of risk there for the Royals, depending on how the next two years play out.

But it’s what had to be done to get Lugo to come to Kansas City.

“For us, it was more important to secure the player than to worry about three years from now,” Picollo said. “If that’s what was going to be needed to break the tie, then it was a concession we were willing to make. That kind of put it over the top -- there were other things, too, but that’s a lot of security for a player. There’s guaranteed money that extends three years, and if for whatever reason, he wanted to get out of it, he could. We felt like that’s what we needed to do.”

To be clear, the Royals feel confident in a three-year contract. Even though Lugo is already 34 years old, he’s got a young arm after his years in the bullpen. He set a career high in innings this past season at 146 1/3.

“It’s a really interesting journey that he’s been on, so I think he’s ready to explode at this point,” manager Matt Quatraro said.