Lopez signed a one-year, $3.7 million contract with the Royals on Friday to avoid arbitration, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports.
A case could have been made for Lopez to be a non-tender candidate after he had one of the worst seasons at the plate as a regular in recent memory with a .227/.281/.273 batting line in 2022. However, he's still excellent defensively and the Royals will hope he can regain his form from 2021 when he slashed .300/.365/.378. Lopez is slated to compete with Michael Massey for playing time at second base and offers depth at third behind the perpetually injured Adalberto Mondesi (knee).