The Kansas City Royals insist that losing Ervin Santana in free agency this winter isn't a foregone conclusion.

"Look at what happened last year with Kyle Lohse," one top club official said. "You never know what's going to happen."

Lohse was projected to be one of the top pitchers on the free agent market, but when the St. Louis Cardinals tendered him a one-year qualifying offer the price to sign him increased. His new team also had to surrender a draft pick.

"We're going to do the best we can to put as many quality guys as we can in that rotation," Dayton Moore said. "We feel like we've got a lot of really good internal options.

"We're really proud of what Ervin did for us, and we're going to be excited to see if we can get him under contract. But we've got to prepare for all different scenarios. That's what Erv is doing as well."