The Royals may have already made one deadline move by sending outfielder Lane Thomas to the Braves, but the bigger question is whether they’re willing to part with a pair of starting pitchers other teams want badly.
For now, the answer sounds like no.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported over the weekend that Kansas City has drawn “a ton of interest” in Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo, only to turn away those offers because the club believes both arms are needed to stay competitive next year. That news hit a nerve with fans, especially after the Royals were swept by the Rockies in Denver and the club remains 20 games under .500.
The reaction has been sharp. Lugo is 36 and Wacha is 35, and plenty of fans are looking past the present toward a possible rebuild. Some are also worried about a labor dispute that could wipe out the 2027 season, which only adds to the sense that the club should be selling now.
Former baseball writer Jeffrey Flanagan made that case publicly on X, saying: “The Royals truly must sell their assets before the deadline and refocus on building toward the 27-28-29 seasons leading into 2030 and the new stadium. 2024 was nice but chasing that success is a fool’s gold. Start with seeing if (Steven) Cruz is your closer of the future. Nothing to lose.”
But after the Thomas deal, general manager J.J. Picollo laid out why the Royals may be far less eager to move starters who remain under club control beyond this season. In a Zoom session with reporters, he essentially pointed to three roadblocks: the lack of obvious replacements, the kind of return Kansas City would want, and the organization’s belief that pitching remains central to its future.
Picollo’s first point was simple enough: the Royals don’t have many ready-made answers waiting behind Wacha or Lugo, and that same logic applies to other important pieces like Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia if their names ever came up. If you trade from a spot where there’s no depth, you create another hole.
His second point was about return value. Kansas City would want major-league players back, not a package built mostly around prospects, because the team still sees itself as a contender for the 2027 playoffs.
And the third reason is the biggest one of all: the Royals still view pitching as the backbone of what they’re trying to build. If they move another starter or bullpen arm, Picollo said, the front office would be staring at a mountain of work this offseason.
Here’s Picollo’s full answer to the question:
“If you’re dealing from a position of depth, then that’s a different story. The example I can use is Freddie Fermin last year.
The reason why we were comfortable trading Freddie is because we felt like Carter (Jensen) was ready to step in on a team that we felt was ready to compete. So when you look at Wacha, you look at Lugo, Bobby and Maikel and you name the guys that whoever you want to put in there.
But there’s a core of players that we believe in, and pitching is still going to determine what our successes are in the future. And if we end up moving another starter, another bullpen piece, now we have a lot of work to do this offseason.
We don’t mind the work, but then there’s the reality of how much can you actually get done? So to go get another four starters, say, to go get another five bullpen arms, that may be more than what we can really do.
“So we have to be realistic. And if Michael Wacha wasn’t good, if Seth Lugo wasn’t good, if Noah Cameron wasn’t good, that’s different.
But we believe in those players. We think they can help us compete to win our division and get in the playoffs.
So they’re a big part of what we’re trying to do, and that’s the biggest reason why we may hold their value higher than teams do, and what they would give up for them. And typically, in deals like that, it’s not always the case.
“But you’ve got to remember too, right now, the teams that are going to try to acquire those players, they don’t want to trade off of their major-league team right now either. They want to trade prospects. So prospects right now, while they are good at times for where we are in our timeline, getting a bunch of prospects back isn’t the most ideal thing for guys that have such a prominent role in your team.”
Picollo didn’t spell it out directly, but the Royals’ 2027 rotation without Wacha and Lugo would be a thin one. In theory, it could feature Noah Cameron, Luinder Avila, Stephen Kolek, Mitch Spence and Lucas Braun, with a free-agent signing also in the mix - maybe Randy Dobnak.
The injury situation only makes the picture murkier. Kris Bubic is on the 60-day IL and will be an unrestricted free agent, while Cole Ragans had elbow surgery in July. For Kansas City, that’s a big reason the front office is treating pitching like something it can’t afford to give away lightly.
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