Royals’ Rotation Depth Faces Diminishing Trade Market as Options Dry Up
The Kansas City Royals entered the offseason with a rare luxury: a surplus of starting pitching. In a league where quality arms are always at a premium, that kind of depth can be a powerful bargaining chip-especially for a team looking to round out its lineup and take the next step forward with a promising young core.
But as January winds down, that surplus is starting to feel more like a logjam than leverage.
What once looked like a seller’s market for pitching has cooled considerably. Trade partners are disappearing, one by one, as teams across the league fill their rotations and cross off needs. The Royals, meanwhile, are left holding valuable arms with fewer places to send them.
Take last week, for example. Kansas City had been linked to potential deals involving the Boston Red Sox and St.
Louis Cardinals-targets like Jarren Duran and Brendan Donovan had reportedly been floated in conversations. But according to Ken Rosenthal, those talks have lost momentum.
While there may still be a flicker of hope with Donovan, the window to strike a deal appears to be closing.
Then came a pair of dominoes that really shifted the landscape.
First, the New York Mets made a bold move, swinging a blockbuster deal with the Milwaukee Brewers to acquire Freddy Peralta-one of the top arms available on the trade market-and Tobias Myers, another big-league-ready starter. That’s two rotation spots filled in one night by a team that might’ve otherwise been a fit for Kansas City.
Barely 24 hours later, another potential trade partner vanished from the board. The Texas Rangers, who had been seen as a logical destination for one of the Royals’ starters, made a surprise splash by acquiring MacKenzie Gore from the Washington Nationals. Gore, still in his arbitration years, gives Texas a cost-controlled, high-upside arm-exactly the profile Kansas City could’ve offered.
For the Royals, the Rangers’ move stings a little more than most. Not only had there been speculation about Texas’ financial flexibility-especially after they shed Marcus Semien’s $26 million salary in a deal for Brandon Nimmo-but there was also a track record of recent trades between the two front offices.
Under Chris Young’s leadership in Arlington, the Rangers sent both Cole Ragans and Michael Lorenzen to Kansas City. The relationship was there.
The need was there. The fit made sense.
And yet, the Rangers went another direction.
It’s not hard to see why. Gore’s $5.6 million salary for 2026 is manageable, and his upside remains tantalizing. For Texas, it was a chance to address a rotation that’s been hit hard by injuries and inexperience, without giving up the farm or taking on a hefty contract.
As for the Royals, it means heading back to the drawing board.
Kris Bubic, an All-Star entering the final year of team control, remains a logical trade candidate. So do some of the younger arms who offer multiple years of affordability and upside. But with key suitors now off the board, Kansas City may have to dig deeper to find the right match-or risk entering spring training with more starters than rotation spots.
That’s not the worst problem to have. But in a winter where the Royals had a real chance to turn strength into balance, the shrinking market makes it a little harder to pull off the kind of deal that could elevate their roster in 2026.
The arms are there. The question now is whether the opportunity still is.