Royals fans made their deadline feelings pretty clear: this team should be active.
In this week’s SB Nation Reacts survey, 92% of respondents said the Royals need to trade at least three players before the deadline. That kind of number leaves little room for debate, even if the split gets a little more interesting once the list of possible trade chips gets longer.
The surprising part wasn’t that fans wanted movement. It was that the group pushing for five or more trades wasn’t even bigger.
When the poll was first put together, the full scope of the Royals’ tradeable pieces wasn’t immediately obvious, and the added list of candidates only sharpened the picture. Once those names were laid out, the case for a busy deadline became pretty easy to see.
There are at least four healthy players in the expiring-contract category, and that number climbs to five if Bubic can get his act together. That helps explain why nearly as many voters were comfortable keeping everyone as were calling for at least one move. Still, the biggest bloc landed on five or more, and that’s where the loudest argument sits.
The bullpen, in particular, looks like the obvious place to start. The view here is that the Royals should empty it out.
None of the relievers has done enough to feel like a must-keep for next season, and if any of them can bring back real value - even if that value comes in the form of young pitchers who could become relief weapons later - then the Royals ought to move them. Steven Cruz and Beck Way are the only relievers who draw much interest for a return next year, and Luinder Avila also fits into that conversation if you count him as a reliever.
Michael Wacha is the other name that stands out. Lugo probably doesn’t carry much trade value at this point, but Wacha is still at what looks like the peak of his market. The argument for moving him is straightforward: if the Royals can turn him into help for multiple spots, or into one really strong prospect, they should do it and then try to replace him with a similarly savvy free-agent signing this offseason.
That said, the expectation is that Kansas City would need to be blown away to actually deal Wacha. The recent track record suggests that kind of offer doesn’t come around often for this front office, so he may well stay put.
If that happens, it won’t necessarily be a disaster. But if the Royals keep Wacha and also hang onto all of their controllable relievers, that’s a combination that would test a lot of patience.
In Other News...
Royals Face Painful Deadline Call On Salvador Perez And Lucas Erceg
As the trade deadline approaches, the Royals are sorting through the usual mix of expiring deals, bigger contracts and the hard part of any sell-or-hold decision: protecting the young core that is supposed to define the next stage of the franchise. The temptation to turn veterans into future value is always there, but Kansas Citys most meaningful pieces are the ones it should be least eager to move.
Salvador Perez sits at the center of that conversation because of what he still means to the organization, even as injuries and uneven production have made this a tougher season at the plate. Lucas Erceg is a different kind of call, with his struggles this year raising the question of whether the Royals should cash in on a reliever with value elsewhere or keep him in place and trust the track record to reassert itself in Kansas City. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Cannot Afford To Wait On This Core Decision Much Longer
The Cardinals just handed rookie JJ Wetherholt an eight-year extension, a reminder of how quickly a club can lock in a young core piece when it believes the player is ready. For the Royals, that kind of decision is starting to hover over a few of their own young names, especially catcher Carter Jensen, whose rise has turned him from a prospect to a real part of the conversation about the next wave in Kansas City.
Jensens recent work has made the case louder, and the Royals also have to sort through other possible long-term fits in Jac Caglianone and Noah Cameron. Caglianones bat still comes with questions, while Camerons place in the rotation is complicated by an uneven season, but the larger issue is timing: if Kansas City believes any of these players are part of the foundation, waiting too long could make the price only go up. [Read more 🡒]