The Royals came away from the deadline with some pitching help, but the names they didn’t move ended up casting the biggest shadow over the whole thing.
Kansas City had already accepted that Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo were probably staying put, even though both would have brought back meaningful returns for a retooling club. Then the Royals did manage to flip Lane Thomas on Saturday and injured Kris Bubic on Monday. But when the dust settled, the surprising part was how many other expiring pieces were still there.
Matt Strahm not finding a taker wasn’t a shock, especially with a mid-7.00s ERA. What stood out more was that John Schreiber and Starling Marte also remained on the roster. Neither was having a huge season, but both had enough going for them that a contender might have seen a useful deadline pickup.
Schreiber has been at -0.5 fWAR, but his 3.76 ERA points to a fifth straight full major league season with a sub-4.00 mark. He’s not the kind of pitcher you hand the ninth inning to, but his profile still makes sense in the middle frames.
His groundball rate sits in the 62nd percentile, and he’s done a good job beating his expected numbers. If you need someone to get through the fifth, sixth or seventh with runners on and a ground ball in order, he fits that lane.
Marte’s value was different, but still real. He’s a long way from the All-Star and Gold Glove version of himself with the Pirates and Mets, when he was a steadier power-speed threat.
Even so, there was still something to work with here as a bench bat. He’s hitting .250, and his barrel rate and bat speed both look average.
For a contender looking for a veteran reserve, that’s hardly nothing. And if he got out of what has been a putrid Royals offense, maybe there was a little more there to unlock at age 37.
At that point, even cash considerations or a player to be named later would have been better than nothing. That’s why it’s so hard to believe the Royals couldn’t get something done for Schreiber or Marte on deadline day.
To be fair, Kansas City did add some pitching depth. Lucas Braun gives them another name in the starting mix, while Carter Holton could be part of that picture later on.
Nolan Hoffman and Carlos Duran could help the bullpen right away, and the recent deal for Nate Pearson also nudges the staff forward. The pitching group is better than it was.
But none of those additions look like sure answers for the club’s competitive window, and all of them come with risk. Pearson and Hoffman were DFA’d by their previous teams, while Duran, Braun and Holton have little to no big league experience. So a lot of this is about projection, not proven major league performance.
That’s what makes the bigger picture so frustrating. It’s tough to imagine the Royals ever landing a truly game-changing return for rental players, and that problem starts with not moving Wacha or Lugo in the first place. But failing to cash in on all the rental options they had only adds to the missed opportunity.
Now the offseason matters even more. Kansas City’s last two more complacent offseasons already showed that leaning too heavily on the current roster isn’t enough.
They probably need more than a couple of tidy moves around the edges. They need multiple real splashes if they want to get back to where they were two years ago.
This deadline didn’t do much to push them in that direction.
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Royals Deadline Plans Could Reveal Who They Still Trust
The Royals are still sorting through what this stretch means for the rest of the season after a fourth straight loss pushed them 21 games below .500 heading into the trade deadline. Matt Quatraro sounded frustrated with the skid, but the bigger issue for Kansas City is how to navigate a roster hit by injuries to Bobby Witt Jr., Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic while also trying to keep the focus on what comes next. Recent trades involving Lane Thomas and Bailey Falter already signaled that the front office is willing to keep adjusting.
With more deadline movement still possible, Kansas Citys next decisions may say as much about who the club still believes in as about who it is ready to move on from. The Royals have been talking about adding younger players to the mix for the stretch run, which makes the coming days especially revealing because the choices are not just about selling, but about the kind of roster they want to build around the injuries and uncertainty they are dealing with now. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Deadline Approach Around Bobby Witt Jr. Just Got More Complicated
The Royals entered the trade deadline already trying to juggle injuries, roster churn and a club that still sees itself as very much in the race. Matt Quatraro has had to manage the ripple effects of Luinder Avila landing on the injured list while Kyle Isbel works back into the mix, a reminder that Kansas Citys immediate challenge is not just adding talent, but keeping enough of the current group intact to make the push around Bobby Witt Jr.
Even so, the front office has made one thing clear in the days leading up to the deadline: it is not looking at every veteran as a movable piece. The clubs stance on its pitching depth has made the market harder to read, and it leaves the Royals trying to balance present urgency with the longer view of a team that still believes its best stretch may be ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Michael Massey Has Royals Fans Debating His Long Term Role
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The question for Kansas City is whether that version of Massey can keep holding up over the long run. His low walk rate and high chase rate outside the zone leave plenty of room for pitchers to work him, even as he handles breaking balls well enough to stay dangerous. The bigger concern is how often 4-seam fastballs have given him trouble, since that one hole can shape the way teams decide to use him, and how fans ultimately view his place in the lineup. [Read more 🡒]