Revisiting preseason Royals trade ideas as the trade season approaches

I know it seems obvious in hindsight, but the Royals badly needed some extra offense coming in to this season. Oh, wait. We knew that even before the season started? And I wrote a whole piece suggesting potential trades? Well, how about that? I wonder if any of those trades would still look good?

First, remember, we’re trying to improve the outfield, but we’re not looking at any stars. Would Rafael Devers have looked good in Royal blue? Sure. But that’s not the type of player the Royals are likely to acquire.

So far, the Royals’ outfielders look like this (All statistics are as of Saturday, before any games had been played):

Drew Waters – 70 wRC+

John Rave – 30 wRC+

MJ Melendez – 7 wRC+

Hunter Renfroe – 31 wRC+

Mark Canha – 60 wRC+

Jac Caglianone – 60 wRC+

Nick Loftin – 80 wRC+

It would be ridiculously easy to be better than them.

Taylor Ward

Preseason trade proposal: RP Angel Zerpa, RP Hunter Harvey, C Carter Jensen

Ward continues to make a ton of sense for the Royals to acquire, but the Angels may not be in a selling mood anymore. They’re currently three games under .500, but that only puts them 7.5 games back from their division lead while the Royals, at .500, are 9.5 games back. Sure, the Royals are much closer to a Wild Card spot, but the Angels made a lot of moves in the offseason, hoping to replicate what the 2024 Royals did. They may not be ready to give up.

In the pre-season iteration of this article, I suggested the Royals could trade Hunter Harvey, Angel Zerpa, and Carter Jensen for him. Obviously, that trade would no longer work because Harvey is on the 60-day injured list and still hasn’t even begun a rehab assignment.

Ward still looks like an interesting target for the Royals. He only has a 98 wRC+, but that would lead the Royals outfielders by a lot. Ward has 19 home runs so far, which would more than double everyone but Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia. All the Royals outfielders combined have only managed nine home runs. His 7.7% walk rate would also be greater than any Royal outfielder.

So would the Royals still have to trade two top relievers and a high prospect to get him? Well, that’s where the news gets even better. According to Baseball Trade Values, Ward’s value is less than half what it was prior to the start of the season. If the Angels are finally willing to trade him, he should be much more attainable for KC.

Deadline trade proposal: RP Angel Zerpa, OF Drew Waters

Jac Caglianone isn’t going to stop getting playing time in KC unless he starts looking much worse at the plate than he has; that means if the Royals acquire someone like Ward, Waters will lose most of his playing time anyway. For the Angels, he’d offer more team control and something of a performance floor that might seem beneficial in a similar way to what he did to stabilize the Royals outfield when they finally gave him a shot over Renfroe and Melendez.

My opinions on Zerpa simply haven’t changed; he’s a guy who can look very good and very bad for stretches. Evan Sisk and Jonathan Bowlan are currently hanging out in the minors, and either of them can probably do just as well.

Cedric Mullins

Preseason trade proposal: RP Hunter Harvey

The Orioles are one of the few teams that, even in late June, look like clear deadline sellers. Originally, this trade was proposed with the idea that each team could trade from a position of strength. So Harvey would no longer make sense.

There is an additional complication, however. Mullins hasn’t sacrificed as much of his trade value as Ward because he’s been much better than anticipated with a 115 wRC+. If BTV is to be believed, the Royals would have to pay more to get half a season of Mullins than they would to get a season and a half of Ward. That doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense as an acquisition for the Royals. Especially when you account for the fact that a lot of his value is as a centerfielder and the Royals would have to shift either him or Isbel into a corner spot, thereby lessening their value.

Deadline trade proposal: SP Alec Marsh

No, I wouldn’t do this deal, but that’s the one BTV likes that would seem to make sense for an Orioles team starved for starting pitching and a Royals team that currently appears to have a surplus of it.

Heston Kjerstad

Preseason trade proposal: SP Alec Marsh

Yes, that’s right, in the preseason, I was willing to deal Marsh for Kjerstad. Marsh and Kjerstad each had more value then, as Marsh was not yet hurt and Kjerstad was more of an unknown with a prospect pedigree.

Do the Royals even still want Kjerstad? He has a 59 wRC+ in the majors this year. His walk rate and BABIP have cratered, his Baseball Savant page is covered in blue, and at 26 and past his rookie minimums, he’s no longer truly a prospect. He would be an interesting guy for a change of scenery attempt. But probably not a deadline acquisition

Deadline trade proposal: OF MJ Melendez or RP/SP Daniel Lynch IV (in the offseason)

The Orioles’ primary need continues to be pitching and maybe they think they could figure out how to get Lynch to succeed as a starter. Melendez for Kjerstad could also be a really interesting swap of outfielders who obviously aren’t going where they need to go in their respective franchises. The Orioles fixed failed Royal Ryan O’Hearn, maybe they can do the same for Melendez!

Neither of these trades are approved by BTV, but I’m not dealing anyone I think has real value for what Kjerstad has looked like so far this season. Maybe that means the Orioles wouldn’t do the deal, but I’d rather make no trade than give up too much for him.

Starling Marte

Preseason trade proposal: OF Hunter Renfroe, RP Hunter Harvey for OF Starling Marte, 3B Brett Baty

Despite all odds, Marte has been a productive hitter this year with a 119 wRC+. A lot of that is due to being hit by a whopping eight pitches in only 50 games played. I don’t think I’d want to count on that kind of production going forward, but even if you take them out he’s been far more productive than any outfield bat the Royals currently have.

Deadline trade proposal: UT Cavan Biggio

Marte’s value is still absolutely tanked by his massive contract, so if the Mets want anything of value, they’d have to pay for pretty all the remaining salary. Perhaps they’d just like to send a bat they’re not using a ton to KC for a super utility guy who can take a walk and credibly play five positions? I’m just spitballing here.

Adolis García

Preseason trade proposal: RP Angel Zerpa

García hasn’t been good this year. He wasn’t good last year. But, with a 92 wRC+, he’s been a lot better than the Royal outfielders, so he’d still be worth investigating.

Per BTV, he’s worth almost exactly what he’s expected to make this year and next year. So if the Rangers sell, he shouldn’t cost much at all. The question is whether the Rangers will sell. Even after getting swept by KC, they’re still hanging in the AL West and Wild Card pictures.

Deadline trade proposal: RP Daniel Lynch IV

If the Rangers do sell, they’re going to want someone with some control. Zerpa and Lynch both fit that bill, but Zerpa has been better and Lynch still seems like a guy somebody might want to try to turn into a starter. The Rangers gave up the much more valuable Michael Lorenzen last year for Walter Pennington and they didn’t even bother to keep Pennington. The Rangers DFA’d him at the end of April to make room on their 40-man roster, the Orioles claimed him, then they DFA’d him to make room on their roster, and no one claimed him, so they outrighted him to their AAA team. Lynch clearly has more value than the left-handed relief darling of last year, should be an easy deal.

Bonus: Kyle Stowers

In a recent article on The Athletic, writer Jim Bowden proposed a trade for the Royals.

Bowden’s trade proposal: SP David Shields, C Ramon Ramirez for OF Kyle Stowers

If you’d never heard of Stowers before, don’t worry, until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t either. But he’s been sensational for the Marlins this year, even though they’ve been terrible as a team. He’s slashing .273/.342/.462/.804, a 121 wRC+, for them at age 27 with team control all the way through the 2029 season. He doesn’t even get arbitration for one more year.

That said, he kind of looked like a dud in parts of the last three seasons. He swings and misses a lot, which leads to quite a few strikeouts. But he’ll also take some walks and he’s got ten dingers, seven of which would still have been out of Kauffman.

Stowers would be a great get for KC, Bowden has that right, but it would be insane to trade the Royals’ eighth- and tenth-best prospects per MLB pipeline for him. To say nothing of the fact that they’d be sixth and eighth if Caglianone and Noah Cameron had been removed from the list, yet.

Greco’s trade proposal: C Carter Jensen for OF Kyle Stowers

I understand that I balked at trading top prospects for him and then offered up the Royals’ third- or second-best. Unlike everyone else on this list, however, Stowers demands some real value in exchange for his services. And one top prospect is better than two.

Additionally, I continue to not believe in the long-term future of Carter Jensen, especially when the Royals have Blake Mitchell and Ramon Ramirez coming through the system at the same time. The power just isn’t there, and the batting average is powered by an insane BABIP. If the Royals could get a quasi-proven bat like Stowers for a guy who might never be more than a backup in the big leagues, they should absolutely do it.