The Royals were trade deadline winners

A few hours on from the trade deadline, and I’m still thinking the Royals came out just fine. About as good as could have been expected, really, given that they approached this deadline as buyers.

They dealt from their one position of strength: Catcher. They restocked their rotation by adding one arm with some solid upside in Ryan Bergert and a couple other back of the rotation guys in Stephen Kolek and Bailey Falter. And they found a platoon partner in the outfield in adding Mike Yastrezemski to their previous acquisition of Randal Grichuk. And they also reunited with glue guy Adam Frazier.

I was skeptical that the Royals would be buyers at the deadline. The odds are too long, and there are too many other teams ahead of the Royals in the standings. Yet they most definitely were buyers. No, they didn’t get the impact type of bat they desperately need, but the cost at the deadline would’ve been too steep. Instead, JJ Picollo and crew did some patchwork with an eye to the future. The pitchers acquired are all under club control for the next several seasons. The hitters will all be departing as free agents in November.

The focus is clear: Compete now and continue to look toward the future. It’s a difficult line to straddle. Are the Royals a better team today than they were a day ago? I think the answer is obvious. Yes, they’re better. Did they, in improving their team, jeopardize their future? I’m a bit edgy about dealing away Yunior Marte, but he’s a 21-year-old right-handed pitcher in High-A. Prospects are speculative. Plus, TINSTAPP, you know. (There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect.) Marte may turn into something down the road. He may not.

So the answer to the latter question is, no, they did not jeopardize their future. The starting rotation has been shored up and the outfield is improved.

This was a very good trade deadline for Picollo and the Royals. I think they’re among the winners in this edition of the trade deadline.

I’ve written quite a bit over the last few days. Just in case you’ve missed something, here is my instant analysis of the trades that went down on Thursday.

Deadline dealing! The Royals are buyers as they make three trades

The Royals and General Manager JJ Picollo got in on the trade deadline action by making a couple of trades for starting pitching. In the first deal of the day, the Royals spun catcher Freddy Fermin to San Diego in exchange for right-handed pitchers Ryan Bergert and Steven Kolek. They followed that up by dealing reliever Evan Sisk and first baseman Calla…

Into The FountainsCraig Brown

And my recap from Wednesday’s game where the Royals used a Major League record nine pitchers to record a shutout against the Atlanta Braves.

A total bullpen effort

In Wednesday’s series finale against Atlanta, both starting pitchers allowed just a single hit.

Into The FountainsCraig Brown

As always, thank you for reading, subscribing and sharing with your Royal friends.

In those articles, you’ll see that I mentioned the Royals rotation and how it was setting up for the upcoming series in Toronto. Michael Wacha will start Friday, with Seth Lugo on Sunday. Saturday was left open.

After the dust settled, the Royals announced Noah Cameron will take the ball on Saturday. That pretty much lines up with his normal turn. Either one of the guys the Royals got from San Diego could’ve gone on normal or more than normal rest on Saturday, but I assume they want them to get settled after what I’m sure was a whirlwind day for them on Thursday.

There is still some roster maneuvering that needs to be done. The Royals have fit all four newcomers onto their 40-man roster. They were able to do this via the subtraction of Freddy Fermin and by moving Kris Bubic to the 60-day IL. Not a surprising move given they announced earlier this week that he would be shut down for the rest of the season.

They also designated Joey Wiemer, whom they acquired last winter in the Jonathan India for Brady Singer deal, for assignment. Wiemer, never got on track for Omaha. In 296 PAs this season, he’s hit just .182/.291/.312 with a 27 percent strikeout rate. Add it all together and that’s a 60 wRC+. That’s 40 percent worse than the average hitter in the International League. That’s not going to cut it.

Next, the Royals will have to sort who gets added to the active 26-man roster. Currently, their roster page has Kolek listed as a player in the “minors.” He’s also on the Omaha Storm Chasers roster page. I think that may be a clue!

So the Royals will have to make moves to get Yastrezemski, Falter and Bergert on the team. I don’t think it will be difficult. Jonathan Bowlan and Thomas Hatch will be the guys going down on the pitching side. As for the hitter, I’m thinking it will be MJ Melendez. Duh.

Let’s wrap up today with a recap of what the other teams in the Central did at the deadline.

Twins

• Traded SS Carlos Correa and $30M cash to the Houston Astros for LHP Matt Mikulski
• Traded RHP Jhoan Duran to the Philadelphia Phillies for C Eduardo Tait and RHP Mick Abel
• Traded RHP Griffin Jax to the Tampa Bay Rays for RHP Taj Bradley
• Traded OF Harrison Bader to the Philadelphia Phillies for OF Hendry Mendez and RHP Geremy Villoria
• Traded UTIL Willi Castro to the Chicago Cubs for RHP Sam Armstrong and RHP Ryan Gallagher
• Traded RHP Louis Varland and 1B Ty France to the Toronto Blue Jays for LHP Kendry Rojas and OF Alan Roden
• Traded RHP Brock Stewart to the Los Angeles Dodgers for OF James Outman
• Traded LHP Danny Coulombe to the Texas Rangers for LHP Garrett Horn
• Traded RHP Chris Paddack and RHP Randy Dobnak to the Detroit Tigers for C Enrique Jimenez

The Twins, who have been on the market for new ownership for nine months, sold everything that wasn’t bolted down…or on the IL. They dealt away their biggest free agent signing in franchise history in Correa. They shipped off their five best relievers. They traded over a third of their active roster.

And they got back an 18-year-old catcher, Eduardo Tait, who is the consensus second-best prospect dealt at the deadline. Mick Abel was the Phillies number five prospect. Both those guys were the return for Duran.

That’s basically it.

I feel like I rip on the Twins in this space. It’s a way to entertain myself. Yet I can’t help but feel for the fans of this team. Nobody deserves this. I know the team disappointed this year, but that was down to the front office and the ownership that had them hold the status quo all winter long. They did absolutely nothing to improve their team and the result is now an absolute fire sale. Shame on everyone involved in this debacle. It’s on par with the mess around the Sacramento A’s.

Guardians

• Traded RHP Shane Bieber to the Toronto Blue Jays for RHP Khal Stephen
• Traded RHP Paul Sewald to the Detroit Tigers for a PTBNL

The deadline was supposed to be the Emmanuel Clase Sweepstakes, but a gambling probe scotched that. Then, there were rumors around outfielder Steven Kwan. I didn’t quite understand that because, even though the Guardians are a notoriously parsimonious organization, Kwan is relatively inexpensive for the production he provides on both sides of the ball. I figured if the Guardians moved on from anyone, it would be first baseman Carlos Santana, who is their second-highest earner on the team.

Cleveland basically stood pat. Their only trade of note was rehabbing starter Bieber who has made four rehab starts covering 11.1 innings in his comeback from Tommy John surgery. The early returns are promising as he’s struck out 21 and walked just one.

Stephen is a decent return, especially if Bieber doesn’t exercise his player option for next year. Baseball America had the righty as the Blue Jays fifth-best prospect.

Tigers

• Acquired RHP Charlie Morton from the Baltimore Orioles for LHP Micah Ashman
• Acquired RHP Kyle Finnegan from the Washington Nationals for RHP Josh Randall and RHP R.J. Sales
• Acquired RHP Paul Sewald from the Cleveland Guardians for a PTBNL
• Traded RHP Matt Manning to the Philadelphia Phillies for OF Josueth Quiñonez
• Acquired RHP Codi Heuer from the Texas Rangers for cash considerations
• Acquired RHP Rafael Montero from the Atlanta Braves for INF Jim Jarvis
• Acquired RHP Chris Paddack and RHP Randy Dobnak from the Minnesota Twins for C Enrique Jimenez

A lot of moves for a bunch of meh. The Tigers got a couple of starters and a handful of relievers, but none of these moves make you take notice. They acted more like a team that already has the Champagne on ice and ready to go once the Central is locked up than a team looking to make noise in the postseason. I have a feeling they’ll regret playing it safe when they’re wiped out in the ALDS in a couple of months.

White Sox

• Traded RHP Adrian Houser to the Tampa Bay Rays for INF Curtis Mead, RHP Duncan Davitt and RHP Benjamin Peoples
• Traded OF Austin Slater to the New York Yankees for RHP Gage Ziehl
• Traded OF Andrew Vaughn to the Brewers for RHP Aaron Civale

Luis Robert Jr. was supposed to be traded. That was last winter. Or the previous trade deadline. Or the winter before that. Or the 2023 trade deadline. I don’t know, man. All I know is the White Sox hold on to their best player, who is now in his second consecutive season of underperformance.

As I wrote earlier this week, at the end of the deadline, both Robert and General Manager Chris Getz will still be in Chicago.

I will point out that Andrew Vaughn was hitting .189/.218/.314 with a -1.8 bWAR for Chicago. In the 16 games since he’s been freed, he’s hit .365/.426/.731, which is good for a 0.8 bWAR.

The Chicago White Sox are the toxic waste dump of Major League Baseball.