Royals Trade Targets - May Edition
The Royals have firmly moved into the "obvious buyer" position after a great stretch of baseball, so who can they add at the deadline?
When I did this exercise last month, the Royals were 9-14 and many people were perplexed about how I could possibly even consider the Royals as buyers. I’m not saying I knew what was coming (16-6 and counting), but I believed they had earned the benefit of the doubt with their 2024 season. Plus, with their pitching and the fact that pretty much no offense was that bad, I figured they’d bank some wins and get back to respectable. And with that pitching, it would almost be irresponsible to not do everything possible to get them help. Anyway, here we are, a little less than a month later, and they’re in a good spot.
In this week’s Kauffman Corner, we looked at why the Royals are struggling with runners in scoring position (and why there’s reason for optimism). We also discussed Lucas Erceg and his role, if Kris Bubic can pull a Seth Lugo and finish in the top-five for the AL Cy Young and what the Cardinals series means now compared to the past.
What’s maybe changed a bit is that they’ve gotten some production that they weren’t getting before. Maikel Garcia has the looks of at least an everyday player and maybe more than that. Drew Waters has come up and hit. I still have plenty of doubts about him due to the swing and miss and the chase, but he’s helped to stabilize things quite a bit. Salvador Perez started hitting a lot closer to his expected stats even with some struggles since the hip injury. Vinnie Pasquantino is hitting much better even if he’s not quite right. Jonathan India is getting on base. Yes, there are still holes, but with other guys playing more to the back of their baseball cards, it allows the Royals a little patience.
I’ll break it down by infield, outfield, starting pitching and bullpen help. And yes, I don’t care how good the Royals pitching is. There’s always room for more. As usual, the players will be listed alphabetically.
Infield
Nolan Arenado
This is the first of a handful of Cardinals players on the list, and I’ll say that if the deadline was tomorrow, they’re not trading anyone because they’re competing. And they may continue to compete, but as I say every time I do one of these, I’m trying to be thorough and, as recently as two weeks ago, they were surefire sellers, so here we are. With Arenado, I wouldn’t do it. The batted ball metrics aren’t great and he’s still owed a lot of money. But he’s out there and he’s had a solid start offensively while still playing quality defense at third.
Bo Bichette
As I wrote last month, Bichette is an interesting trade candidate. He’ll be a free agent after the season and if the Blue Jays can’t get him signed and aren’t competing, they’d be silly not to shop him. He hasn’t shown much power this year after a pretty terrible season in 2024, so there is a risk here with Bichette, but if he could shift to second or third, he could provide a nice showcase for himself for teams that don’t see him as a shortstop, which might be a lot of teams. He’s also a player who has some batted ball metrics indicating he’s been a bit unfortunate this year. I think this would be a very interesting addition for the Royals.
Brandon Lowe
I’m not sure the Royals want to acquire another lefty hitting second baseman with some injury questions, but the upside in Lowe is a middle-of-the-order bat they could use. He hasn’t hit much this year, but he’s put up a .200+ ISO in each of the last two seasons and is playing quality defense at second base this year. It’s also the least year of his deal, so there’s no commitment beyond the end of this season. I’m not sure it’s a great fit, but he could be a buy low candidate if you believe in the batted ball metrics.