53 Comments

"Now excuse me while I go scour the recently DFAed list to figure out who the return will be for them." ZING!

Great line Dave.

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They write themselves sometimes!

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Braves just DFA'd Charlie Culberson. Trade Barlow for him??????

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I figured it'd be more Phil Bickford, but Culberson works too.

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That trade hurt my ancestors’ feelings.

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To add to the unsettling trade made yesterday, Amir Garrett is essentially the same player, and probably better than Hearn, and we just dfa'd him. We just traded something of little value for something of zero value. It can't be made to make sense.

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You're not wrong about that. It's all incredibly puzzling.

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Well stated. I’ll add to your angst about the trade. Keep in mind Hearn was DFAed by the Rangers, who are desperately searching for pitching, about a week ago. He cleared waivers, which means neither the Rangers nor the other 29 teams, including the Royals, wanted him on their 40 man roster then. The Braves then acquired him for an insignificant amount of money and converted him into Nicky Lopez, a serviceable MLB player with several not great but decent years ahead of him. Is it any wonder why the Braves have the best record in baseball and the Royals have the second worst? I agree that Sherman should clean out the front office and start over. But maybe Sherman is the real problem.

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Sherman may or may not be the problem. I tend to think not. But also, he's the owner and isn't going anywhere, so we can argue until we're blue in the face about it, but it doesn't matter. Make the right moves with the personnel both on and off the field and it doesn't matter. I'm willing to give it the next 32 hours or so because what other choice is there, but he might need to make a second change in two years.

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When I heard about the Nicky trade, I thought, hope they traded him for a great-ish pitcher... at least... but no.

Brilliant writing, David. Seriously.

Right now, after this fun weekend of winning, I'm running around like Charlie Brown yelling, "AUGGGH!!!!!"

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Honestly, Lopez just doesn't have that much value, which is fine. But man, this? Woof.

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I think Witt is the real deal and Isbell is showing me he belongs...

I agree with you on being confused about the trade. It's probably at its core a salary dump ? Will Hearn even make it to spring training? Doubt it, reminds me of the trade for Rooker in that he did not even stick around. That said I hope is a decent prospect.

I really think Yarborough has the most value to another team in contention and have him at 95% along with Barlow. A decent package?

And JJ's comments....he can say what he wants, but I think he needs organizational depth first before calling for major league ready prospects and he knows it. He is pandering to the fan base...

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The whole idea that actions speak louder than words will always be true. And if he goes out and makes trades that make sense for the long-term health of the organization, he can say that he wants to only trade for players in the year before they retire as long as he doesn't do it. But then he goes and trades a player with not much value but still not none for Hearn and suddenly, the words are being backed up by actions. I hope the next day and a half prove better.

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First of all, I was in town and at the K on Saturday for the first time in years. I was amazed how many people were there and how energized they were to watch this team. My expectations were very low, especially with Lyles pitching, and then the offense exploded. It was wonderful.

Which brings me to my second point. Royals fans deserve much, much better than this front office and ownership. The only way to explain yesterday’s trade is that JJ is trying to get fired. So let’s oblige him and bring in a new group from another organization that knows how to build a team. Say the Orioles or Reds or Diamondbacks or . . . And make it happen immediately.

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If he was trying to get fired, this would make more sense.

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I felt great about the weekend of Royals for a whole night. Then I get up this morning and read this. It's bad enough that I have a sinus infection, and that I have to argue with David again about Yarbrough*. But this? JJ? REALLY??? This looks like a desperation move. "I am a GM. It's the trade deadline, and I am supposed to do something. I don't know what, but something." It's not that Lopez has a HUGE value, though I think he is better than he has been credited. But this deal is pure, unadulterated stupidity. Had we traded Lopez directly to get the DFA'ed player, that might have made a modicum of sense. Not this particular player, but the concept is sound enough. And maybe the Rangers wanted more from the Royals for Hearn? I am not sure if it is a simple "we offer x amount / player, and the team takes it or not"; did we even make an offer? If not, why not?

*David - your point about Yarbrough was that there are always guys like Yarbrough around, and we can sign one next year - maybe even him. I got busy and didn't reply at the time, but my reply now it that you are right, to a point. But the Royals always manage NOT to do it. They generally plead poverty, sign the LEAST expensive project that they can get away with (frankly, Lyles is still totally unfathomable to me), and it it usually ends badly. We might be able to flip Yarbrough back to the Rays now, heaven knows they need pitching, given their injuries - but given what just happened with Lopez, I'm not sure I want to trade ANYONE who could hold any ongoing value [for me, from your list, that's Garcia, Singer, and Yarbrough and PROBABLY Salvy unless someone made us an offer we couldn't refuse] for fear of what kind of "return" we'd get.]

OK. I am now officially on the "We need a GM" bandwagon - sign me up.

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I think Lopez absolutely has value. It's not much, but it's more than a lefty who was DFAed a week ago who the Royals could have had without giving up Lopez. But you're right that it would be a little better if they'd just sent Lopez to Texas for him.

I agree, they haven't gotten the Yarbroughs before, but that doesn't mean that every other team doesn't do it regularly. If the Lopez trade is any indication, I legitimately don't want any more trades. Let someone else do it next year. But JJ is in charge for now and there's nothing we can do about it, so hopefully he proves us all wrong.

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If the Royals had Shohei Ohtani, they’d probably trade him for Roger Clemens and a spoon.

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Spoons can be useful.

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Reading through these comments makes your point: Bobby had a historic weekend, the Royals swept the Twins, and all anyone is talking about is that boneheaded trade.

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It's true. It should have been a fun read this morning!

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David, all I can say is I’m glad your are finally on the limp to the finish line and start over train.

Look, the trade itself, whatever. Doesn’t bother me. It’s the process of the two trades now. I’ll admit, Ragans is fine assuming he doesn’t get hurt. But that is now two 27-28 year olds that are “major league ready”. All this after Amir Garrett was DFA’d and not traded (also found confusing). The point is, yes, DM controlled a lot, but these guys have worked together for 17 years. The way of thinking continues on. They genuinely want major league ready guys that are re-runs on other teams. I appreciate the 17 year old throw in….thought maybe that was a start. But after the article you referenced, these trades, the trades last year at the deadline….its the same thinking.

Start over.

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The voice of reason for this team has finally snapped. It took a while, but that’s why he’s the voice of reason. LOL.

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Ha, at this point, there's nothing we can do but see what he does over the next day plus, so maybe there'll be some good trades. I liked what he did last year. So maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, but yesterday's deal was so insane that I'm not holding my breath.

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Actually, yeah, what he did last year was not bad. To be determined if real talent, but besides, Castillo, no real MLB ready guys they like so to speak.

This was just a salary dump right? Which might just open a can of worms I guess…..but that has to be what this was.

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I guess maybe it was sort of a salary dump, but if it was a real salary dump, just trade him for cash.

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Like just about everyone, I hate the Lopez trade. But man constantly rolling out clarke, cuas, coleman as relievers is scary. Need relievers for sure, just not sure why this was the best option. And soon, hopefully , we'll need a closer once we trade Barlow for some other reclamation project.

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I'm fine with running Coleman out there. See if he can figure out what made him so good last year because that's closer quality. But yeah, they need to try some guys out and there are plenty of options.

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I'm going to keep ringing this bell.... When we talk about the Royals minor league pitching development improving.... The Royals have 3 guys, three power arm potential high leverage relievers, that are pretty much ready for the MLB roster in Klein, McMillon, and Cruz and several others that may be useful bullpen pieces in guys like Chamberlain and Murdoch. We don't need to trade for marginal relievers. We have plenty of those already. Combine that with hopefully a fixed Coleman, and Hernandez, and the bullpen looks better in a hurry. We need starters, and to patch holes on offense.

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100%. Give the guys in the system a shot.

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Finally a fun weekend for KC baseball, even though it doesn't move the needle on the entire year. I, as you mentioned, have always thought Isbel could be an above average player for a good team. I had quit beating that drum recently because his bat had been so bad. I believe he can be a better Michael A. Taylor version in center field. I also am so perplexed by the giveaway yesterday, that's all I'm going to say. I do have a question. You mentioned Hearn required a spot on the 40 man. Why is that? I would think Yarbrough could bring back a pretty decent player, the way he is pitching right now, Hernandez could bring back a real good return. That's all today. Have a great week sir!!

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Hearn requires a 40-man spot because he was on the 40-man for the Rangers and, subsequently, the Braves. So you can't just remove him, which is unfortunate.

I do think Yarbrough has a shot to bring something decent back and if they move Hernandez, he should be the one to bring back at least one top-100 prospect. We'll see how it goes.

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For a hot dog vendor?

Come on, we should at least be getting a vodka lemonade vendor in return at least.

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Man, that's a lot to ask, but I'd accept it.

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The Twins' fans are less than OK

Their team just got swept at the "K"

Their beds they are crappin'

"Just how could this happen?

The sun will not come out today."

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I think the answer to all the Royals' problems is to introduce their FO and scouts to a very obscure, extremely niche, research tool called Wikipedia: "Hearn was promoted to the Rangers on April 25, 2019, to make his major league debut that night against the Seattle Mariners. He pitched just 1⁄3 of an inning, allowing five runs (four earned) ... [in 2023] in 4 games for Texas, he struggled to a 10.29 ERA with 7 strikeouts across 4 games.... On July 29, he made his Braves debut, where he struggled, allowing four earned runs in relief. The next day, Hearn was optioned to the Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers."

p.s., "On July 30, 2023, the Braves traded Hearn to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for Nicky Lopez."

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Ok so the more I have thought about this Nicky trade. Is there that much if a difference between the Cleveland/Dodgers trade (Rosario/Syndegaurd) and what the royals got with the braves?

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Yes because of the process it represents. The Royals traded an asset for something they could have had freely a week earlier. And then claimed they'd wanted that player for some time.

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