Where the Royals Stand After the Singer for India Trade

The Royals got their leadoff man, but there is still work to do.

It isn’t often that a team can make a trade and I just don’t have any more to say about it than I already have. I do have a couple of comments in addition to what I wrote just last week, but after the rumor of Brady Singer for Jonathan India was out there, I said most of what I was thinking. I’ll rehash a little just because it sets up the premise for today’s newsletter. I do like that it didn’t end up a one-for-one deal as Joey Wiemer also came back to the Royals in the deal, so I’ll go through that here in a bit as well.

I believe there are two vacuums to look at this trade before we pull back a bit. I think, value-wise, a mid-rotation pitcher who has never become a star for a perfectly fine position player who has never become a star makes a lot of sense. So in that vacuum, particularly with an upside play who already has some big league value as an additional piece, this trade makes perfect sense and might even lean a bit toward the Royals in an initial look. In the second vacuum, the Royals needed a leadoff hitter in the worst way.

We all know the stat about how many times Bobby Witt Jr. came to bat with the bases empty and that the leadoff spot had the lowest on base percentage by any team since the 2012 Reds (.254…yikes). So a guy with a .352 career OBP who had a .357 OBP in 2024 is a perfectly reasonable and even good answer. Great. And the Royals have three starting pitchers who they feel are better than Singer, so the trade makes perfect sense in that vacuum as well.