Spring Training trade targets

Which outfielders might be available for the Royals and what might it take to get them?

At the Royals Rally a couple of weeks ago, General Manager JJ Picollo indicated that the team had made real efforts to sign a free agent outfielder to improve the club’s offense. Reports also came out on The Athletic and other places that indicated the Royals had made serious offers to Anthony Santander, Jurickson Profar, and Randal Grichuk but without convincing any of them to accept.

Picollo then continued by explaining the team would be looking at trade candidates and that potentially as teams finalized their rosters with additional signings of their own, someone might come available. Since then, we’ve seen some signings, so let’s talk about some players that might make sense for the Royals.

Taylor Ward

I already talked about this trade in last week’s roster prediction, but it still seems like potentially the best option for the Royals in terms of talent received and cost. Additionally, the Angels have since signed Yoan Moncada to their team which means they have one fewer spot on their roster for a bat than they did before.

Baseball Trade Values seems to think that you could swap Gavin Cross in here for Carter Jensen and that would also work, and I’m sure many of you would prefer that deal. That begs the question of why. Are we overvaluing Jensen or undervaluing Cross?

In any case, Jensen’s best value might be as a trade chip in a world where Blake Mitchell is still on a path to becoming a future star. Taylor Ward can make the Royals favorites for the division. What better use could there be for a trade asset than that?

Heston Kjerstad

The Orioles recently signed Ramón Laureano to a two-year deal. The Orioles desperately need pitching, and yet, signed an outfielder. That suggests they might be in the market to trade an outfielder for a pitcher. Heston Kjerstad, despite a strong history of doing nothing but hitting at every level he’s played at, can’t seem to get playing time in Baltimore. The Royals have some pitching depth that they could deal from. Perhaps a deal would make sense!

Now this is when I think we should all be giving Baseball Trade Values the side-eye. It seems to think that Kjerstad is worth almost exactly the same amount as Ward, despite the fact that Kjerstad is five years younger, projects to be about as good as Ward next season with room to improve, and still has essentially his entire rookie deal to play out. That doesn’t seem right to me.

Kjerstad would almost absolutely take more than Alec Marsh straight up to acquire, as their model indicates, but maybe it would be Marsh and Zerpa? Or Marsh, Zerpa, and McArthur (whom the Orioles could try to convert back into a starter.) Without getting any more help from BTV, it’s unclear what a fair deal might look like, but the Royals should absolutely be harassing the Orioles to see if they can find something. Adding a Kjerstad to the outfield with Bobby Witt Jr still in Kansas City with Mitchell and Caglianone on their way in the next couple of years would spell a bright future for a long time for Kansas City.

Cedric Mullins

If the Orioles wouldn’t part with Kjerstad, or they traded him elsewhere, they might be willing to move on from Cedric Mullins. I’m not going to even bother to include the BTV screenshot here because it’s very similar to the last two despite the fact that Mullins is in the final year of his deal and doesn’t project to be any better than Kjerstad or Ward next season. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but you’ve already seen all the pieces that would make sense for the Royals to consider trading in such a scenario.

I’ll offer up my own suggested trade of Hunter Harvey for Mullins, straight up. BTV doesn’t like that deal, but it makes a lot more sense to me than any they’d take.

Starling Marte

Baseball trade values is, again, not particularly helpful here. Marte’s trade value is so low that it seems to think the Mets should pay anyone else to take him off of their hands. But they just added Pete Alonso back to the team, so they should be more willing than ever to get rid of him. There was a rumored trade option earlier this off-season to swap Marte and Harvey but the Mets wouldn’t cover enough of his salary. Maybe they could tweak things a little bit with another rumored Royals target.

The Mets won’t pay down Marte’s contract, but if they took back Renfroe’s bad contract and added in Brett Baty, I think the deal could work. Obviously, BTV hates the deal, but I think as a Royals fan I’d do it.

Adolis García

The Rangers haven’t added anyone recently that makes me think they might suddenly want to deal Adolis García, but he keeps coming up in the rumors I read, so it seemed worth it to mention him. Unlike the last few entries, this value feels about right. The two teams had a one-for-one swap last trade deadline that worked out pretty well for both teams with Michael Lorenzen helping KC make it to the playoffs and Pennington offering up a solid 3.12 ERA in 17.1 innings for Texas down the stretch. Perhaps the two teams would like to match up again.

As you might have figured out, I’m trying to deal Zerpa or Harvey since they were part of many Royals rumors earlier this offseason and the bullpen seems to be the place the Royals can most afford to trade from. BTV has Harvey as slightly more valuable than Zerpa, but if you wanted to swap him in here instead, I wouldn’t argue with it.

There is no argument that the Royals need outfield help. The Royals have made strong efforts to get that help. One of these deals might make a lot of sense. But which one would you do?