A Look Back at Dayton Moore’s July Trading History

April 08, 2013; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore (left) looks with Royals consultant Art Stewart (right) before a game against the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

As the trade deadline approaches, and with yet another day without baseball, I thought it might be fun to take a stroll down memory lane and look back at the trades General Manager Dayton Moore has made in the month of July during his tenure in Kansas City. I’ve listed each of the trades in the chart below – credit to Royals Review’s Craig Brown for compiling the transactions – along  with the WAR accumulated (per Fangraphs) by each traded player with his new team. Players who have yet to debut have a “—“ in their WAR column. Obviously WAR is not a perfect stat, but it’s a quick and dirty way to evaluate overall value traded compared to value acquired. I also am just looking to examine the trade itself instead of going too far into the various “what if” scenarios each flap of the metaphorical butterfly’s wings may have created. Most of these trades were relatively inconsequential, and some included players who are no longer playing professional baseball. For the rest, I’ll offer some brief thoughts on the trade.

7/19/2006

Mets

0.3

0.7

7/24/2006

0.9

Even though neither Lumsden nor Cortes threw a single pitch for the Royals, MacDougal had begun to decline, and a team as bad as the 2006 Royals had no need for a closer anyway.

7/24/2006

1.5

-0.2

Despite pitching the 9th most innings for that 2006 team, Perez posted the 3rd highest WAR of all pitchers on the roster. Perez’s ERA that year was 5.64.

7/25/2006

0.7

2.4

I’d like to say Moore traded Graffanino at the right time, as he was out of baseball within 3 years. However, the time Graffanino was in Milwaukee was one of the best stretches of his career.

7/31/2006

-0.5

Diaz never appeared for the Royals, and Stairs played in just a handful of games in Texas that season. Moore lost this trade the second Stairs and his facial hair left Kansas City.

7/31/2006

0.9

0.5

-0.5

0.1

Shealy debuted with Kansas City in 2006 and put up solid numbers. He followed that up with an atrocious 2007 campaign. Shealy returned in September of 2008 and hit 7 HR in 20 games, posting a line of .301/.354/.603. Injuries and the presence of Mike Jacobs kept him from getting another PA with the Royals.

7/13/2007

Tigers

-0.1

PTBNL-Danny Christensen

—

7/31/2007

4.7

0.2

Davies was a young starter with a strong minor league pedigree, seemingly good stuff, but was going through early struggles with command. Dotel was a 2 month rental with limited value, so if Davies could figure it out, this would prove to be a complete steal for Moore. The trade itself was very good. Moore’s handling of Davies in the following years was not.

7/4/2009

Cubs

-0.1

PTBNL

—

7/10/2009

-0.9

-0.1

While the once-heralded Cortes never achieved his potential, this was still a truly dreadful trade. Betancourt was one of the worst players in baseball, and continued to be one of the worst players in baseball while in a Royals uniform. Giving away anything of value for the Cuban shortstop was a terrible decision.

7/30/2009

-0.4

Anderson’s most memorable play in Kansas City was probably one he would like to forget. (Courtesy of @BHIndepMO on Twitter)

7/4/2010

Astros

Cash

—

—

7/22/2010

-0.7

6.9

0.8

Smith still has a chance to contribute to the WAR total, but Callaspo has been a good player for the Angels, posting an OBP of at least .330 in each of the last three years.

7/29/2010

Dodgers

-0.4

-0.1

—

7/31/2010

1.0

0.4

0.5

0.2

-0.2

Gettting anything of value for Ankiel and Farnsworth has to be considered a win, right? Collins has been a streaky reliever for the Royals, but overall he has been a positive. Blanco posted a .348 OBP in his short stint in KC.

7/20/2011

Tigers

—

0.4

—

7/30/2011

1.7

0.0

Aviles was actually pretty bad offensively in his time in Boston. A lot of his value came from an uncharacteristically strong defensive 2012, according to UZR. He also was below average in his final two seasons with the Royals, so perhaps the very meager return Moore received was about right.

7/20/2012

1.1

-0.1

The fact that Moore was able to turn Sanchez into Guthrie is still mind boggling to me. Guthrie had a track record of success in the AL, and the only initial investment was about an extra million dollars of salary. His subsequent free agent contract may prove to be an unwise decision, but acquiring Guthrie was a tremendous move.

7/21/2012

0.0

0.4

The story is only just beginning for Joseph, but it looks like he could be an effective LOOGY out of the bullpen if given an opportunity to do so. Like Guthrie, Broxton was able to land a contract he may not live up to in the next 3 years.

Total WAR Acquired

                                 Royals-

8.2

Trade Partners-

13.8

Generally speaking, the Royals have not gotten a ton of talent around the trade deadline. Granted, a lot of the trades have included mediocre players under contract through only the end of that respective season, so expecting a huge return can be unreasonable. However, this year’s team does have some pieces that will surely be coveted by other teams, so if Moore decides to start selling, he might be able to vastly improve his track record for trading in this month. There will be plenty of opportunities to acquire talent, whether it be packages of prospects, or major league players.

With games starting back up tomorrow, we should begin to find out which option Moore chooses soon enough.