Cliff Lee - poster boy for Patience is Better than Sacrifice

I’ve been listening to the expert opinion spinners tell us what the Royals must do to fill their gaps and lay the final bricks of Mission 2012.  There is little discussion of consequence regarding our need for a utility infielder (except Gage Matthews’ post here on Kings of Kauffman and our Winter Meeting notes), the topic simply isn’t sexy enough.  We need a lefty reliever, but again, not much passionate discussion about this either.  (No surprise, Michael Engel has a good story here on KoK.)  However, a topic that is receiving some enthusiastic debate among many media sources is our need for a front line starter.

Most are saying we can’t afford a bidding war for a quality free agent so we’re left with no choice but to dip into our minor league treasury and trade away our blue chip stocks.  If we had no hope of ever filling these needs internally, and if a trade was the only possible way to bridge the final gap of a championship caliber club, then I would tend to agree with them.  But I don’t agree, and I think we do have a choice.

The Royals have found themselves in an interesting position.  They finally have some commodities that are the envy of baseball, a currency that even the Steinbrenner family can’t print as proficiently as we can right now – a deep pool of talented but unproven, young, high potential trade-worthy athletes.  Many of these players could command a high price on the open market, but they are also very valuable to the future of the Royals. (more…)