KC Royals: Five Best Starting Pitcher Trade Targets

The KC Royals need starting pitching help. Their four game sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Indians highlights their need for improved performance from their rotation. Below are five trade targets that might help if the Kansas City Royals decide they must resort to the trade market.

Kansas City’s 10 game offensive stretch where they scored 68 runs and swatted more than 10 hits per game covered up the team’s starting rotation weakness. When the Indians held the KC Royals to 1, 1, and 0 runs over the next three days, the problem has become much more obvious. When you’re running Chris Young out to the mound after he’s given up 16 home runs in 41 innings, you know you have a problem.

Yordano Ventura is the only Kansas City Royals starter to have played well during the Cleveland series, when he held the Indians to 1 earned run over six innings pitched on Thursday. After him, Edinson Volquez, Ian Kennedy, and Chris Young each gave up five runs in their starts against the Indians. The KC Royals were pretty much out of these three games before their bullpen could come to the rescue.

Three ineffective starts while the Indians pitchers were shutting down the Kansas City Royals offense was rather painful to watch. It felt like a return to three weeks ago, or the bad old days of the KC Royals Dark Age in the early 2000’s.

To many fans, the recent skid feels even worse because the team carries much higher expectations after winning two consecutive AL pennants. I guess the last couple of days go to show that baseball fans are pretty fickle creatures who aren’t happy unless they have some VERY recent wins to sate their hunger.

On to the five most realistic trade targets that could help the KC Royals pitching staff this season:

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