KC Royals: Could Trading For Wil Myers Help KC?

The KC Royals still could use a proven bat to help the offense. Could bringing back former Kansas City Royals phenom Wil Myers be the answer?

Baseball insider Jon Heyman of Inside Rant Sports reported that the San Diego Padres are open to trading the 25-year-old first baseman. Given Padres general manager A.J. Preller’s not so good track record on the trade market, teams have to consider dealing with him as the trade deadline approaches.

Preller’s willingness to move Myers makes sense. He gutted the San Diego farm system before the 2015 season in an attempt to contend immediately, only to watch most of his moves blow up in his face. Now, the Padres are trying to shed bad contracts and gear up for a long-term rebuild. At 27-42, San Diego doesn’t look like they can contend anytime soon. Instead, they need to build a wave of prospects like KC Royals GM Dayton Moore did some 10 years ago.

With Myers hitting a robust .284/.328/.515 with 15 home runs and 41 RBI’s, he’s a clear middle of the lineup bat. The only problem is that Myers is playing first base, which is occupied on the Kansas City Royals by All-Star Eric Hosmer.

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Myers might prove more useful to the KC Royals if he could return to the outfield, but the Padres moved him from his minor-league right field position, in part, due to his broken wrist in 2015 that has given Myers some problems with his throwing. The other place Myers could fit is as a designated hitter.

With Kendrys Morales getting back in the swing of things, I’m not so sure the Kansas City Royals would want to gut the farm system to acquire Myers only to play him at designated hitter. The move would make some sense in that Myers is an all-fields hitter as opposed to the pull-happy Morales (at least when the switch hitter is batting from the left side). Myers also brings a speed element that Morales lacks with eight stolen bases and only one caught stealing. Myers would not clog the bases like the slow-footed Morales and would thus fit Kansas City’s favored aggressive approach on the base paths.

One benefit of a Myers deal is that if you look at the KC Royals window as closing in 2017, you could always deal Myers to re-stock the prospect pipeline since he’s under team control through the 2019 season. Or, you could replace Hosmer with Myers at first base after the 2017 season if the Kansas City Royals believe they can keep winning on a consistent basis past their so called “window”.

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Though an intriguing idea, I don’t see any Wil Myers trade happening unless Kansas City Royals young outfielders Brett Eibner and Paulo Orlando stop hitting over the next few weeks, or the team finds someone willing to take on Kendrys Morales contract. With the KC Royals already eating $14.7 million by DFA’ing Omar Infante, I don’t see them doing something similar with Morales.