KC Royals Rumors: Teams Checking Out Wade Davis

KC Royals closer Wade Davis has drawn interest from potential buyers around the league, including the Washington Nationals.

This report comes from Sports Rag’s Jon Heyman, who also indicated that he’d heard rumors that the Kansas City Royals are preparing to both buy and sell depending on how the team performs over the next eight days.

I have to wonder if Heyman’s earlier report created the Wade Davis rumors. If KC Royals general manager Dayton Moore were to make Davis available, he’d become the best reliever available at the trade deadline along with New York Yankee closer Aroldis Chapman. Davis has not only been historically dominant over the last two seasons, he’s also playoff proven during Kansas City’s two pennant runs. Last year, Davis closed out three games in the 2015 World Series.

Rumors of the Kansas City Royals considering to sell certainly made teams looking for a closer take notice. General managers would check in just as a matter of due diligence.

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However, I just don’t see the KC Royals deciding to deal Davis. One of the Kansas City Royals biggest problems this season has been their inability to deploy an effective three-headed bullpen monster to close out games. Shopping Davis would make that problem even worse.

With the KC Royals still having all of their major pieces in place for another title run in 2017, I can’t see the front office trading their closer.

At the very least, for a Wade Davis deal to happen two conditions would have to be met: 1) the buyer would have to offer a substantial package that includes near-major league ready starting pitching and 2) the Kansas City Royals would need an agreement in principle to bring back injured closer Greg Holland.

Even if the KC Royals were to bring back Greg Holland in 2017, they’d still need to find another top bullpen arm to rebuild their back end if they traded Davis.

The rotation piece would have to be a top pitching prospect at the very least. You’d have to think the Kansas City Royals would prefer a guy with multiple years of control who is already established in major league baseball. Heyman mentions the Washington Nationals as the primary suitor.

If the Nats want Wade Davis, they’d pretty much have to part with top pitching prospect Lucas Giolito to even begin the conversation.

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Perhaps Wade Davis might be in play if: 1) The KC Royals fall out of the race and 2) a suitor blows Dayton Moore away with an offer that helps the 2017 team. Unless both of those things happen, you can forget about the Wade Davis talk.