KC Royals Do Nothing At Trade Deadline

The KC Royals allowed the August 1, 4:00 PM ET non-waiver trade deadline pass without making a significant move. Rather than buying or selling, the Kansas City Royals sat on their hands.

KC Royals general manager Dayton Moore explained the decision as reported by KKOY-FM (Canute, KS) host Zoel Lopez:

These quotes make me think the Kansas City Royals DID have offers for pieces like Kendrys Morales and Edinson Volquez but that the return was not substantial enough that Moore wanted to give up the slim hope that his team could pull off a miraculous run in the last two months of the season.

While such an event seems highly unlikely given how bad the KC Royals have looked in both their current four game losing streak while getting swept in Texas and their 7-19 month of July, if the return for Volquez and Morales were minor-league lottery tickets unlikely to provide significant help in 2017, I can understand the decision.

When both Luke Hochevar and Wade Davis went down with injuries in the last couple of days before the trade deadline, it shut the door on moves that could bring back substantial help. The KC Royals did flip minor-league outfielders with the Oakland A’s in Sunday’s Brett Eibner for Billy Burns swap, but that wasn’t a substantial deal.

As for the needs for next season, Moore indicated:

To be honest, it’s hard for a fan to stomach a non-decision like holding on to short-term pieces to chase what appears to be a forlorn hope. However, I’ll remind people that DM did this two years ago and watching his team reel off a tremendous second half run that let the Kansas City Royals skin into the playoffs and come within a single, one-run loss of taking the 2014 World Series.

Do I think it’s going to happen again?

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Heck, no. But I can understand why Dayton Moore might want to hold out hope that lightning can strike twice. A do little to nothing decision worked once for him, so