Kansas City Royals and the 2017 Trade Deadline

According to this ESPN article the Kansas City Royals may be doing the opposite of selling this July. Boys and Girls that means the team may be looking to be buyers. According to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe “Adding a frontline pitcher ahead of the deadline is a possibility.”

Now before we begin throwing names around that the Kansas City Royals could give up limited assets for, let’s talk about what kind of currency they actually have.

Instead of listing the names of players that make up the organizations top prospect list there is

one specific name I would like to explore. That name is Kelvin Herrera. I already can see the comments: “This guy has no idea what he is talking about!”, “You don’t trade your team’s closer to make a playoff push!” and so forth. Stick with me though and I’ll try to explain my oh-so crazy thinking.

Baseball is a sport where name and reputation can hold onto clout longer than it should. This could pay great dividends for Dayton Moore. Remember early in the season, even with all the potential big league talent the team could offer, Herrera’s name seemed to be drawing the most interest. The reason is he has a proven track record late in games and more controllable service time than upcoming free agents like Moose.

That explains why teams would have interest in KH, but why would Moore consider dealing his closer?