Kansas City Royals Potential Trade Target: Jaime Garcia

The Kansas City Royals are bargain shopping. When you are searching for the best deal you can find that often leads to interesting options. As the non-waiver trade deadline approaches teams throughout baseball have made regrettable decisions. That leads us to the newest rumor.

Apparently the Kansas City Royals are looking at Jaime Garcia as a potential rotation filler. That’s right, the oft-injured lefty who used to play across the state. Now Garcia is in Atlanta and his 2017 results do not scream “let’s take a chance on this guy!”

Garcia is currently 2-7 with a 4.55 ERA in 16 games for the Braves. To put that into perspective Jason Hammel is sporting a 4-8 record to go along with a sparkling 5.04 ERA in 17 games. The point in acquiring a starter has to be to upgrade the rotation for a playoff push. Not sure Garcia is the man for the job.

Taking it a step further, the Kansas City Royals may simply be better letting Travis Wood fill the rotation spot. With that option they will not be giving up anything for subpar performance. Heck if the only option is to bring Garcia onboard why not just let a young guy like Miguel Almonte take his licks. At least it is a move that is trying to prepare for the future.

I simply do not see how Garcia is a viable option. Especially when you take into consideration what the Royals are trying to accomplish in the second half. At some point Cleveland is going to get hot and the division race will be difficult. Nabbing one of two Wild Card spots is realistic. But not if your primary addition is a player of Garcia’s ability.

Jamie if you were by chance to read this please understand. This is not an attack on Jaime Garcia the person. It is a stance against high risk/low reward thinking that simply has no place in July 2017. I understand that due to limited resources Dayton Moore may be digging through the bargain bin like Bubba searching for a $5 copy of Joe Dirt at Wal-Mart. That’s fine. But if you are going to take on high risk then high reward needs to be in the equation as well.

Next: Second Half Predictions

While it is hard to calm my trade deadline excitement, one way to bring it down a few notches is simple. Connect the Kansas City Royals to players with a “rough” history. If you want to compete for a championship, that is simply not the way to do it.