Kansas City Royals: Recap of the 2018 trades the Royals have made

The Kansas City Royals have been busy this season making trades. The hope is the trades will help accelerate the current rebuild and some players have definitely done that.

When the Kansas City Royals decided not to re-sign Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer, the writing was on the wall. The team was going to be going through a massive rebuild. In order to help the rebuild move in the right direction quickly, some moves had to be made. Some are harder to understand than others, but so far Dayton Moore has done well.

This season, Moore has made 10 trades and he could still make more before the end of the year.

Royals players traded

• Scott Alexander: Los Angeles Dodgers
• Ryan Buchter and Brandon Moss: Oakland A’s
• Joakim Soria: Chicago White Sox
• Sam Gaviglio: Toronto Blue Jays
• Miguel Almonte: Los Angeles Angels
• Cody Asche: New York Yankees
• Jon Jay: Arizona Diamondbacks
• Kelvin Herrera: Washington Nationals
• Jacob Condra-Bogan: Washington Nationals
• Mike Moustakas: Milwaukee Brewers

Royals players received

• From the Los Angele Dodger: Erick Mejia and Trevor Oaks
• From the Oakland A’s: Heath Fillmyer and Jesse Hahn
• From Toronto Blue Jays/Los Angeles Angels/New York Yankees: cash
• From Arizona Diamondbacks: Elvis Luciano and Gabe Speier
• From Washington Nationals: Kelvin Gutierrez, Blake Perkins, and Yohanse Morel
• From Washington Nationals: Brian Goodwin
• From Milwaukee Brewers: Brett Phillips and Jorge Lopez

Then you can add in the Rule-5 Draft

• Brad Keller from the Cincinnati Reds
• Burch Smith from the New York Mets

*Keller and Smith were acquired for players to be named later (PTBNL) or cash 

Final Thoughts

Not everyone can be pleased when it comes to trades. Some people are going to believe the Royals traded someone too soon (Soria), or they are going to believe the Royals should have kept a player (Alexander).

In my opinion, the Royals have done very well when it comes to trades this year. Not every player has contributed to the big league level, but some are making noise at their current level.

• Oaks: 2.05 ERA over 16 starts (AAA)
• Fillmyer: 3.29 ERA over 27.1 innings, 7 appearances and 3 starts (MLB)
• Perkins: .281/.431/.372 over 34 games with 33 strikeouts and 29 walks (A+)
• Goodwin: .471/.471/.706 over 5 games and a hit in every game (MLB)
• Keller: 3.43 ERA over 31 games and 10 starts after never pitching higher than Double-A (MLB)
• Gutierrez: .263/.288/.404 over 30 games, .355/.349/.565 over his last 16 games (AA)
• Phillips: .257/.331/.413 over 52 games the last two years (MLB)

I know that Alexander would have been nice to have this year, especially with how bad the Royals bullpen has been. However, Oaks and Mejia both are showing a large amount of upside. I feel like the Royals got a decent return, but we still have to see what Oaks can do with consistent playing time at the big league level.

Overall though, I feel like Dayton Moore has done a pretty good job this year when it comes to trading players. Many of these players could be on the big league roster for quite a few years sooner rather than later.

What do you think Royals fans? Are you pleased with the Royals trades and returns? Would you change anything? Let us know below!