Kansas City Royals: What happened to being sellers?

As of 4:30 Eastern Time on July 31, the trade deadline expired. The Kansas City Royals were rumored to be one of the teams wanting to clean house to help out the impending rebuild. But, that didn’t happen.

For the Kansas City Royals, it was thought that several players would find themselves on new teams. Names including Whit Merrifield, Danny Duffy, and Mike Moustakas were all rumored to be on the move. The only deal that came to fruition, though, was a deal for Moustakas with the Milwaukee Brewers.

What happened?

For a while, it looked like no players were going to be leaving Kansas City. Of course, they did trade away Kelvin Herrera very early on, but other than that, it didn’t look like any of the rumors were going to prove to be true.

In fact, for a bit it seemed that they were going to be trading away some of their farm system talent to acquire some Major League ready players, like Brian Goodwin. They didn’t lose much in that trade, but still.

Mike Moustakas was the player most likely to be on the move. And you should be pleased with the return, as Brett Phillips has already shown off his ability to perform well in the Majors, and Jorge Lopez is equipped with Major League experience.

The Royals changed their mind of trading away Whit Merrifield once he started to heat up, which makes sense. He could be a vital centerpiece in the rebuild. As far as Danny Duffy goes, it seems like teams just didn’t have enough interest in him.

Could they ship more players away in August?

Yes, absolutely. That’s probably the plan. There have been rumors that Hunter Dozier may be traded away come the end of the season, and it’s possible that a deal for Merrifield could be struck near the end of the season.

And potentially, by then if Duffy has garnered more interest, he could also be on the move. Though the Royals squad already looks a little different, it is likely to change even more so as we move into 2019.