Eventful July followed awful June for the KC Royals

The KC Royals dealt away a starting pitcher and a power hitter in July.

Rounding out the month of July was the trade deadline for major league baseball. Although Kansas City fans went through the usual motions of “will they, won’t they” trade Whit Merrifield, it turned out two other players would leave the team.

Despite landing on the Injured List in mid-May with a left flexor strain, and again with the same injury in late June—and being on the List at the trade deadline—Danny Duffy was traded to the Dodgers. But Duffy’s 4-3 record, 2.51 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 65 strikeouts in 61 innings with the Royals was it for his season. He never saw the mound for Los Angeles due to his injury.

The Royals also traded Jorge Soler who, despite his abysmal year with the Royals, was starting to turn things around. He’d belted seven home runs in July—six of them coming during a span of seven games—when the club sent him to eventual World Series Champion Atlanta for minor league pitching prospect Kasey Kalich.

Soler recaptured much of the 2019 form that enabled him to set a Royals single-season home run record with 48 (a mark tied by Salvador Perez in 2021)—he hit 14 homers and slashed .269/.358/.524 with the Braves—and was named 2021 World Series MVP. Kalich went 2-2 with a 4.12 ERA and a 10.53 SO9 in 14 relief appearances for Kansas City’s High-A Quad Cities affiliate.

The Royals were 12-12 in July, a marked improvement over their 7-20 June. How would August go?