KC Royals pull last-minute MLB Trade Deadline stunner

Monday transactions brought a pair of new pitchers to the KC Royals.

Anyone anticipating a blockbuster Kansas City deal as Monday dawned ended the day disappointed. The Royals didn’t shock the baseball world, but did add some pitching help.

Arizona’s Luke Weaver was the most notable add and cost the club third baseman Emanuel Rivera, who hadn’t spurred many (if any) rumors before the KC announced the move early in the evening (Twitter link). Primarily a starter during a big league career that began with St. Louis in 2016, the righthander is now a reliever with a 3.55 ERA in 11 relief appearances this season. He also gave up nine runs in a 3.2-inning start in June.

Weaver’s health may bear watching. He was on the 60-day Injured List with elbow inflammation earlier this season and with a right shoulder strain last year.

Kansas City put him on the active roster before Tuesday night’s game.

The club also picked up pitcher Anthony Misiewicz (Twitter link) from Seattle in a straight player-for-cash deal. Another righty reliever, Misiewicz was 0-1 with a 4.61 ERA in 17 Seattle games this season, and 0-0, 3.65 in 13 Triple-A games. He’s now on Omaha’s roster.

The KC Royals picked up 6 minor league prospects in a pair of transactions.

The Royals made their first move three weeks before Tuesday’s deadline passed, and after trading Carlos Santana to Seattle for pitchers Wyatt Mills and William Fleming in June, when they gave up their Competitive Balance draft pick to Atlanta for Drew Waters, the Braves’ slumping but still vaunted prospect (MLB Pipeline rated him as Atlanta’s No. 1 prospect at the time), pitcher Andrew Hoffman and infielder CJ Alexander. Waters, who brought a .246/.305/.393 line to KC, has excelled at Triple-A Omaha, where he’s slashing .322/.420/.610 with a 1.031 OPS in 26 games.

Then came the departure everyone knew was coming—Andrew Benintendi was certain to be traded, with only the destination to be determined, when Kansas City finally pulled the trigger last week and sent their star left fielder to the Yankees for minor league pitchers T.J. Sikkema, Beck Way and Chandler Champlain.

At the end of the trade period, the KC Royals are almost the same club.

Major league trades are done for the season. Only minor leaguers may now be dealt, and strictly for other minor leaguers, which means Kansas City will play this campaign out without a major overhaul.

Yes, Benintendi, Merrifield and Rivera are gone, but their departures mean the Royals can get a better look at young outfielder Kyle Isbel and there are two fewer players to consider in an already confusing infield situation.

Despite a horrid two games in New York last week, Scott Barlow, widely considered an almost certain trade piece, will continue to anchor the back end of manager Mike Matheny’s bullpen, where he’ll still be joined by Josh Staumont, who generated trade talk of his own. Absent a tweak or two here and there, the rotation will remain the same, but chances of any of the mainstays—Brad Keller, Brady Singer, Kris Bubic, Zack Greinke and Daniel Lynch—moving on were never great, or even very good.

So, why didn’t Kansas City make more moves? The deep market for relief pitching never really developed, leaving Barlow and Staumont in Kansas City. But it’s entirely possible Kansas City simply wanted far more than other clubs were willing to sacrifice for them.

And Michael A. Taylor? His Gold Glove defense presumably attracted contenders and he’s having one of his best seasons at the plate, but his reputation for a weak bat (he had a career .243/.299/.387 slash entering tonight’s game with the White Sox) may have concerned other clubs.

The MLB Trade Deadline has expired. The Royals made some interesting moves.