3 KC Royals players who survived the non-tender deadline but could still get traded before Opening Day

November's non-tender deadline marked the last day for MLB teams to decide whether or not to tender contracts to any salary arbitration-eligible players on their roster, and for the Kansas City Royals, the date came and went without fans paying it too much attention. The Royals tendered contracts to all eight of their arbitration-eligible players — Kris Bubic, Hunter Harvey, Carlos Hernández, Kyle Isbel, Daniel Lynch IV, MJ Melendez, John Schreiber, and Kyle Wright — and now the team has until January 9 to work out a deal with each of them or move forward to arbitration hearings.

While these players don't yet have confirmed salaries for 2025, the fact that they were tendered contracts, rather than cut loose to free agency, means that the Royals want to keep them on the roster — at least for now. The non-tender deadline is the first hurdle, but a lot can still happen between now and Opening Day.

After their remarkable comeback season in 2024, the Royals are going into next season with the goal of securing another playoff berth. As they continue to fight their way into contention conversations, Kansas City still needs to make roster additions, and with limited flexibility in the budget, the team is almost certain to turn to the trade market to acquire any missing pieces.

With that in mind, here are three players who survived the non-tender deadline but could still get traded — or cut to make space on the 40-man roster — before Opening Day.

Carlos Hernández

There were a number of issues with Kansas City's bullpen in 2024, and unfortunately, Hernández was one of them. In 27 appearances this year, the right-hander went 0-1 with a career-best 3.30 ERA and 1.33 WHIP in 30 innings, but despite some bright moments, injury issues and unreliability plagued Hernández's season, and he spent almost as much time optioned to Triple-A as he did in the majors.

Hernández joined the Royals as an international free agent in 2016, and after almost four years in the minors, he made his major league debut in September 2020. In 150 appearances over the last five seasons, he's posted a disappointing 7-19 record, 4.95 ERA, and 1.95 WHIP in Kansas City, firmly establishing himself as a below-average reliever.

While Hernández's ERA this season was the best of his career, that didn't appear to be a sign of any marked improvement, so much as simply due to the limited amount of time he spent on the mound. In fact, the bullpen seemed to perform significantly better without him — they posted some of their best stats of the season in September, even contributing to a franchise-record 26 consecutive scoreless innings, when the 27-year-old was left on the bench.

Going into his second season of arbitration eligibility, MLB Trade Rumors projects Hernández will secure a $1.2 million salary for 2025, while Spotrac predicts it'll be higher at $1.88 million. Regardless, it's cheap enough that another team may be interested in adding the reliever to their bullpen as a development project, which could help as the Royals look to continue bolstering their own relief corps.

Kansas City has already agreed to tender Hernández a contract for 2025, which was a curious — if not entirely bizarre — decision. Still, if the Royals get the opportunity to move him as part of a trade package, they're unlikely to think twice.