4 player moves KC Royals likely wish they could undo

Trading Ryan O'Hearn to Baltimore early last year wasn't the KC Royals' best move

Kansas City chose Ryan O'Hearn in the eighth round of the 2014 amateur draft. Four years later, with the Royals stumbling their way to a 100-loss season just three years after winning the World Series, he made his major league debut, and quickly made himself known. In 44 games, O'Hearn homered 12 times, collected 30 RBI, and hit .262 with an excellent .353 OBP.

But his subsequent struggles in Kansas City are the stuff bad legends are made of. He batted .195 each of the next two seasons, .225 in the third, and .239 in the fourth, while averaging a shade over six homers across each of those four seasons. It became clear after the 2022 campaign that something had to change.

And change, it did — the Royals traded the once-promising O'Hearn to the Baltimore Orioles for cash a few weeks before spring training began in 2023, and there he resurrected his career. Across two seasons as an Oriole, he's hit .275 with a combined 29 homers and 119 RBI, a performance finally commensurate with his excellent rookie campaign with the Royals.

Is the O'Hearn trade something the Royals would like to take back? Probably. He's become a proven big league hitter and, because he can play the corner outfield positions, he'd be a refreshing change for the club, especially in right field.