KC Royals complete Mark Canha trade, send young right-hander to Brewers as PTBNL

Days before 2025 Opening Day, the Kansas City Royals addressed one of their pressing needs and made a move to bolster their major league outfield.

The Royals acquired veteran 1B/OF Mark Canha from the Milwaukee Brewers on March 22, after he signed a minor league deal with Milwaukee and they elected not to add him to the major league roster out of spring training.

According to MLB.com's Anne Rogers, the Brewers were set to receive, either a player to be named later (PTBNL) or cash considerations. Now, nearly a month later, we know that it will not only be a PTBNL heading back to the Brewers, but also who that player is.

KC Royals complete Mark Canha trade, send minor league RHP Cesar Espinal to Brewers as PTBNL

The Royals announced on Monday that they'd agreed to send a young minor league arm in Cesar Espinal back to Milwaukee to complete the deal.

Espinal, a 19-year-old right handed pitcher, was originally acquired by the Royals in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles back in 2023, which sent reliever Jonathan Heasley to the O's in return.

Espinal has spent the extent of his three year minor league career in the Dominican Summer League. In 2024 between the DSL Royals Ventura and the DSL Royals Fortuna, he appeared in 11 games (five of which were starts) and threw to a 3.72 ERA, 1.81 WHIP, .219 BAA, 10.71 K/9 and 8.84 BB/9.

With the way Canha has been playing to start his tenure in Kansas City, sending a young flier with potential the other way is simply the price of doing business, as they likely have no qualms with how the initial trade has turned out to this point, other than Canha's brief stint on the 10-day IL.

Canha has returned from that injury though, and when he's been on the field he's been one of the most impactful players in this Royals scuffling offense. Through his first eight games, the 36-year-old has posted a .389/.476/.500 slash line with a 188 wRC+.