One impressive KC Royals trade target is starting to pick up buzz

As the Kansas City Royals celebrate getting back into a contending spot thanks to a long winning streak, it’s officially time to start looking at what’s to come later this season.

In particular, it’s time for Kansas City to start examining deadline deal possibilities for players that aren’t going to cost an arm and a leg. As it turns out, there is one player that’s getting a bit of buzz and should be plenty affordable.

Should the KC Royals be looking for some offensive help at the trade deadline (and they should absolutely look for offensive help at the trade deadline) there is more and more talk starting to surface around Colorado Rockies outfielder Brenton Doyle.

Doyle is relatively young (27), relatively cheap ($765,000), and might be available considering just how bad the Rockies are these days. 

The flipside of this is that Colorado is not really going to be under any pressure to deal the outfielder since he has several more arbitration years before he becomes a free agent. However, as Cullen Jekel of Royals Review claimed, the Rockies might not be asking for as much in return as one might think.

KC Royals should eye Rockies' Brenton Doyle in trade talks

“I just went to BaseballTradeValues.com to check to see if anyone had submitted a Royals-Rockies trade regarding Doyle, and somebody had: the Royals deal Alec Marsh plus a Round B Competitive Balance Draft pick for Doyle. It came out nearly even,” Jekel wrote.

As Jekel himself said, "sign me the heck up for this." The reality however, is that Marsh and a Competitive Balance Draft pick could be a starting point for negotiations, but Kansas City would likely need to give up more. But perhaps not as much as you'd think.

Doyle, like the rest of the Rockies, is not off to a particularly good start to the season. He’s currently “boasting” a .244/.296/.422 slash line after one heck of a breakout season in 2024 where he hit 23 homers and stole 30 bases. So far he’s got just 2 steals this season.

While a struggling team like the Rockies would likely value prospect capital in a deal, we'd talked earlier this week about the possibility that the KC Royals could use Michael Lorenzen as a trade chip for offense at the deadline. Perhaps he could add to the package.

While he’s relatively expensive, Lorenzen could be a veteran pitcher the Rockies look to keep in 2026, especially considering how hard it is to get quality arms to pitch in the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field. And with Doyle’s price tag being so small, Kansas City might be willing to pay a big portion of his remaining salary to get the promising outfielder into Kauffman Stadium.

While it remains to be seen if the Rockies even put Doyle on the trade block, as Jekel pointed out, the fit is definitely there with the Royals if they do.