The 7 best MLB Trade Deadline deals in KC Royals history

The upcoming MLB trade deadline represents a contending team’s final opportunity to infuse proven talent into its roster. With the KC Royals in contention for the postseason, this season’s deadline – 6 p.m. ET Tuesday — becomes especially vital.

It also represents the first legitimate chance as the leader of a contending club for Kansas City Executive Vice President and General Manager J.J. Picollo to test himself against his peers acting against the least forgiving crucible of all — the clock.

In their more than half-century history, the Royals have been both buyers and sellers — probably more frequently the latter – at the trade deadline. A lot has already been written and more will be written about the 2024 team’s deadline needs.

But this is also a good time to look back on the club’s deadline history, and especially at the last-minute deals they swung that infused real talent into the big league roster.

With some exceptions, the deadline for non-waiver transactions has been July 31 for as long as many fans can remember. But it was not always so; prior to 1986, the trade deadline was June 15. With that in mind, here’s a chronological look at the seven most significant deadline trades made by the Royals since they began play in 1969.

1970: The KC Royals land a fan-favorite infielder

The franchise was barely into its second season when GM Cedric Tallis swung a seemingly innocuous deal that delivered big dividends. Tallis sent St. Louis Fred Rico, a little-used infielder the team had taken in the 1968 Rule 5 draft, but who played in just 12 games for the Royals, all of them in 1969.

In return, KC received infielder Cookie Rojas, whose previous claim to fame was having been included in the previous winter’s Curt Flood deal between the Phillies and Cardinals; that's the one where Flood refused to report and touched off the push for free agency. In nine seasons with the Cardinals, Phillies and Reds, Rojas had been a consistent .260 bat with little power.

Installed as the Royals’ regular second baseman, he blossomed into the young club’s first team leader. He batted .300 in 1971, was a four-time All Star (1971-74). His best seasons were behind him when KC won is first division title in 1976, but he was a valuable contributor that year and the next.

Rojas was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame in 1987.

1976: The Royals snare an excellent southpaw starter

A month into the 1976 season, the Royals were viewed as the most likely threat to unseat five-time American League West Division champion Oakland. Like a lot of teams then and now, though, they lacked one key element — front-line pitching.

So, Tallis gambled. He offered the New York Yankees Fran Healy, who'd been splitting catching duties with Buck Martinez, for a journeyman left-hander who had never fulfilled the promise many saw in

Larry Gura.

Over parts of six seasons with the Cubs, Rangers and Yankees, Gura had a 15-16 record. In his best season, with the 1975 Yankees, he went 7-8 with a 3.51 ERA in 20 starts. That was enough to persuade Tallis he was worth half the team’s catching tandem.

Gura started slowly in Kansas City, working 18 times in relief but making only two starts.   But one of those was a 4-0 shutout victory over the Athletics on Sept. 29 that clinched the AL West. It was enough to persuade manager Whitey Herzog to give Gura two postseason starts and to lock Gura in as a rotation regular for 1977.

Through 1984, Gura ran up a 111-78 record for the Royals with winning starts against the Yankees in both the 1978 and 1980 AL Championship Series. He made two starts against the Phillies in the 1980 World Series, but got no decision in either one.

A 1980 All Star, Gura was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame in 1992.  

1983: Kansas looks to Cincinnati for help

With the Royals chasing the Chicago White Sox in 1983, general manager John Schuerholz spent the trade season looking for – naturally enough – pitching. The pickings, however, were slim, and all Schuerholz could find was a struggling young starter laboring at Cincinnati’s Double-A affiliate in Indianapolis.

Schuerholz offered the Reds lightly-used pitcher Bob Tufts and, when they bit, Charlie Leibrandt became property of the Royals.

Leibrandt spent the rest of the season at Triple A Omaha, but reported to the big team in 1984 and immediately turned his career around. His 11-7 record in 23 starts was the first of five consecutive seasons in which he made at least 20 starts and won at least 10 games.  

He made six postseason appearances for the Royals in 1984 and 1985, losing games 1 and 4 of the ALCS with Toronto but prevailing 6-2 over Dave Stieb in the decisive seventh game.

Over six seasons with the Royals, Leibrandt had a 76-61 record and 3.60 ERA. The club traded him to Atlanta after the '89 season; he pitched three seasons for the Braves before finishing his 14-season, 140-119, 3.71 ERA big league career with Texas in 1993.

1985: The KC Royals swing another deadline deal with St. Louis

The 1985 Royals started slowly. By mid-May they stood just 16-15 and found themselves in fourth place in the AL West; Schuerholz knew his club needed an energy boost, and went out and got it a big one.

Schuerholz sent top outfield prospect John Morris, a first-round draft pick in 1982, to the Cardinals in exchange for Lonnie Smith, at the time viewed as a subpar big league outfielder with declining hitting skills whose best attribute was his hustle.

Installed as the Royals’ regular left fielder, Smith played in 120 games and stroked 23 doubles, drove in 41 runs, and stole 40 bases. His play sparked a team turnaround that saw the club go 79-56 the rest of the season and win the division by just one game over the California Angels.

Facing his old team in that fall’s World Series, Smith batted .333 with nine hits, three of them doubles.

He continued with the Royals through the 1987 season, after which they released him. He then spent five seasons with the Braves, split the '93 campaign with the Pirates and Orioles, and finished his career with the O's in 1994.

2015: Two deadline deals help KC to a World Series title

With a pair of trades separated by less than 48 hours, Moore transformed the defending AL champs from postseason contenders to favorites.

The first, with Cincinnati, landed veteran starter Johnny Cueto, who ended up taking the fading Guthrie's rotation spot.

The price seeme steep. Cueto was eligible for free agency at season’s end and the Reds demanded three highly-touted pitching prospects — Brandon Finnegan, who the year before pitched in both the College World Series and major league World Series, John Lamb, and Cody Reed. Truth be told, Cueto was only ordinary down  the stretch, running up just a 4-7 record and 4.76 ERA in 13 starts.

But Cueto proved his worth in the post-season. He made two ALDS starts against Houston, and beat the Mets with a complete game two-hitter in Game 2 of the World Series.

Two days after acquiring Cueto, Moore brought versatile Ben Zobrist to Kansas City from Oakland to play second base, outfield, and everywhere else he was needed.

Like Cueto, Zobrist was to hit free agency at season’s end, so he was purely a rental. Moore surrendered Aaron Brooks and Sean Manaea to get Zobrist, so the trade was not without long-term consequences. Nearly a decade later, Manaea still pitches effectively for the Mets.

Zobrist was a force in his short time with the Royals. He played second, third, all three outfield positions, and DH, making 59 starts down the stretch and hitting .284 with 29 RBI.

He hit .333 against Houston in ALDS, .320 against Toronto in the ALCS, and .261 with two homers and six RBI against the Mets in the World Series.

Zobrist was at his best in the clutch. In KC's 14-inning Game 1 win, he had three hits, including a 14th-inning single that helped set up the winning run. His sixth-inning double in Game 4 led to a run and helped the Royals win 5-3.

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