Revisiting the 2023 KC Royals trade deadline with updated deal grades

The "will they, won’t they" game has to be exhausting for Kansas City Royals fans as the MLB trade deadline looms.

The All-Star break may have offered a brief reset, but the Royals entered the second half below .500 through 97 games. While that record isn’t a death sentence in today’s crowded Wild Card race, every close win and deflating loss has fans asking the same question: What path will Kansas City choose? Will the front office push in chips and invest in this year’s team? Or will a losing record trigger another sell-off to bolster the future?

After dropping a post-break series to the Miami Marlins, the “sell” crowd is growing louder. Turning veterans like Seth Lugo or Kris Bubic into controllable talent is appealing, especially for a team still trying to build around Bobby Witt Jr. But no trade is guaranteed. For every breakout return, there’s a deal that fizzles—or worse, backfires entirely.

Kansas City was a clear buyer at last year's trade deadline, investing in the pitching staff and finding bats another way. So let's rewind to 2023, where Kansas City was en route to a 106-loss season and had no hope of being anything other than sellers at that trade deadline. What deals did they make then, and with two years to see results, was selling worth it for Kansas City?

Revisiting the 2023 KC Royals trade deadline: The Money Moves

Kansas City made several low-stakes, player-for-cash trades during their 2023 teardown. Most involved fringe big leaguers or minor league depth, so rather than break them down individually, let’s group the financial flyers together. None were franchise-altering, but with two years of hindsight, do any of them deserve a re-grade?

July 13 - KC Royals trade Mike Mayers to Chicago for cash.
2023 Grade: A+

Remember when Mike Mayers tossed six shutout innings against the Cardinals and looked like a rotation savior? Pepperidge Farm remembers. That was the peak. His next three outings were rough, and even on a bad team, Mayers looked like a DFA candidate. Chicago took a flier but never used him in the majors. He hasn’t pitched in affiliated ball since August 2023.

Aug. 1 - Los Angeles trades Tucker Davidson to KC Royals for cash.
2023 Grade: D+

Grabbing Davidson was an understandable swing in a bullpen pieced together with duct tape and hope. He gave the Royals 19.2 uninspiring innings and departed with an ERA north of 6.00. A brief Orioles cameo in 2024 didn’t revive his stock, and he’s now in the KBO with Lotte. A low-risk move that just didn’t pan out.

Aug. 3 - KC Royals trade Luis Barroso to Baltimore for cash.
2023 Grade: A+

Barroso prompted one universal reaction: Who? He had a 5.98 ERA at High-A with below-average peripherals and hadn’t pitched above rookie ball until 2019. The Orioles got a look, but he was out of pro ball by season’s end. Turning that profile into any return—cash or otherwise—was a small win for the Royals.

Aug. 22 - KC Royals trade Brewer Hicklen to Philadelphia for cash.
2023 Grade: B+

This one stung more emotionally than logically. Hicklen was a fan favorite in Omaha but couldn’t crack Kansas City’s 26-man roster. After the trade, he bounced around but did collect his first MLB hit in 2025. Still, there’s no sign the Royals gave up a meaningful contributor here.

Revisiting the 2023 KC Royals trade deadline: The Main Moves

June 30 - KC Royals trade Aroldis Chapman to Texas for Cole Ragans and Roni Cabrera

The Royals struck early and smart at the 2023 trade deadline, sending flamethrower Chapman to the eventual World Series champion Texas Rangers. In return, Kansas City landed left-hander Ragans—now a rotation mainstay—and teenage outfield prospect Cabrera. The result? One of the rare win-win trades in recent deadline memory.

Chapman’s signing always came with the expectation that he’d be flipped for assets. While he delivered a few electric outings in Royals blue and even etched his name into the team record books, his real value was what he could bring back. And Ragans quickly validated the move.

Ragans made his Royals debut later that same season and the rest is history. He parlayed a red-hot run to close out that season with an All-Star selection in 2024, finishing fourth in AL Cy Young voting as well. There were some ugly outings, but the 26-year-old Ragans showed his 2023 success could be sustainable across a season.

This season has been the catching point for Ragans' outlook though. Several injuries have sandwiched some terrible numbers in the box score, including a career-worst 5.18 ERA through 10 starts. He is striking out a ton of batters, but the baserunners still come around to score too often for Ragans to carry that ace label right now.

As for Cabrera, the 19-year-old remains a long-term project. After struggling in Low-A Columbia with a brutal 38.2% strikeout rate and just a 21 wRC+, the Dominican outfielder was sent back to the Arizona Complex League. Since June 20, though, he’s posted a promising .294/.351/.426 line, showing glimpses of the talent that could eventually stick.

Even with Ragans’ recent setbacks, Kansas City flipped a half-season of Chapman for multiple years of club control on a high-upside starter and a lottery ticket bat. That’s a clear win—and one Royals fans should still celebrate.

2025 Grade: A-

July 30 - KC Royals traded Nicky Lopez to Atlanta for Taylor Hearn.
2023 Grade: F

The Royals notably held onto utilityman Whit Merrifield well past his peak trade value in 2022, and the same could be said for Lopez in 2023. The Creighton product looked destined to be a defensive replacement or emergency starter through his first two big-league seasons, but a breakout 2021 campaign suggested he had turned a corner. Kansas City was likely hesitant to trade such a controllable player after a 5.5 fWAR season, but even moving him at the following trade deadline would’ve been a better outcome than what ultimately happened in 2023.

The Royals finally pulled the trigger on a Lopez trade amid a wave of new talent that had taken over his starting role—and even his backup opportunities. Lopez was having a decent season for a player of his profile, but sending him to Atlanta for Hearn turned out poorly.

Kansas City was already Hearn’s third team of the 2023 season, and he pitched in just eight games for the Royals. With an ugly 8.22 ERA and an inability to limit baserunners, it wasn’t a tough decision to move on. Hearn is now in his second season with the NPB’s Hiroshima Carp, and even there he’s struggling, posting the fifth-worst ERA among American pitchers.

Would Lopez have a place on today’s Royals roster? Probably not, given his ceiling and rising arbitration price tag. But dealing him for a scuffling reliever who is no longer in an MLB organization looks like a clear misstep in hindsight.

2025 Grade: F

July 31 - Chicago trade Nelson Velazquez to KC Royals for Jose Cuas.
2023 Grade: A+

Well this grade aged like sour milk.

With a great story and a few solid performances, Cuas had carved out a notable role in Kansas City's bullpen. The Maryland native appeared in 45 games before the Royals dealt him to Chicago, following a 47-game workload the year prior. Cuas wasn’t a reliever to build a bullpen around—his 4.54 ERA and 4.43 FIP were both below average—but the Royals didn’t exactly have an obvious replacement waiting in the wings. Still, they chose to move the late-blooming righty to the Cubs at the deadline in exchange for slugging outfielder Velazquez.

Velazquez hadn’t gotten an extended look in Chicago despite solid production in spurts. With the Cubs chasing a playoff spot, they moved on from their outfield logjam and swapped upside for present relief depth. At the time, it made sense: Cuas was a controllable arm, and nearly every Royals pitcher under Cal Eldred carried the “maybe there’s untapped potential” label.

That trade looked like a slam dunk for Kansas City in the short term. Velazquez caught fire after arriving at Kauffman Stadium, looking like a potential fixture in the outfield. He slashed .233/.299/.579 with 14 home runs in 40 games to close out 2023, and Royals fans dared to believe the team had struck gold. But that shine quickly rusted over.

Velazquez played just 64 games between the 2024 and 2025 seasons, posting a 77 wRC+ along the way. His batted ball profile teased a breakout that never came, and his below-average defense made it hard to justify keeping him in the lineup during the slump. Even in a struggling 2024 Royals offense, others brought more consistency and versatility.

Kansas City never promoted Velazquez in 2025 and ultimately released him in late May. Still just 26 years old, his 2023 power binge should have earned him another shot elsewhere, but as of now, he remains unsigned. This trade would sting more if Cuas hadn’t become a journeyman himself—now with his fourth organization since June 2023 and currently pitching for Atlanta’s Double-A affiliate.

2025 Grade: C+

Aug. 1 - KC Royals trade Ryan Yarbrough to Los Angeles for Devin Mann and Derlin Figueroa.
2023 Grade: A-

Veteran Yarbrough followed manager Matt Quatraro from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Royals and was a serviceable piece of the rotation. The long ball remained an issue, and his 4.24 ERA was nothing to write home about, but Yarbrough was flexible in his role and, by comparison to his peers, a solid contributor. After returning from a frightening injury, he posted three quality starts in four July outings. That timely surge likely boosted his trade value, but the returns—Mann and Figueroa—have very different outlooks now than they did two years ago.

Mann was on a tear at Triple-A when Kansas City acquired him and seemed like a prime candidate to debut in August 2023. But the versatile infielder never quite found his rhythm at the plate. His first 37 games in Omaha marked the only time he posted a below-average wRC+ at any level since two rookie-ball games in 2018. Maybe it was the adjustment to a new system, but fans still held out hope for a rebound in 2024. Once again, though, the bat failed to return to previous heights, and he was merely average in the International League throughout the season.

Mann hit free agency after 2024 and landed a minor-league deal with the San Francisco Giants. Now 28 years old, he continues to post slightly above-average numbers in the minors but has yet to break into the big leagues. Kansas City likely hoped Mann would be a projectable MLB contributor, but it appears the Louisville product has plateaued as a classic Quad-A player.

Figueroa remains in the Royals’ system and is still very much a developmental project. The 21-year-old corner infielder started the 2025 campaign strong in Columbia but has struggled since a midseason promotion to Quad Cities. He’s currently more of a hit-over-power bat, and while he shows flashes, Figueroa isn’t registering on most mainstream prospect radars yet.

The logic behind the trade made sense in 2023: deal a pitcher at peak value for a near-ready bat and a developmental flier. Unfortunately, as Yarbrough continues to contribute at the major league level, neither Mann nor Figueroa has come close to returning that value.

2025 Grade: D

Aug. 1 - KC Royals trade Scott Barlow to San Diego for Henry Williams and Jesus Rios.
2023 Grade: B

The Royals certainly waited too long to trade Merrifield and Lopez, but the most egregious example of holding on too long might be Barlow. The long-haired closer was excellent during his Royals tenure, earning 56 saves and finishing 123 games for some bad Kansas City squads. Both marks rank among the best in franchise history, but his 2023 season was easily his worst—right when the Royals decided to move him to San Diego.

This trade felt like Royals general manager J.J. Picollo trying to course-correct one of former general manager Dayton Moore’s most glaring missteps. But the effort came too late. Barlow would’ve been one of the most coveted closers in baseball if dealt one or two seasons earlier. Instead, Kansas City settled for a return that included then-top-10 pitching prospect Williams and Arizona Complex League flier Rios. Unfortunately, neither prospect has stayed MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Royals list since the trade.

Williams was thrown into the fire with a brief Triple-A stint, but the Royals wisely didn’t double down on that experiment after his struggles. The Duke product still hasn’t regained the form he showed pre-Tommy John surgery, though his control has improved in 2025 as he continues to develop in the Double-A Northwest Arkansas rotation.

Rios has always been seen as a potential bullpen piece, and he’s remained serviceable—just not standout. He doesn’t rack up strikeouts or overpower hitters, but he’s limiting home runs and has posted a so-so 4.15 ERA in the Quad Cities bullpen. It would be his best mark since debuting at Low-A last season.

Is this grade more about what could’ve been than what is? Probably. Trading Barlow had the potential to be a major boon to Kansas City’s prospect pipeline, but the Royals waited too long and settled for a modest return. Williams and Rios are still around, but in 2025, they’re far from being difference-makers.

2025 Grade: C-