Royals address desperate need for outfield upgrade with trade for underrated veteran

After trading for utility man Adam Frazier last week, the Kansas City Royals appeared to shift themselves towards the buyers category ahead of the July 31 MLB trade deadline, despite their below .500 record.

There may have been doubt though around whether or not the Royals would continue to buy, after GM J.J. Picollo signaled on Friday that Kansas City might not be buyers or sellers at the deadline and standing pat would "not be a bad thing".

However, it took just a day for him to counter the standing pat argument, as the Royals are reportedly acquiring veteran outfielder Randal Grichuk from the Arizona Diamondbacks as per FanSided''s MLB insider Robert Murray. It was later reported by Jon Heyman of the New York Post that reliever Andrew Hoffmann would be heading to the D-Backs in return.

Randal Grichuk heads to Royals, providing much needed outfield upgrade

The Royals need for an upgrade in the outfield might be the most glaring need in all of baseball. Entering Saturday's doubleheader against the Cleveland Guardians, Kansas City's outfield unit sat dead last in baseball in runs scored, home runs, RBI, OBP, SLG, and wRC+ as well as 29th in AVG.

Now, Grichuk doesn't constitute as a major splash, especially when the Royals were tied to former All-Star Jarren Duran earlier this week. However, compared to their current outfield mix, he's certainly an upgrade, even if he is in the midst of a down year compared to his stellar 2024 performance.

In 186 plate appearances across 69 games in Arizona this season, the 33-year-old is hitting to a respectable .243 AVG with a .742 OPS and near-average 99 wRC+. And as mentioned earlier, he's only a season removed from a very productive performance, slashing .291/.348/.528 with a career best 139 wRC+.

While he's definitely a breath of fresh air for this outfield overall, he also ticks off some hyperspecifc boxes for the Royals.

Grichuk's .462 SLG this season is a much higher than this lineup's combined .380 SLG. In fact, among Royals hitters with at least 150 plate appearances, Grichuk would sit third - only trailing Bobby Witt Jr. (.489) and Salvador Perez (.466).

And while he may be more of a lefty merchant - appearing in nearly twice the amount of games as he has against righties and posting a 102 wRC+, .469 SLG and .750 OPS in the process - the Royals could use some better production from the left side of the plate. This season against southpaws, Kansas City holds just a .359 SLG and .659 OPS.

Now, while he may not be as good against righties as he he is lefties, he's not bad by any means, as he's held his own this season versus them, hitting .267 with a .727 OPS.

What's also nice for the Royals with this deal is that they didn't need to sacrifice a bigger name prospect, and actually pulled from their expendable major league pitching depth to make this deal happen.

Andrew Hoffmann may have been having a strong year down in Triple-A Omaha - with a 2.25 ERA, 2.14 FIP, 1.13 WHIP and .226 BAA - but it's been his only real productive season in his upper minors career and when tasked with pitching in the big leagues in 2025 he's struggled.

It may be a small sample size, but in 4.2 innings across three appearances with the Royals this year, Hoffmann may hold a serviceable 3.86 ERA, but a 6.31 FIP, 2.36 WHIP and .318 BAA are all telling of how overmatched he's looked at the MLB level.

With the presence of relievers like Jonathan Bowlan and Evan Sisk to act as fill-in arms that the Royals can call upon from Omaha, Hoffmann was an expendable asset.

Now that this deal has been made, it remains to be seen what else Picollo and the Royals' front office might have up their sleeve ahead of Thursday at 5 p.m CT.