Royals History: How KC's 'new' reliever played role in one of club's worst deals ever

A pre-Christmas trade between the Kansas City Royals and Philadelphia Phillies brought veteran reliever Matt Strahm back home to Kauffman Stadium, where it's hoped he'll help the first big league club he pitched for return to the playoffs next season. Strahm broke in with the Royals in 2016, and the 1.23 ERA he posted over 21 games suggested a bright future with the franchise was in the making.

But things didn't work out that way. Instead, the club sacrificed that part of its future when head baseball man Dayton Moore pulled the trigger on a 2017 trade deadline deal with San Diego that involved Strahm. The move, designed to bolster KC's playoff chances, quickly fizzled, and became one of the worst trades the Royals have ever made.

Here's what happened.

Why the Royals traded Matt Strahm

Kansas City was in the midst of its second season since thrilling its fans by winning the 2015 World Series. Although a disappointing .500 2016 season deprived them of the chance to defend that title, the Royals were contending when Moore shipped Strahm to San Diego.

Because his team trailed American League Central leader Cleveland by only 1.5 games when Moore made the deal, trading for stretch-run help was understandable.

But the makeup of the swap wasn't. Its centerpiece was San Diego reliever Brandon Maurer, whose 20 saves flew in the face of ominously foreboding numbers — he was 1-4 with a 5.27 ERA and had surrendered 25 runs in 39.1 innings when he packed his bags for Kansas City.

Moore gave up the promising Strahm, sidelined at the time (and ultimately for the season) with a knee injury, and pitcher Travis Wood and infielder Esteury Ruiz to get Maurer and fellow pitchers Ryan Buchter and Trevor Cahill.

The Matt Strahm deal quickly became a catastrophe for the Royals

It took little time for Moore's well-intentioned deal to sour. Unsurprisingly given his high San Diego ERA, Maurer finished his first 10 KC appearances with an even worse 8.31 ERA after being battered for eight runs, 15 hits, and six walks in only 8.2 innings.

Utilized 16 more times by manager Ned Yost before the season ended, some of Maurer's 26-game final KC stats — an 8.10 ERA, 18 runs in 20 innings, a 2.25 WHIP, and a .366 BAA — told a sad story, and probably had more than a little to do with the Royals' failure to make the playoffs.

Opponents knocked Cahill around for 21 runs in 23 innings while Buchter went a commendable 1-0 with a 2.67 ERA in 29 appearances. Both ended up with the Athletics before the next season began.

Maurer sealed his fate with the Royals — and major league baseball — when he posted another ugly ERA (7.76) and lost all four of his decisions across the 37 games he worked for the Royals in 2018. He blew a save opportunity in his final appearance of the season and never again threw a big league pitch.

Strahm, on the other hand, returned to action in 2018 and, in four seasons with the Padres, posted a 3.81 ERA in 112 games before pitching for Boston in 2022. Free agency took him to Philadelphia, and there he thrived — in three campaigns with the Phillies, he went 17-10 with a 2.71 ERA, made the National League All-Star team in 2024 when he went 6-2 with a career-best 1.87 ERA, and each year helped his club qualify for postseason play.

Now, with his major league career coming full circle, Strahm is a "new" member of the Royals' bullpen. After a long absence from Kansas City, look for him to be a valuable part of manager Matt Quatraro's 2026 bullpen.