Royals reliever's brutal month of July may've destroyed any trade value he carried

The Kansas City Royals are approaching a trade deadline where relief pitching could be a primary point of emphasis for them in the pursuit of retooling for 2027. With their most valuable names like Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo potentially priced out of the market, the Royals will likely have to rely upon more volatile pieces like relievers or depth-style pieces to gain assets for next season.

This is where a name like current primary closing option Alex Lange could've come into play. After a very poor start to the season, Lange subtly rebounded into one of the Royals most reliable relievers, leading him to overtake Lucas Erceg in the bullpen hierarchy as their anchor. On a one-year contract, this made him a prime candidate to be traded ahead of Aug. 3.

However, the month of July has seen him revert to his old ways, completely erasing the progress he made from late April onwards. And Tuesday's latest blown save was the prime example of it. Lange came on with a 2-1 lead in the ninth, surrendered a lead-off single, then walked Brooks Lee with one out only to give up a walk-off two-RBI triple to Royce Lewis.

Was Lange ever going to be the most desirable relief pitcher on the market? No. However despite his red flags, with plenty of closing experience in his career and showed the ability to effectively get through high leverage innings. For a rental arm, there was surely to be interest in a veteran like him.

Now though, with 10 earned runs of nine hits, two homers and three walks in seven outings, he's looked entirely unreliable in any circumstance and in the process, sucked any trade momentum he may've carried entering the heart of summer.

Who could the Royals trade out of their bullpen at the deadline beyond Alex Lange?

Luckily for the Royals, their tradeable relief pitching doesn't start or end at Lange. He was simply one of multiple expiring contracts that could've been enticing to trade suitors in search of a temporary rental arm to gear up for a postseason push.

In terms of those expiring arms, John Schreiber has always seemed like a more sure thing than Lange. He's in the midst of a fourth consecutive sub-4.00 ERA season and unlike Lange, was able to not only weather his early season storm, but keep it at bay. And even in his putrid season, perhaps Matt Strahm's prior reputation as one of the better left-handed set-up men in baseball could still entice some names to take a change-of-scenery gamble on him in the coming days.

Looking deeper beyond expriring contracts, a name like Daniel Lynch IV could look very desirable to trade suitors in search of controllable relief talent. The southpaw looks to finally be living up to his former first-round potential in his breakout 2026 campaign, throwing to a 2.05 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and .180 BAA.

Lange's downfall is unfortunate as not only have the Royals potentially lost a trade piece ahead of a deadline where they really needed all hands on deck to get the optimal overall return, but they could very well be at square one again when it comes to addressing their closer's role.

That being said, they're not without hope by any means in terms of trade assets, as there's still plenty of room for them to be busy on the trade market in the coming days - even if it means Lange remains in a Royals uniform.

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