Royals Rumors: MLB insider claims AL Wild Card rival is targeting key KC reliever

Trade deadline day always provides a plethora of rumors and endless speculation on what the next move might be.

While the Kansas City Royals seem to be firmly in the buyers category, that has not stopped the rumors that other contending teams might be kicking around some of their major league assets.

The latest intel comes from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic who reports that the Texas Rangers "are pursuing" relievers including Royals veteran Hunter Harvey.

Royals' Hunter Harvey reportedly garnering interest from Texas Rangers

While there's been buzz around names like closer Carlos Estévez over the past few week, there's been minimal speculation if any surrounding Harvey.

Perhaps that's because the 30-year-old righty only just returned from an over three-month stint on the IL this past weekend.

All that to say, from a statistical standpoint, it's not a shock that he's piquing the interest of fellow contenders in search of an impact arm for the bullpen. In 7.2 innings across nine appearances in 2025, he's throwing to a perfect 0.00 ERA alongside a 0.39 WHIP and .115 BAA.

A potential deal for Harvey, in general or with the Rangers in particular, raises some questions.

The first would be, are the Royals still willing to trade from their major league roster to bolster other major league needs?

This seemed to be the route they could've taken with Seth Lugo, before agreeing to an extension with him over the weekend. If they were to take this route with Harvey, it would not be the first time they've done so this summer, but by far the most prominent.

They dealt Cam Devanney - who although did not appear in a big league game, was on the 26-man roster at the time of trade - to Pittsburgh for Adam Frazier. Then it was Andrew Hoffmann - who although minimal, did have some major league innings under his belt in Kansas City this season - who was dealt to Arizona in exchange for Randal Grichuk.

The return would likely have to be worthwhile if the Royals were to do a deal for Harvey, given how crucial he can be to the late-inning plans for Matt Quatraro alongside Estévez and Lucas Erceg.

This leads into the Rangers specific question of what would the the Royals be looking for in return from Texas?

Whether or not they would want to business with Texas at all is one thing given they're currently 3.0 games ahead them in the AL Wild Card standings. But if they can look past the competitive conflicts, the Royals and Rangers could perhaps be ideal trade partners.

They've recently done business in the past, with the Aroldis Chapman for Cole Ragans deal back in 2023 and then the Walter Pennington for Michael Lorenzen trade around this time last year, so there is that familiarity there. Add on top of that, Rangers President of Baseball Operations Chris Young is a former Royals starter himself.

Beyond the bonds though, lies the mutually beneficial needs each other has. If the Rangers are in need of relief pitching then perhaps a major leaguer-for-major leaguer type deal is possible. The Rangers have a some bats that could be of interest to the Royals who desperately need offensive reinforcements, including outfielder Adolis García.
While maybe not one-for-one, perhaps Harvey and García could build the framework to a deal.

It remains to be seen whether GM J.J. Picollo would still be interested in subtracting from his major league pitching depth to acquire offense, but the late links between Harvey and the Rangers is one to watch hours before the trade deadline hits.