Royals Rumors: Royals Are Quiet At Trade Deadline

The 2016 MLB trade deadline came and went with very little action on the part of the Kansas City Royals following the injury to closer Wade Davis.

The Kansas City Royals had been a popular choice as “sellers” leading up to the trade deadline this year. Most notably, they were expected to deal closer Wade Davis for a large haul of prospects.

However, an eleventh-hour injury revelation negated any potential of moving Davis and certainly threw a wrench in the Royals plans for retooling the roster to be competitive in 2017.

Talks were progressing between the Royals and the Los Angeles Dodgers, but negotiations fell apart at the last minute when an MRI revealed another forearm injury for Davis.

This is the second forearm injury he has suffered this month, with concerns there may be an elbow issue as well.

The injury to Davis forced the Royals to reset their trade plans at the last minute, with Edinson Volquez as their next best trade piece. Of course, Volquez is not the player that Wade Davis is, but he still carried value in a market that was lacking quality pitching.

So there was some hope that the Royals could build around that, potentially with the Houston Astros.

“We never shop players here.” ~ Dayton Moore on Royals trade options

Other names floated on the trade wire included Kendrys Morales, Ian Kennedy, and Jarrod Dyson. Each of them could probably have fetched some kind of moderate return, though none are in high demand and Kennedy’s contract currently makes him almost impossible to trade away. Still, the Royals did have some options.

Royals GM Dayton Moore went on 810 sports radio after the trade deadline to talk about the lack of action. Moore stated that the Royals were never actively pursuing a trade, but would listen to offers, and that fans should assume that no offers materialized. Moore said: “We never shop players here. In 10 years we have never picked up the phone and asked ‘do you want this player’”.

Moore said: “We never shop players here. In 10 years we have never picked up the phone and asked ‘do you want this player’”.

Unfortunately, no deals materialized and the Royals were forced to stand pat with their current roster. This throws a kink in their plans moving forward as the team will still need to address the contracts of Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, and Lorenzo Cain before they can focus on bringing in new talent to help the club regain its swagger and become competitive again.