Kansas City Royals: Brandon Moss trade poses many questions

The Kansas City Royals traded Brandon Moss to the Oakland Athletics and now there are a lot of unanswered questions.

While the Brandon Moss era only lasted a year with the Kansas City Royals, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered now that Moss is headed to Oakland. Moss was brought to Kansas City to serve as their predominant designated hitter, but did not do well in that role.

Moss ended his 2017 season with a slash line of .207/.279/.428 and 22 home runs, which wasn’t even the most on the team. He struggled throughout most of the year and usually only contributed offensively with home runs.

Brandon Moss saw the field sometimes, playing at first base and in the outfield on multiple occasions. Now that he’s off to Oakland, both first base and the designated hitter positions are wide open in Kansas City.

Moss was really the only viable option left on the Royals to play first base, which really opens up the possibility that KC did this with a strong intention of bringing Eric Hosmer back. They got rid of their one experienced first baseman and saved money in the process. Doesn’t that seem like they’re looking to make a big move? Re-signing Hosmer fits that bill for sure.

Related Story: Royals Trade Ryan Buchter, Brandon Moss to Oakland

If the Royals can’t get Hosmer, they don’t have any other first basemen ready to go for the season. They could put someone like Hunter Dozier there, but he hasn’t played much first base in his career. Dayton Moore obviously has something in mind or he wouldn’t have made this deal.

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Kansas City also will have to address their designated hitter spot, which will be Jorge Soler‘s job to lose. Soler sucks defensively, so this is the Royals’ chance to make him their every day DH. Let’s just hope Soler can actually hit the ball this year, something he struggled to do in 2017.

Other options at DH are Jorge Bonifacio, Cheslor Cuthbert, and even Salvador Perez from time to time. Bonifacio will likely be the starting right fielder, Cuthbert should see time at third, and Perez is still the franchise catcher, but we saw him get more time off than usual last year.

Look, the 2018 season is going to be all about giving younger guys playing time and letting them make mistakes. Moss only had a year left on his contract and he was taking up that designated hitter spot where the Royals really want Soler to be at. This trade makes sense because Moss was one of the older guys on the team and there wasn’t much use for him moving forward.

The bigger question is definitely what’s going to happen at first base? Maybe we’ll be hearing an announcement about the Royals re-signing Eric Hosmer before too long.

If nothing else, this trade indicates that the Kansas City Royals aren’t done this offseason.