Kansas City Royals: Kelvin Herrera has chance to bring back major haul

By Leigh Oleszczak | May 25, 2018

KANSAS CITY, MO - APRIL 12: Kansas City Royals relief pitcher Kelvin Herrera (40) pitches in the ninth inning of an MLB game between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Kansas City Royals on April 12, 2018 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, MO. The Angels won 7-1. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The Kansas City Royals will be sellers at the trade deadline and the biggest name on the trade block is Kelvin Herrera. The Royals closer could bring back a boat load of prospects in return.

Flashback to the last few years at the trade deadline in Major League Baseball. Closers are in high demand and that bodes well for the Kansas City Royals, who have one of the best closers in baseball at the moment.

Kelvin Herrera, so far in his 18.2 innings thrown, has locked down ten saves and is posting a sparkling ERA of 0.96. He’s surrendered just two earned runs during his time on the mound this season.

To sum all of that up, Herrera has been lights out and should be on his way to a third All-Star appearance if he keeps pitching this well. The good news for Royals fans is not only that they have a shutdown closer, but that the timing couldn’t be perfect for Herrera to be dealing against the opposition.

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Herrera is a free agent after this season, so he will be hitting the open market after the 2018 campaign wraps up. Trading him is a no-brainer for the Royals and a lot of teams will likely inquire about KC’s closer.

Just two years ago, the Chicago Cubs gave up a King’s ransom to acquire then (and well… current, I guess) Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman. Chapman played a huge part in getting the Cubs their first championship in over 100 years, so yeah… Their fans would probably say giving up that haul was worth it.

Those players sent to New York in that trade, by the way, were Gleyber Torres, Adam Warren, Billy McKinney, and Rashad Crawford. Warren had been a Major League pitcher for a few years, so not all were prospects, but it still consisted of the Yankees getting four players in return for their talented closer.

Torres is looking like the best piece in that trade right now, but that isn’t too surprising. McKinney and Warren are both injured and Crawford is still waiting for his big league call-up. It’s still early for McKinney and Crawford, but that trade definitely was a big one for the Yankees.

While the Royals won’t re-sign Kelvin Herrera after he gets traded somewhere like the Yankees did with Chapman, this is as good a time as any to trade their dominant reliever. Even if Herrera wasn’t going to be a free agent, it’d still be a move the Royals would have to make.

Some teams that might still be in contention and need a closer would be the Angels, Braves, Brewers, and Cardinals and I’m sure others will emerge. Herrera has also proven in the past that he’s a great set-up man, as he had the seventh inning role in 2014 and 2015 and then moved to the eighth inning in the backend of 2015 and all of 2016.

Kansas City Royals fans don’t have a ton to look forward to this season, but the trade deadline will be vital for the rebuild. Kelvin Herrera should bring some great prospects to help kick start that rebuild.

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