Kansas City Royals: The trading has only just begun for the Royals

By Leigh Oleszczak | Jun 8, 2018

Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore during a spring training workout in Surprise, Ariz., on February 17, 2017. (John Sleezer/Kansas City Star/TNS via Getty Images) /

The Kansas City Royals got a jumpstart on trading their players, sending Jon Jay to Arizona on Wednesday evening. This will be the first of several trades Royals fans see this season.

The Kansas City Royals had to get off to a fast start this season or else the middle of the summer was going to result in a slew of trades. As we all know, the Royals did not get off to a good start and are more than 20 games under .500 as well as double digit games behind the first place Indians in the AL Central.

The Royals’ poor performance through the first two months of the season has made the whole trading players thing an easy decision. Last year, Dayton Moore had to decide if he wanted to go for it, stay pat, or trade away the big time players. He chose to go for it and while most of us commended him for that decision, the Royals have little to work with in their farm system now.

On Wednesday, outfielder Jon Jay was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for Elvis Luciano and Gabe Speier. Both are pitchers with Luciano being 18 years old and Speier at age 23. Speier has spent time in four other minor league systems, but he’s still young and has a decent shot to make it to the big leagues in the next few years.

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Jay was an easy trade asset for various reasons. He signed a one-year deal right around spring training and we all knew he’d be flippable should the Royals tank and Jay perform well. Jay was batting .307 at the time of being traded and now he can go out and help Arizona lock down the NL West.

There are other Royals who will be on the trade block too, namely Kelvin Herrera and Mike Moustakas. Both are free agents after this season and Herrera is straight up dealing on the mound in the closer role. He had a 0.79 ERA with 13 saves as of Thursday afternoon and a team will gladly be willing to add that to their bullpen for a run in October.

As for Moustakas, teams didn’t bite on him in free agency this past winter, but the trade deadline is a different story. Teams know what they need and what their lineup is missing. If they’re looking for a bat, Moose is their guy. He’s batting .272 with 12 home runs as of Thursday afternoon.

No one should be upset to see Jon Jay get traded. He was a short-term Royal and we all know the whole reason for signing him was this very moment of seeing him get traded.

This is the first of several trades that will take place for the Kansas City Royals though. The question now is, will Herrera and Moustakas also be dealt before a lot of deals start happening or will the Royals wait until the true Hot Stove season is upon us?

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