Royals Rumors: Kelvin Herrera traded to Washington Nationals
Royals rumors have sparked again, as the Kansas City Royals have traded closer Kelvin Herrera to the Washington Nationals.
Well, we all knew it was bound to happen, but it’s official. The Kansas City Royals had one of the most coveted assets in all of Major League Baseball in Kelvin Herrera and they didn’t want to waste time in trading him. He was traded to Washington on Monday evening.
No one should be surprised, or upset, about this trade. If the Royals didn’t contend early on this year, it was going to be a fire sale this summer and now the team has traded its second player in just a few weeks.
In return, the Royals are getting three prospects from Washington: Blake Perkins, Kelvin Gutierrez, and Yohanse Morel. Perkins is a 21-year old outfielder, Gutierrez is a 23-year old infielder batting .274 in Double-A, and Morel is a right-handed pitcher.
Source: The Kansas City Royals have traded closer Kelvin Herrera to the Washington Nationals. @JonHeyman said it was close.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 18, 2018
OF Blake Perkins, 3B Kelvin Gutierrez, and RHP Yohanse Morel heading to #Royals in Herrera trade. @MLBNetwork @MLB
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) June 19, 2018
Herrera had a 1.05 ERA with 14 saves in 25.2 innings. He was basically untouchable up until last week and now he’ll be joining a loaded Nationals bullpen. This was obviously one of the main things Washington felt they needed to make a run this October and now they’ve acquired one of the best closers in all of baseball.
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Herrera had been in the Royals’ bullpen since 2011 and was one of the prominent members of that dominant H-D-H trio in 2014 and 2015. While Herrera had a rough 2017 season, he bounced back tremendously this year.
Kelvin Herrera is going to be a free agent at the end of the season, so the Royals knew they’d have to trade him. He was the most tradable player on the team and was also the Royals’ only worthy All-Star. That’ll be a fun situation to see who now represents KC in the All-Star Game.
Even though we all knew this day would come sooner than later in 2018, it still is tough to see Kelvin Herrera go. Jon Jay was a Royal for two minutes, so that one wasn’t a bummer, but Herrera was a part of some key moments for the Kansas City Royals.
Herrera did a lot for the Royals and now he can pitch for a contending team. Hopefully the Nationals will make a deep run this October and Herrera can boost his stock for the offseason.