Royals Rumors: Cardinals, Phillies potential suitors for Mike Moustakas
Royals rumors are hot and heavy and one of the latest rumors floating around is that both the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies are interested in adding Mike Moustakas to their roster.
Mike Moustakas has been one of the top performers for the Kansas City Royals in 2018 despite not getting a big contract on the open market this past offseason. The poor guy came off a career season where he hit 38 bombs and had the type of season that teams ask a guy to have in a contract year.
Instead, Moose was still unsigned by spring training and ended up re-signing with the Royals for a lot less money than what he could have had had he just accepted the qualifying offer. Now that the Royals are awful and trading just about anyone, perhaps Mike Moustakas can be flipped to another team and be playing for a contender this fall.
One team said to be interested in acquiring Moose is the St. Louis Cardinals, who Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote had “renewed interest” in the Royals third baseman. If acquired, Matt Carpenter could either move to first or second base depending on what the Cardinals decide to do with Jose Martinez and Kolten Wong.
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While Royals fans adore Mike Moustakas, he might not command as much as fans think he will. Rentals, unless ELITE players, don’t get much in return as they used to, and that’s what we’d be looking at here. Perhaps the Cardinals could send a decent prospect in return, but it’s doubtful the Royals would get a massive haul in return for Moose.
Another team in the trade talks for Moustakas is the Phillies, who are having a good year after struggling the past few seasons. The Phillies have seen improvement from their current third baseman Maikel Franco, but it still wouldn’t hurt for them to add a bigger bat to their lineup and Moustakas fits that mold.
After a rough offseason, it’d be nice to see Mike Moustakas land with a team that could make a serious run in October. He deserves to play for a winner and it’d be even sweeter if the Kansas City Royals could get a prospect or two in return for Moose’s services.
While fans have sat through a few trades already this summer, the Royals rumors aren’t anywhere close to being over with yet. At this point, just about anyone could be traded, but with Mike Moustakas being a free agent at season’s end, he’s one of the more likelier name to be dealt.
Where do you think Moose will end up?