Kansas City Royals: Trades contributed greatly to World Series victory

The Kansas City Royals obviously aren’t having a great season, so let’s go back to some of the happier times for the franchise. Those happier times were helped out tremendously by trades made by Dayton Moore.

The Kansas City Royals won the World Series in 2015. Yes, despite how bad the team is now, this is a franchise less than three years removed from winning it all. Crazy, right?

Something that strongly contributed to the Royals getting to the pinnacle of Major League Baseball was the trades that the team made. In case you don’t remember, there were a few that the Royals made that helped the team during their prominent run.

Why am I bringing this up now, you ask? Well, for one, the Royals are awful right now, so you shouldn’t blame me for wanting to revert back to discussing the glory days. Second, 610 Sports had a segment on “The Drive” where the producer mentioned the Chiefs drafting Patrick Mahomes was the biggest trade in Kansas City sports history. The link to that segment is included in the tweet below.

The hosts of the show quickly dubbed this as a hot take (as they should have), noting that the Royals made several big time trades. Were it not for these trades, the Kansas City Royals wouldn’t have won the World Series in 2015. They might not have even made it to the World Series in 2014 without these trades.

The first big one was granting Zack Greinke his wish and trading him after the 2010 season. He was flipped to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for two guys named Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain along with a few other names. As we know, Escobar and Cain became legends amongst Royals fans. Both won an ALCS MVP during those 2014 and 2015 seasons and played key roles in those playoff appearances.

That trade continued to pay dividends. Prior to the 2013 season, the Royals made a huge move by trading for James Shields, then of the Tampa Bay Rays. They sent Jake Odorizzi (a guy they received in the Greinke deal) to Tampa, getting Shields and another pitcher (more on him in a bit) in return.

Despite not pitching well in the 2014 World Series, the Royals needed a guy like James Shields when he was in town. He led them to their first winning season in a decade in 2013 and helped them make it to the postseason for the first time in 29 years in 2014.

Oh yeah, that “other pitcher” I mentioned above was Wade Davis, who was a failed starter for the Royals, but soon became one of the best closers in baseball. Even though that trade is referred to as the “James Shields trade” by most fans, Wade Davis was arguably the bigger name in that deal. He was lights out in both postseason runs.

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Lastly, during the Royals’ quest to the playoffs in 2015, they traded for two key guys: Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist. Cueto was awful during the regular season, but he showed up when it mattered most. He was amazing in Game 5 of the ALDS and in his lone World Series start.

As for Zobrist, the Royals wouldn’t have won the World Series without him. He batted .333 during the ALDS against Houston and .320 in the ALCS against Toronto and was the second baseman the Royals needed during that time.

Yes, a lot of Kansas City’s World Series run was helped out by their draft picks, but trades also played a huge role in getting them to the mountain top. Without getting Cain and Escobar, the Royals don’t make that kind of run. Without trading for Shields and Davis, the Royals don’t sniff the World Series in 2014. Without Cueto and Zobrist, the Royals likely don’t make it past the ALDS in 2015.

This is one of those articles that people will wonder if it’s from 2016, but no, it’s not. I heard that segment on 610 on Wednesday and also wanted to relive the glory days of the Kansas City Royals. Those trades made this team what it was during those runs and without them, it’s unlikely this city had a parade downtown in 2015.