Kansas City Royals: Trading for Brandon Maurer colossal mistake

This time last year, the Kansas City Royals were in playoff contention. In order to compete for a spot in the postseason, the Royals went all in. The trade did not go well and is still not going well.

When the Kansas City Royals decided they had a talented enough team to make a run toward the postseason last year, it came at a price. Dayton Moore sent lackluster pitcher Travis Wood and young minor league infielder Esteury Ruiz to the Padres along with talented pitcher Matt Strahm.

In return, the Royals received three pitchers: Ryan Buchter, Trevor Cahill, and Brandon Maurer. As I typed out Brandon Maurer’s name, a shiver went down my spine and I imagine most Royals fans felt some sort of sad or angry emotion there as well.

This trade could go down as one of the worst in Royals history and likely will go down as the worst in the Dayton Moore era because of Maurer. He has been TERRIBLE. In fact, a strong argument could be made that Maurer is the worst pitcher in Kansas City Royals history.

The decision to go for it this time last year was one that I’ll still stand by, and I think most Royals fans will still stand by, but no one can argue that it was a bad trade. Only Maurer remains out of the three guys KC brought in and it’s definitely worth mentioning that both Buchter and Cahill are performing well with their new team (both are in Oakland).

Cahill has started ten games and has a 2.95 ERA with the Athletics while Buchter has a 2.21 ERA in 20.1 innings of work. Yet, the Royals don’t have either of those guys (granted, Cahill was awful while in KC as well) and are stuck with Maurer and his 14.25 ERA and four losses.

Maurer is still getting thrown into games in big time situations (well, as much of a “big time situation” as a team 40 games under .500 can have). The Royals can’t continue to hold onto Maurer much longer, but unfortunately he’s not a free agent until after NEXT year. Yikes.

General Managers can’t win every trade and that’s been showcased a lot more for Royals fans here lately. We were spoiled with the Zack Greinke trade in 2010, the James Shields trade in 2012, and the Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist trades in 2015, which all panned out beautifully. That’s why this one, which took place a little over a year ago, felt like it’d be another great Royals trade.

it has been anything but. Maurer had 20 saves when the Royals acquired him and with how badly Kelvin Herrera was struggling at times last year, not many Royals fans were dogging the trade. Instead, it was doomed from the start, as Maurer never figured it out while donning a Royals uniform. He still hasn’t.

To make matters worse, Matt Strahm is pitching well in San Diego. He could have been an important arm for the Royals during this rebuild, but now we’ll have to watch him pitch well for another team. Sigh.

Whenever Brandon Maurer’s time comes to an end with the Royals, it’s unlikely that anyone will look back at this trade and have anything nice to say. The Royals had every right to go for it and it made sense why they brought this guy in, but it’s been a dumpster fire for Brandon Maurer ever since he got here.

For now, let’s just hold our breath and hope for the best whenever Maurer comes out of that bullpen… Hopefully it’s in a game where the Royals are already losing by a ton of runs. That’s the only work he should be given.