Kansas City Royals: Nate Karns trade did not pan out for Royals

The Kansas City Royals made the decision to trade for starting pitcher Nate Karns during the 2016-2017 offseason and he did not live up to the expectations the Royals had for him.

With the World Series wrapped up, the Kansas City Royals are officially in offseason mode and that means changes are coming to the roster. One of the first moves the Royals made involved pitcher Nate Karns, who the team opted to outright to Triple-A Omaha.

Karns rejected the assignment and elected to become a free agent instead. This means his brief time as a member of the Kansas City Royals has come to an end. The Karns era wasn’t a long one, as the starting pitcher only appeared in nine games for the Royals and all came in 2017.

The Royals traded for Nate Karns in between the 2016 and 2017 seasons, sending Jarrod Dyson to Seattle in exchange for Karns’ services. It seemed like a solid move for both sides at the time, but the Mariners likely “won” that trade.

Karns made all nine of his Royals appearances in the 2017 season (eight starts, one relief appearance), throwing in 45.1 innings to the tune of a 4.17 ERA and a 2-2 record. Karns had his moments, but for the most part, he was disappointing.

Not only did Karns disappoint on the mound, but it was rare for him to even be on the mound, as the guy struggled to stay healthy. He missed all of 2018 due to injury and this wasn’t a new thing. Injuries were something that followed Karns to Kansas City and was probably why the Mariners were okay with giving up on him.

Had Karns stayed healthy, the trade would have worked out better for KC obviously. Dyson was essentially a fourth outfielder while Karns was a viable starting rotation option. Unfortunately things just didn’t work out for Karns in Kansas City and the Royals made the right decision in outrighting him.

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With Karns rejecting the Triple-A assignment, he’ll become a free agent and it’ll be interesting to see if he gets any traction this offseason. He missed all of 2018 and the Royals obviously feel okay with their rotation options moving forward.

Those options consist of Danny Duffy, Ian Kennedy, Brad Keller, Jakob Junis, Eric Skoglund, Jorge Lopez, Heath Fillmyer, and maybe even Glenn Sparkman. The Royals also have a slew of draft picks developing in the minor leagues that could give them an incredibly lethal rotation in the coming years.

At the end of the day, losing Nate Karns isn’t a big deal whatsoever. He contributed little during his time with the Royals and it wasn’t the likeliest of scenarios for him to be in the rotation next season anyway.

This is one of those trades that fans shouldn’t really be upset about. Dyson would have been a free agent at the end of the 2017 season, so the Royals were doing what they could to stay in contention that year, but also trade off impending free agents. With Dyson being a bench player, trading him made sense and Karns brought something the Royals needed help with at the time and that was starting pitching.

Yes, it would have been nice for Karns to have panned out obviously, but sometimes trades don’t work out. It’s best to move on from him now, as he’ll be 31 years old when the 2019 season starts and we all know the Royals are rebuilding.

If players aren’t going to be a part of that rebuild, time to cut bait now. Best of luck to Karns and wherever he lands.