Kansas City Royals: Early season trade scenarios for four players

Would the Royals have signed Whit Merrifield to a very reasonable extension before the season began just to trade him a couple of months later?

No.

Well, probably not.

The wiggle room between those two answers is due to Merrifield being worth so much on the open market. He can play second. He can play right. He can play first. He can play left.

All the while, he’s hitting, getting on base, stealing bases, adding a little bit of oomph to where he hits in the lineup. Plus, while his contract is extremely friendly to a small-market team like the Royals, it’s just as valuable to every other team in the Majors.

If the Kansas City Royals trade Whit Merrifield, the return would be huge. This would be the team’s blockbuster. When outlining this project, I initially had eight teams interested in Merrifield, and I didn’t even consider the Dodgers, Phillies, Indians, Pirates, Red Sox or Yankees, who all would kill for a player like Whit, because I’ve already talk about those organizations in previous slides.

In the end, I whittled my list down to two teams, one of which is a small-market team shocking the baseball world, and one of which I won’t mention yet because you’ll all hate me even more than you do now.

But first: the Rays.

The Rays would utilize Merrifield much the same way the Royals have. In Tampa Bay, Merrifield could:

• Spell second baseman Brandon Lowe, who’s in his first full season in the Majors.
• Platoon at first base with Ji-Man Choi, who’s hitting .214 against lefties in 2019, and is a .146 lifetime hitter against lefties.
• Supplant Avisail Garcia as the team’s everyday right fielder.

Additionally, Merrifield is under contract past 2019 unlike both Choi and Garcia.

What would the Royals get in return for the team’s best player?

For starters, Garcia would most likely go to Kansas City as the Rays try to shed some payroll. Garcia isn’t making much this season, and he’ll be a free agent after the year. If acquired, the Royals could reasonably then flip him to another team to try to get even more for the future.

For the Royals, the great thing about trading with the Rays is the Rays’ jewel of a farm system. There are many excellent players from which to choose.

Again relying on MLB.com, outfielder Jesus Sanchez is the organization’s fourth-ranked prospect and second-best positional player. The 21-year-old is a former international free agent out of the Dominican Republic signed by the Rays in 2014. With a strong arm and decent defensive capabilities, he should be able to stay in right field. But it’s his bat that gets him ranked so highly. MLB.com writes:

"Sanchez has the ingredients to be a difference-maker with the bat, as he’s already shown that he can hit for both average and power during games at a young age. He has a fluid swing and an innate ability to impact the baseball from the left side of the plate, and there are few within the organization who consistently hit the ball as hard as Sanchez."

Next is Moises Gomez, another young international outfielder, this time from Venezuela. Gomez, 20, signed with the Rays in 2015, and is ranked as the team’s number 13 prospect.

As an 18-year-old in Single-A last year, Gomez smacked 19 home runs and 34 doubles while driving in 82 runs while slashing .280/.328/.503. He projects as a left fielder, and, as MLB.com writes, “[i]f it all clicks, Gomez could be hitting 25-plus homers from the middle of the…lineup in a matter of years.”

And then there’s left-handed starting pitcher Anthony Banda, ranked 21st by MLB.com. Banda’s pitched a bit in the Majors already, for both the Diamondbacks and Rays.

Currently, he’s recovering from Tommy John surgery, but if that goes well, he could be a winning lottery ticket. He averages over eight strikeouts per nine innings while career Minor League ERA, over 686 innings, is 3.81. According to MLB.com, he’s got a fastball that should be between 93-95 MPH to go along with a solid change-up and developing curve.

Would these four–Garcia plus three exciting prospects–be enough to pray Merrifield away from Kansas City?