Kansas City Royals: Five more trade scenarios for 2019
By Cullen Jekel
Now, it’s time to switch gears. With this trade proposal and the next, the Kansas City Royals would deal away two guys who have been with the team for at least a couple of seasons, both of whom have contracts extending past the end of 2019, unlike the previous four players mentioned.
Is it conceivable that the Royals deal the next two players before this season’s deadline? Maybe. Maybe not.
How ’bout them Washington Nationals? They were left for dead earlier in the season as it looked be just another year mired in turmoil. But they’ve rebounded, and now lead the National Wild Card by half-a-game over the Phillies.
The Nationals have an excellent starting rotation featuring the likes of Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin and Anibal Sanchez. However, the fifth starting spot remains a concern, as does the bullpen outside of closer Sean Doolittle.
Acquiring Danny Duffy would give the Nationals a swing-man that has experience, and relative success, both as a reliever and a starting pitcher. Plus, Duffy’s under contract for another two seasons at a reasonable rate: $15.25 million in 2020 and $15.5 million in 2021.
With several more hefty deals coming off the books after this season, plus having the 35-year-old Sanchez with only a team option in 2021, the Nationals could more than fit Duffy on the ledger. He could eventually supplant Sanchez as the team’s No. 4 starter, or become the team’s go-to arm in the middle innings before it’s time for Doolittle.
Two prospects would head to the Royals in this deal. First, there’s right-handed pitcher Mason Denaburg, the Nationals number three prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. Despite that high ranking, MLB Pipeline still only grades Denaburg as a 50 overall, grading his fastball and curveball as plus pitches, but rating his changeup and control only as 50s.
2080 Baseball, which ranks Denaburg as the club’s number four prospect, writes about him that he’s “unproven and numerous years from ready, but (his) high-upside stuff gives the ceiling of a #3 starter.” They also note that he only fell to the Nationals in the 2018 Draft due to suffering from bicep tendinitis.
Next is Jake Noll, an infielder ranked by MLB Pipeline as the organization’s number 26 prospect while he misses 2080 Baseball’s list of Top 15 organizational prospects. 2080 wrote about him that “Noll is a hit-first prospect who doesn’t quite have the power to fit a corner profile and lacks a defensive position.”
That site also notes that Noll could very well end up a 1B/LF player. If his bat develops, Noll, 25, would fit that mold of a versatile position player that the Royals so dearly love, even if those positions are in the corner.
Other Options
- Milwaukee may be another team interested, perhaps for the prospects mentioned previously in the page about Hamilton and Maldonado. But the Royals should push for a better player, such as the team’s number five prospect, SS/2B Mauricio Dubon, a 24-year-old recently promoted to the Majors.
- Another team previously mentioned that could also be interested in Duffy: the Rangers. Much like the aforementioned prospect named in “Other Options” for Maldonado, this pitcher also underwent T.J. surgery: 19-year-old Owen White, the team’s No. 12 prospect.