Royals Rumors: Early look at Royals trades so far in 2019

The Royals then went out and traded backstop Martin Maldonado to the Cubs for Mike Montgomery. On paper this trade does not compare with the previous trade.

The Royals only slightly became younger and there were no prospects coming back. So, why did the organization make this trade when they are building their farm and every prospect is a potential building block towards future success?

In answering that question, we have to explore Maldonado’s purpose on the team. Maldonado was brought in as a veteran replacement for Salvador Perez, when Perez had a devastating injury that required season ending Tommy John surgery.

The Kansas City Star’s Lynn Worthy wrote (at the time) the Royals needed to “pick up the slack”. Worthy also noted that Gallagher had only caught 35 major league games while Meibrys Viloria had played in ten games.

Looking back it is clear that the Royals felt they needed a veteran catcher to help season Cam Gallagher while also putting Viloria in the best possible place for future success (which was to option him to the minors so he could get more playing time).

Another possible reason to bring in Maldonado was to help out not only Gallagher grow up, but also Brad Keller, Jakob Junis, Danny Duffy, and Glenn Sparkman along with their young bullpen arms.