MLB Trade Rumors looks at three needs for KC Royals in offseason

The KC Royals’ season ends on Sunday and Jeff Todd of MLB Trade Rumors wrote up three needs for the team over the offseason. Here’s what Todd had to say.

Kansas City Royals fans didn’t expect the champaign to be flowing and the confetti to fall in 2019, but it’s safe to say a lot of us expected some improvement with the team this year. Instead – It was another 100 loss season and left all of us wondering what the next step is for the Royals, as they grind along on this rebuild.

Jeff Todd of MLB Trade Rumors published a piece on the three needs for the Royals this offseason and those were:

1. Trading Whit Merrifield
2. Extending players without overpaying
3. Signing free agents with upside

Here’s what he had to say about potentially shipping Merrifield off to the highest bidder:

"He’d basically fit on any team in baseball and might be a real difference-maker in the right situation. Everything about Merrifield’s profile screams for him to be sent to a contender. Keeping him is a luxury the Royals can’t afford."

While I, like most Royals fans, adore Merrifield and would love to have him on this team moving forward, it’d be wise to look into trading him this winter. He’s a great player and doesn’t do anything poorly, but he is in his 30s and like Todd mentioned, he’d be a good fit with just about any team looking to contend due to all of the positions he can play.

When it comes to potentially extending certain players, Todd mentioned Jorge Soler, Brad Keller, Adalberto Mondesi, and Hunter Dozier. Keller and Mondesi are both younger guys while Soler and Dozier are in their late 20s and might not be as no brainers to extend due to their age.

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"A long-term arrangement with Adalberto Mondesi or even Hunter Dozier could deliver huge upside, and certainly ought to be considered, but the organization should pull hard on its leverage given the ongoing uncertainty with those players."

Lastly, the free agent aspect, which is somewhere Dayton Moore has struggled to find success in over the past few seasons. The Royals aren’t going to contend in 2020 (sorry to disappoint you if you expected otherwise), but they’ll still need to sign a few free agents to fill holes on their rosters, as the team waits for the prospects to make it to the big leagues.

"Yasiel Puig, Avisail Garcia, and Corey Dickerson are interesting corner outfield targets; Alex Wood and Michael Wacha might like pitching in Kauffman. If any of those players struggle to find adequate arrangements elsewhere, they could be bailed out with a deal that spans multiple campaigns at a low-ish AAV — thus increasing the future trade value in the event that the anticipated bounceback comes to pass."

Any of these names could make sense in Kansas City and like Todd mentioned, if they struggle to make an impact, it might not be difficult to move on from them, depending on the contract agreed upon.

The Kansas City Royals have problems just about everywhere on their roster and that won’t improve overnight. That being said, Jeff Todd’s three suggestions make sense for this team over the winter and they’re all moves the organization needs to focus on if this team wants to start contending again.