Kansas City Royals whiffed on most recent trade deadline
By John McCarty
Salvador Perez
Salvador Perez, now 30, missed all of last season due to elbow surgery and now has missed a good amount of games this season with vision issues. Like Soler, next season is his last year under contract.
If the Royals can get anything remotely decent in return, Perez needs to be moved. Like running backs in the NFL, catchers knees take a beating and will erode a player’s abilities. I hope against hope that the Royals put the success of the ball club long-term over the feelings toward Perez as a person. I don’t expect that to happen.
Adalberto Mondesi
Adalberto Mondesi has been atrocious basically ever since he arrived in the majors and one can argue he’s been bad ever since he started pro ball. Yes, the Royals rushed him for reasons no one will ever understand and now the young shortstop is out of options, so he’s stuck in a strike out limbo, not producing and not able to develop.
Mondesi averaged striking out in the minors more than once a game (586 k’s in 543 games) and with 141 walks in the minors. One can ague his 4.15 strikeouts per walk indicate he simply doesn’t see the ball well and/or doesn’t understand the strike zone.
The .303 minor league OBP is rather awful as well. In short, his minor league numbers reflect accurately the .273 OBP and his mind numbing 7.64 strikeout per walk number is enough to make anyone’s head spin. Simply put, he’s just not good. He doesn’t make enough contact to merit being a major league regular.
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The Kansas City Royals haven’t been doing a good job at recent deadlines, including this year’s.
The Royals wiffed badly at last year’s deadline when they held on to Ian Kennedy and continued to hold on to him during the offseason. Now, we are enjoying the 3D version of the Kennedy gopher ball experience.
I will simply end with this reminder. The last Royals run of success was built because the team drafted high upside bats and traded Zach Grienke, the star player on the Royals, for pieces that built the winner.
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It’s okay to trade good players when you’re not winning. It’s okay to trade good players when you are winning. The point is to win games.
The Royals have to be honest about their players and they’ve failed to do that in recent years, meaning this current rebuild could stretch out longer than any of us would like.