Royals’ list of trade partners might’ve dwindled yet again after NL West GM’s remarks

After picking up some speed during the Winter Meetings and in the immediate days following, the holiday season brought quite the lull in offseason activity.

For the Royals, this could be frustrating. On top of needing to bring in some more new names on top of the additions they’ve already made, they still need to address the elephant in the room of having far too much major league capable starting pitching depth than they do rotation spots.

While there’s still plenty of time before pitcher’s and catchers meet in February or spring training kicks off or even Opening Day gets underway to get a deal done, what adds to the frustration is that once seemingly suitable trade partners seem to be taking themselves out of the running for a potential deal with the Royals.

Ahead of the holidays, Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reported that the Chicago Cubs may not have a ton of interest in starter Kris Bubic.

Now, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, another team that was thought to have been in need of starting pitching in the San Francisco Giants perhaps isn’t in the hunt for that all of a sudden.

“Giants GM Zack Minasian said the Giants will keep looking through free agent/trade options, but said they are ‘very comfortable with the five (starters) that we have’ and the young depth behind those guys,” Pavlovic wrote via X.

Giants may no longer be suitable trade fit for Royals and their starting pitching surplus

Now, Minasian’s comments aren’t coming from a place of complete inactivity. In fact they come off the back of the team signing righty Tyler Mahle to a one-year deal.

However, it’s somewhat odd to hear a team executive of a group that likely has contending ambitions in 2026 be so satisfied with this current group of starters.

Outside of their current ace and perennial Cy Young contender in Logan Webb, the question makrs really start to pile up.

Robbie Ray may have a Cy Young of his own and is coming off a solid 3.65 ERA season, but he’s not far removed from injury filled 2023 and 2024 seasons where he only started eight games combined in those two seasons. At 34-years-old, while he may be coming off a healthy season, his recent injury history is certainly at least a marginal red flag.

Then there’s Mahle, who looked excellent in his 16 starts in Texas with a 2.18 ERA, but also has injury history is spotty himself, having made just 24 starts in the past three seasons combined.

Rounding out the projected staff are names that again are coming off decent seasons in 2025 in Adrian Houser and Landen Roupp, but they aren’t exactly household names to bet the house on.

And that so called young depth beyond their starting five that Minasian mentioned had their hiccups in 2025 when given the chance to appear at the major league level. The most notable names in Hayden Birdsong, Carson Whisenhunt, Kai-Wei Teng and Keaton Winn all posted ERAs of 4.50 or higher last year.

Could they blossom into solid starters with more experience? Sure, but that’s still a lot to bank on in 2026 if your desire is to compete.

This where perhaps a Kris Bubic, Ryan Bergert or Stephen Kolek could’ve come into play as major league names to help deepen this Giants staff who also happened to be coming off strong 2025 seasons themselves.

Now, Minasian did imply that door may still be open for the right deal, saying that they’ll “keep looking”, but the reality might be setting in for the Royals that their starting surplus that what was seemingly seen to be as a coveted asset, may not be seen that way to everyone.