The Kansas City Royals were busy at the trade deadline. They acquired pitchers Bailey Falter, Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek while also adding infielder Adam Frazier and outfielders Randal Grichuk and Mike Yastrzemski. However, they are still two games under the .500 mark and sit four games back of the final American League Wild Card spot with three teams ahead of them.
The team still has a shot at making the postseason, but they have a lot of work to do in order to make that happen. Thus, if they can’t regain their footing, we might potentially see them put some players on waivers who are on expiring contracts.
Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report listed 15 players that could be of use to contending teams if added by the August 31 deadline for postseason eligibility. Among them was Yastrzemski if the Royals do in fact fall out of the race.
“Thus far, the Royals can’t argue with what they’ve gotten, as he had a 1.068 OPS in his first seven games with KC—which is quite the improvement upon what had been a .733 OPS in his final 4.5 seasons with the Giants,” Miller wrote.
“At four games back in the wild-card picture, though, it wouldn’t take much for the Royals to pack it in and re-gift Yastrzemski to someone else via waivers, to save at least $1 million in the process.”
The Royals are certainly a longshot to make it to the postseason, but it’s not impossible for them to make up some ground. They won 86 games last year and were the second AL Wild Card before falling short in the ALDS against the New York Yankees, who they are chasing in the current Wild Card race.
Yastrzemski is hitting .229/.326/.370 with 10 home runs, 32 RBI, six stolen bases, a 2.3 WAR and a .695 OPS. The Royals acquired him from the San Francisco Giants at the deadline, but if they can’t turn their season around, it might make sense to put the 34-year-old outfielder on waivers and give him a chance to compete with a contending ballclub.
The veteran outfielder is the grandson of Hall-of-Famer and Boston Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski. He is a free agent at the end of the year, but a contending team might show interest in him if the Royals decide they are out of the race.
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