{"id":2191929,"date":"2025-12-09T03:30:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T03:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2191929"},"modified":"2025-12-09T03:30:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T03:30:31","slug":"the-royals-have-made-key-trades-before-will-they-swing-one-at-winter-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-royals-have-made-key-trades-before-will-they-swing-one-at-winter-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"The Royals have made key trades before. Will they swing one at Winter Meetings?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kansas City Royals general manager J.J. Picollo isn\u2019t afraid to make a deal.<\/p>\n

In his tenure with the Royals, Picollo has remained aggressive in his approach<\/a> to improve the roster. He took a chance on left-handed starter Cole Ragans despite a concerning injury history.<\/p>\n

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Later, Picollo acquired top reliever Lucas Erceg<\/a> from the Athletics. The move included multiple prospects. And sometimes, Picollo has had to make a tough decision \u2014 such as trading away beloved catcher Freddy Fermin<\/a> for two starting pitchers.<\/p>\n

The trades helped build the Royals\u2019 foundation. Now, Picollo is tasked with another key decision to improve an underperforming offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to think we haven\u2019t shown an unwillingness to do that,\u201d Picollo said earlier this offseason of potential trades. \u201cI think we\u2019ve made some moves along the way that have helped us. So that\u2019s an avenue we have to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Picollo tends to follow a few core principles<\/a> in trades. He loves to find value while maintaining roster flexibility. Picollo also follows the organizational ethos surrounding pitching and defense.<\/p>\n

Last season, the Royals found value on the margins. The club acquired Mike Yastrzemski, Randal Grichuk and Adam Frazier at the deadline. Neither move required a top prospect to be sent in return.<\/p>\n

Yastrzemski was solid with the Royals. He hit nine home runs and posted an .839 OPS (on-base plus slugging) in 50 games. Frazier offered veteran leadership<\/a> and was terrific in a super-utility role.<\/p>\n

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Those trades were completed to help the Royals compete in 2025. Picollo is likely to navigate the trade market this offseason but understands it takes two sides to make a deal.<\/p>\n

Here is where the Royals stand.<\/p>\n

The Royals are seen as an intriguing potential trade partner. They have starting pitching depth, with Kris Bubic and Noah Cameron, mainly, drawing interest as trade candidates. Teams are also drawn to Ragans, but it will likely require a massive haul to move him.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou want to be as well-rounded as a team as you can possibly be,\u201d Picollo said during an appearance on MLB Network\u2019s Hot Stove telecast. \u201cRight now, the depth in our position is with the starting pitching. We are fortunate that we have that depth that we can even consider moving a starting pitcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Picollo will welcome trade conversations. However, there is a balance between striking the right deal and remaining competitive. The Royals are expected to compete in the American League Central and any potential deal won\u2019t deviate from that course.<\/p>\n

As with any trade, the Royals have to find a potential trade partner. Teams are still evaluating their own rosters at the Winter Meetings and fielding calls throughout the day.<\/p>\n

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The Royals have made it known they are looking for offense \u2014 specifically an impactful outfield bat. And right now, the outfield market has moved slowly.<\/p>\n

Top free agents Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger have yet to sign. It\u2019s left other free agents \u2014 and teams with outfield trade candidates \u2014 in wait-and-see mode as the outfield market materializes.<\/p>\n

Hence, Picollo\u2019s willingness to trade could be delayed. It\u2019s why the Royals may bide their time looking at free agents<\/a> \u2014 such as Austin Hays and Harrison Bader \u2014 as potential alternative options.<\/p>\n

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Picollo has been in this situation before. He got out ahead of the free-agent frenzy by signing Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha in 2024. It\u2019s possible he considers getting an outfielder in free agency while waiting for the trade market to heat up.<\/p>\n

The Royals need offense and aren\u2019t tethered to one particular avenue. If they can sign an outfielder and then work out a blockbuster deal with reported trade targets \u2014 either Jarren Duran, Brendan Donovan or Luis Robert Jr. \u2014 it will accomplish the goal of improving the offense next season.<\/p>\n

For right now, it\u2019s unknown what the asking price of a potential trade will be. Picollo is willing to swing a deal, but only at the right tag price.<\/p>\n

The Winter Meetings could provide more clarity ahead of what may become a busy offseason.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.sports.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kansas City Royals general manager J.J. Picollo isn\u2019t afraid to make a deal. In his tenure with the Royals, Picollo has remained aggressive in his approach to improve the roster. He took a chance on left-handed starter Cole Ragans despite a concerning injury history. Advertisement Later, Picollo acquired top reliever Lucas Erceg from the Athletics. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2191930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[340896,423120,404700,376889,311239,336779,370418,384289,411191,43627,311278,415229,311283,423121,311237,322264,314825,423119,340901,244474,351123,22091],"class_list":["post-2191929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-adam-frazier","tag-austin-hays","tag-brendan-donovan","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-cole-ragans","tag-freddy-fermin","tag-harrison-bader","tag-j-j-picollo","tag-jarren-duran","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kris-bubic","tag-kyle-tucker","tag-lucas-erceg","tag-luis-robert-jr","tag-michael-wacha","tag-mike-yastrzemski","tag-noah-cameron","tag-picollo","tag-randal-grichuk","tag-seth-lugo","tag-the-athletics","tag-the-royals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/The-Royals-have-made-key-trades-before-Will-they-swing.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2191929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2191931,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191929\/revisions\/2191931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2191930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2191929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2191929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2191929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}