<\/p>\n
The Royals are known to be evaluating<\/a> the trade market for outfielders, with president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo recently signaling a willingness<\/a> to trade from his rotation depth to bring in some outfield help. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports<\/a> that Kansas City is looking to acquire multiple outfielders this offseason \u2014 ideally one via trade and another via free agency. Jon Heyman of the celebrity.land reports<\/a> that free agent center fielder Harrison Bader<\/a><\/strong> is a target for the Royals. Austin Hays<\/a><\/strong> is also on the team\u2019s radar, per Heyman<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Heyman suggests that the Royals are particularly keen on adding some right-handed help to the lineup, manager Matt Quatraro downplayed any desire for specific handedness in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (video clip<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u201cRight-handed, left-handed \u2014 it\u2019s who can give us the professional at-bats,\u201d Quatraro said when asked about his team\u2019s approach as it shops for upgrades this winter. \u201cI don\u2019t think it has to be one or the other. It\u2019s who wants to be there, who can provide the most upside for us within the lineup to lengthen it out.\u201d Quatraro did go on to call Bader a \u201cgreat name\u201d and a \u201ctop-notch free agent this offseason\u201d when asked specifically about Heyman\u2019s report, but he naturally sidestepped commenting on any specific interest from his club.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, Rosenthal suggests that the Royals aren\u2019t pursuing top-end free agents like Kyle Tucker<\/a><\/strong> and Cody Bellinger<\/a><\/strong>, both of whom will command nine-figure contracts that exceed Kansas City\u2019s preferred price range. He also implies that there\u2019s some reluctance to bet too heavily on rebound candidates, given that the team will already be banking on meaningful contributions from young players like catcher Carter Jensen<\/a><\/strong> and first baseman\/outfielder Jac Caglianone<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Bader, according to Rosenthal, is seeking a three-year deal in free agency. Whether that proves too steep for the Royals remains to be seen, but the ask is understandable coming off a terrific season. The 31-year-old slashed a career-best .277\/.347\/.449 (122 wRC+) and also notched career-high marks in home runs (17), doubles (24) and plate appearances (501) in 146 games between the Twins and Phillies. Bader played more left field than usual, in deference to Byron Buxton<\/a><\/strong> during his time with the Twins, but provided his usual brand of plus defense in both spots.<\/p>\n Glove-first outfielders of this nature generally haven\u2019t been able to command three-year contracts in free agency, typically settling for two-year arrangements, at best. Bader could be helped out by a thin and frankly bleak market for center field help, although recent offseasons with a similar lack of options at the position haven\u2019t yielded overpays for the few credible candidates available.<\/p>\n Bader\u2019s ability to land a three-year deal (or his lack thereof) will hinge on whether teams buy the offensive breakout. There are reasons to be skeptical. Bader\u2019s production was buoyed by a huge .359 average on balls in play. Last year\u2019s 27.1% strikeout rate, meanwhile, was his highest since 2020.<\/p>\n The uptick in power and overall production isn\u2019t really supported by an increase in batted-ball quality; Bader\u2019s 87.2 mph average exit velocity is well below the league-average and an exact match for his 2024 mark \u2014 a season in which he batted .236\/.284\/.373. Bader did barrel more balls than usual this season and enjoy a slight bump in hard-hit rate, but the uptick in whiffs and a career-high 45.7% ground-ball rate make it more than fair to question whether he can sustain this type of offense.<\/p>\n Hays, 30, would be another righty-swinging addition, albeit one who is coming off a lesser season at the plate and is not an option in center field at this stage of his career. He popped 15 homers for the Reds in 2025 while hitting .266\/.315\/.453 overall (105 wRC+). As usual, a disproportionate amount of Hays\u2019 production came against left-handed pitchers, whom he crushed at a .319\/.400\/.549 clip. Against right-handers, Hays mustered a more tepid .249\/.286\/.422 output.<\/p>\n Hays has generally been a fine defensive left fielder. He does have some experience in center but hasn\u2019t played there since 2023 and only has 483 total big league innings at the position (compared to more than 3600 in left field and more than 900 in right field). He\u2019s battled myriad injuries in recent seasons, including calf, hamstring and foot ailments in 2025 and, far more concerningly, a severe kidney infection in 2024 that sapped every aspect of his game. Hays played last season on a one-year, $5MM deal in Cincinnati and is probably looking at another affordable one- or perhaps two-year deal in free agency.<\/p>\n The Royals\u2019 2026 payroll comes in at a projected $139MM, per RosterResource<\/a>. That\u2019s already considerably higher than the $126MM mark at which they opened the 2025 season. They\u2019re within a few million dollars of the franchise-record $143MM \u2014 a mark that was set under the late David Glass, who sold the club to current owner John Sherman back in Nov. 2019.<\/p>\n That number could change a bit, depending on the type of outfielder the club targets via trade and whether they trade a somewhat established starter for said outfielder. Lefty Kris Bubic<\/a><\/strong>, for instance, has been the subject of trade talks<\/a> and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz<\/a> to earn $6MM next year. If he\u2019s traded and the return includes a pre-arbitration outfielder, the Royals would trim more than $5MM off that expected payroll.<\/p>\n However it takes shape, upgrading the outfield is the clear priority for Kansas City this winter. Royals outfielders were far and away the least-productive group in Major League Baseball last year, slashing a combined .225\/.285\/.348. The resulting 73 wRC+ ranked last in the game. Kansas City\u2019s 37 home runs from its outfield were the second-fewest of any team in the sport. None of the Royals\u2019 best and\/or most MLB-ready prospects play the outfield naturally. Caglianone is a first baseman who\u2019s learning right field due the presence of Vinnie Pasquantino<\/a><\/strong> at his natural position. In addition to Bader and Hays, the Royals are also said to be interested<\/a> in re-signing deadline acquisition Mike Yastrzemski<\/a><\/strong>.<\/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 www.mlbtraderumors.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Royals are known to be evaluating the trade market for outfielders, with president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo recently signaling a willingness to trade from his rotation depth to bring in some outfield help. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Kansas City is looking to acquire multiple outfielders this offseason \u2014 ideally one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2191942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[423120,376889,370418,415229],"class_list":["post-2191941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-austin-hays","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-harrison-bader","tag-kyle-tucker"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Royals-Hoping-To-Add-Multiple-Outfielders.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191941","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=2191941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2191943,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191941\/revisions\/2191943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2191942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2191941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2191941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2191941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}