How did the Royals do at this year’s trade deadline?

Image credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

It took some time, but the Kansas City Royals finally made a flurry of moves mid-afternoon on Tuesday to cap off the team’s 2024 trade deadline. In all, the team made four key trades to bolster their big league roster. Now ten games above .500 with a two-game lead in the wild card, Kansas City will turn its attention to growing that lead. The team’s new additions could go a long way to making that happen. Despite making four key trades, the Royals were tied to a handful of others that simply didn’t pan out. Kansas City was tied to Luis Rengifo and Taylor Ward. Neither player was moved before the deadline.

The Royals were also tied to Carlos Estevez, Jazz Chisholm, Randy Arozarena, Lane Thomas, and Tanner Scott. All five players were moved at the deadline and the Royals simply couldn’t agree to terms with each respectable team to make a trade happen. The trades Kansas City did make, however, should greatly impact the team down the stretch and for some years to come. Here’s a look at some takeaways from each trade.

Royals acquire RHP Hunter Harvey in exchange for 3B Cayden Wallace, 39th Overall Pick

The first trade the Royals made came before this year’s draft. The team sent third baseman Cayden Wallace to Washington to acquire proven bullpen help. Harvey has had his share of struggle since joining the Royals, but as he continues to settle in should help to solidify what’s been a shaky bullpen this season. He has a 4.28 ERA on the season, but it’s the stuff that makes Harvey such a big addition. His fastball is well above-average and he offers a track record of big league success.

The Royals had to give up talent to make a move happen. In a rather weak draft class, the 39th overall pick wasn’t nearly as valuable as it may have been in years past. As for Wallace, he’s been injured for parts of this season and is yet to debut in the Nationals system post-trade. He’s still fairly young, at 22 years old, but is yet to showcase the uptick in power production at the plate that was hoped for when he was drafted in the second round. Wallace profiles as a future above-average defender at third with a below-average bat. He probably won’t ever be a perennial All-Star, and the Royals have swapped him and another unknown for a proven commodity.

Trade grade: B+

Royals acquire RHP Michael Lorenzen in exchange for LHP Walter Pennington

Lorenzen was an All-Star just a year ago, and Walter Pennington has been perhaps the most called-for player down on the farm system this season. He’s absolutely dominated the Triple-A ranks in 2024. Despite his dominance, there are notable concerns about Pennington’s arsenal and whether the stuff will play in the big leagues. Again, the Royals have traded those question marks for a proven commodity in Lorenzen. The underlying metrics for Lorenzen aren’t great. He doesn’t post outstanding strikeout numbers. His Savant page offers a lot of blue, and there are a ton of tell-tale signs of regression looming. Despite all that, this is a deal the Royals needed to make.

Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, and Alec Marsh are all at or near career highs in innings pitched. They’ve reached those marks with still two months of the season left to play. For Ragans especially — with two Tommy John Surgeries in his past — it will be important for the Royals to manage his workload. The better the Royals can do now to keep their starters healthy, the more chance the team has to make an October playoff run.

Trade grade: C

Royals acquire INF Paul DeJong in exchange for RHP Jarold Rosado

Paul DeJong, like Lorenzen, offers a lot of blue when reviewing his Savant page. He rarely walks, struggles with chase and swing-and-miss, and doesn’t hit for average. He’s also a well-below-average defender in the infield. What DeJong does well is hit the ball hard and hit for power. He has 18 home runs this season, coming in third on the roster behind only Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Jr. MJ Melendez hasn’t been the power presence the Royals hoped for. Neither has Vinnie Pasquantino, despite the things he does well. DeJong offers new life off the bench to hopefully deepen the heart of the order and provide more runs.

This trade looks like a true attempt to inject new life more than anything. Kansas City’s lineup isn’t terrible. They rank fifth in the American League in runs scored. However, pieces of the lineup have become stale, between Adam Frazier, Maikel Garcia, and Nick Loftin. DeJong should mix into that group immediately (Loftin has already been optioned to Omaha to make space). In return, Kansas City sent a true flier in Jarold Rosado. He generates near-elite levels of swing-and-miss. He’s a true strikeout arm and a true reliever long-term. However, he’s also 22 and still pitching in Low-A. Some of that was due to an injury that sidelined him in 2022. No matter the reason, Low-A relievers aren’t exactly a high pedigree of prospect.

Trade grade: B

Royals acquire RHP Lucas Erceg in exchange for RHP Mason Barnett, RHP Will Klein, and OF Jared Dickey

When the Royals couldn’t acquire one of the bats that caught their fancy, they turned attention instead to adding another high-octane reliever. Erceg is a converted third baseman with a 3.68 ERA this season. His fastball isn’t quite as effective as Harvey’s, but he’s a more complete reliever in my eyes. He’s 29 years old with five years of team control. The fastball averages 98 mph, but his slider may be one of the best pitches in all of baseball. The pitch ranks ninth in baseball (among all pitches, min. 25 PA) with an .067 BAA. Opponents slug just .067 against it (5th) and his xwOBA of .162 on the pitch ranks 24th (just ahead of Paul Skenes’s slider at 25th).

There’s a lot to love in Erceg, who could become the team’s closer down the stretch. Pairing Erceg and Harvey as the duo in the back end of the pen is an excellent improvement over what the team has worked with so far in 2024. In return, the Royals paid a pretty penny. However, in what became an extreme seller’s market for relievers, the cost wasn’t nearly what I expected. Barnett has had a difficult year, getting hit hard in Double-A.

He’s still struck batters out at a healthy rate but may be more of a reliever long-term than we all thought after last season. Klein could very well become a back-end bullpen piece one day but he offers much more uncertainty for just one more year of team control. Then finally, Jared Dickey is a solid outfielder and very underrated in the prospect community. He’s the best player heading back to Oakland in this deal, but there are questions about the power ceiling. In a vacuum, I like this deal for both sides. In the context of the trade market this year, I think the Royals came away with good value.

Trade grade: A

The best part of the trade deadline might just be what the Royals didn’t give up

Kansas City gave up five players on our Top 30 list. Despite that, it seems as if the Royals made some very notable additions without changing the farm system all that much. General Manager J.J. Picollo looks to have made a clear line in the sand with certain prospects. The team was willing to give up prospects to improve but wasn’t willing to mortgage the future to any real degree. Catcher Blake Mitchell remains and really anchors the top-end talent in the system alongside newcomer Jac Caglianone. Outfielder Gavin Cross, RHP Ben Kudrna, 2B Javier Vaz, and OF Asbel Gonzalez all survived the trade deadline in Kansas City.

It truly was a fantastic deadline for Picollo, who was in a position to buy for the first time since becoming the team’s General Manager back in September 2021. He split the difference between transactional and conservative while improving the roster’s holes in a seller-friendly market. The long-term outlook in the farm system isn’t all that different, but the big league roster now has two long-term pieces that will factor in for 2025 and beyond. Kansas City didn’t truly go “all-in” this deadline. Instead, they got better today, and they got better for next season, without sacrificing much of the future at all.

Deadline grade: B+