According to Jon Heyman, the Kansas City Royals are among the teams interested in Chicago White Sox outfielder Tommy Pham. There is no indication that the Royals are in the lead for Pham’s services, but they have at least inquired about him. This is very unsurprising as it seems like contenders are always calling up Tommy Pham every deadline.
For the Royals, Pham makes sense. They have one of the worst outfields in Major League Baseball out of contending teams. The most WAR they’ve gotten from an outfielder per Fangraphs is Garrett Hampson, who is coming in at 0.6 WAR. Hampson was signed this offseason to be a backup utility player as well. Out of the starters, Kyle Isbel has generated 0.2 WAR, MJ Melendez has generated -0.2 WAR, and Hunter Renfroe has generated -0.3 WAR. Adam Frazier and Nelson Velazquez haven’t been any better putting up a -0.3 WAR and -0.5 WAR.
Melendez has been struggling mightily for the Royals at the plate but has been playing decent defense in left field. He’s slashing .180/.246/.364 on the year. He’s had some clutch hits that have helped get the Royals some wins, but overall the production has been lacking. Isbel hasn’t been much better, but he’s providing you Gold Glove defense in center field, so you can handle that. Hunter Renfroe had an awful first two months and was starting to get hot until he suffered an injury and was placed on the injured reserve list.
Tommy Pham has accumulated 0.4 WAR for the White Sox this year and totaled 1.9 WAR for the Mets and National League Champion Diamondbacks last year. Pham’s .276/.349/.388 slash line is better than that of any Royals outfielder right now. He’d provide an immediate boost to what has been lackluster production from the outfield position. Pham is also on a very team-friendly, one-year deal, which would make it easier for the Royals to acquire him.
The Royals have also had a lot of bullpen struggles. Unfortunately, the offseason acquisitions of Chris Stratton, Nick Anderson, John Schreiber, and Will Smith have not led to stability in the pen, especially in the back end. James McArthur, who was the favorite to be the closer at the beginning of the year, has had massive struggles as well. The White Sox have a couple of arms that might interest the Royals in Michael Kopech and Steven Wilson. While neither may present a late-inning stopper, they would provide this bullpen with much-needed depth to take some of the pressure off of guys like Schreiber and Zerpa. Kopech would give them a new look as he is a high-velocity arm.
Either way, it is easy to see a potential White Sox-Royals trade deal coming together, especially with the strong relationship both front offices have with each other. None of the pieces the Royals have been linked to are long-term solutions so the White Sox likely wouldn’t have any regrets trading them within the division. And for the Royals, it would cost them a ton of capital within the division. It seems like this could be a win-win scenario for both teams.
