April 17, 2025 • 25 mins
On today's episode of This Is Baseball, we get into the top trades in Royals history. We will look at the players involved and what impact they had on the Royals success as well as seeing where players careers were that left the organization.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome back to this is Baseball.
My name is Brandon Johnson.
Happy Thursday.
Today's episode is going to bepretty fun.
So the Kansas City Royals arecelebrating their 2015 World Series
championship.
It is the 10 year anniversaryof that accomplishment, which is
crazy to think about becausedoesn't feel like it was that long
(00:23):
ago, but it was.
So during the 2025 season, theRoyals are celebrating that just
periodically throughout the season.
If you listen to them on theradio, there's just moments that
they're doing basically everyday that are in celebration of that
Royals team.
And I was looking at theroster from about 2010 to 2015 and
(00:50):
just looking to see who waspart of that run.
And there was a ton ofhomegrown talent and there were a
lot of players that werebrought in via trade.
And it got me wondering, whatare the top trades in Kansas City
(01:14):
Royals history?
So I have five trades that Iwant to look at today, along with
some honorable mentions that Iconsider some of the most impactful
or best trades in Kansas CityRoyals history.
There's obviously some bigtrades back in the early days of
(01:36):
the Royals.
There's some interestingtrades in between 1985 and about
2010 that on all gloss over.
But obviously in that era ofKansas City Royals baseball, there
was not really a lot to celebrate.
So there weren't really manytrades that were that impactful or,
(02:00):
or that benefited the Royalsin great ways.
But a lot of the trades thathave happened in the last 15 years,
I know some of these you'regoing to be like, oh yeah, obviously
that's on your list.
But let's go ahead and getinto my list of Royals traits.
(02:23):
So at number five, we're goingto go back to 2023.
June 30, 2023, the Kansas CityRoyals traded our oldest, Chapman
for Cole Reagan's.
Now, at the time of thistrade, Cole Reagan's was in the bullpen,
(02:44):
but he was viewed as a starter.
The Royals viewed him as a starter.
This ended up being a reallygreat trade.
I'll get into the numbers herein a second, but something that the
Royals were kind of doing anda lot of teams that are in a spot
where they're not competitiveand they're rebuilding, they're trying
(03:05):
to get to a point of beingcompetitive is they sign veteran
players with almost with theintention of trading them at the
deadline.
So you sign a player likeAroldis Chapman, who at this point
in his career was kind of at a crossroads.
He had not been very effective.
I believe he had just been Cutby the Yankees in the prior season,
(03:28):
had some character concerns,but our oldest, Chapman, was one
of the most electric closersin all of baseball.
We know him for being able tothrow a ridiculously insane fastball.
Right.
So with the Royals, you.
You bring somebody in like ouroldest, Chapman, and you have a few
scenarios that you're hopinghappen with him.
(03:50):
Number one is you sign him andhe's great and you're not a very
competitive baseball team, buta team like the Texas Rangers is
in need of a reliever, as aremost competitive teams that are always
looking for pitching.
But you hope that somebody'sinterested in a Chapman and they
(04:14):
want to give you some nicepieces back.
So there's that scenario.
There's scenario two where yousign Chapman and you're competitive
and he's part of your team success.
Or there's the third scenario,which isn't what you want, is Chapman
is bad and you don't getanything in return for him.
(04:34):
But Royals got Cole Reagan'sin return for our oldest, Chapman,
and he immediately was apositive impact on the team.
Let's get into some numbers.
So Cole Reagan's comes to theRoyals in 2023.
He had made 17 appearances.
He hadn't made a start in, in2023 yet.
(04:55):
Like I said, he was out of the bullpen.
But he comes to the Royals andhe's immediately a starter.
He goes 5 and 2 over 12 starts.
He has a 264er and has 89strikeouts over 71 innings pitched.
So he comes into 2023 and youget to see that, oh, he's a, a strikeout
(05:20):
machine.
And he's going to most likelybe a great start in the starter in
this league.
So fast forward 2024, ColeReagan's is named the opening day
starter.
He has a 314 ERA, 186 inningsand has 223 strikeouts and is averaging
(05:44):
10.9 strikeouts per nine innings.
And he's an all star thatseason and a top five Cy Young Award
candidate.
2025, he is starting off kindof in the same spot.
He's started four games so far.
(06:04):
He has a 2.28 ERA, 23 innings pitch.
He already has 34 strikeouts.
So he is picking up rightwhere he left off.
Quality starts, keeping histeam in the game, being a strikeout
machine and just being the acethat the Royals brought him in that
they felt like he could be.
They even signed him to anextension in the off season.
(06:26):
That runs through the 2027 season.
And you could say It's alittle early to call this one of
the top five trades in MajorLeague Baseball, but last season,
you look at the pitching forthe Royals, the pitching was especially
the starting pitching.
It was a major factor in theroyal success.
(06:50):
You could make an argumentthat it was the main reason that
the Royals made the playoffs,because they had phenomenal starting
pitching.
Seth Lugo right in that mix as well.
You had two Cy Young candidate pitchers.
And I think Cole Reagan's isjust going to continue to get better.
And if you look at the Rangersside, the Rangers won a World series
in 2023.
(07:10):
So it was 100 worth movingCole Reagan's to get Chapman and
in return win a World Series.
And now you have in KansasCity, you have Cole Reagan's that
looks like he's going to be along term part of a Royals team that
is trying to build sustainable success.
(07:30):
Now let's move on to number four.
So I weighed back and forthfor this one.
This going back to 2015.
This was between the trade I'mabout to mention and another significant
trade that was a pivotal pieceof the Royals run.
(07:52):
But I will save the one that Idon't mention here for honorable
mentions at the end of the episode.
So number four is the Royalsgetting Ben Zobr from the A's for
Shawn Maniah.
So Ben Zobras came over to theRoyals at the perfect time.
In fact, I feel like hecompleted the Royals lineup.
(08:17):
He did a great job filling infor an injured Alex Gordon for a
little bit, played left field admirably.
During Alex Gordon's absence,he missed eight weeks in the back
half of the season due to aleft groin strain.
But once Alex Gordon cameback, Ben Zobris basically became
the everyday second baseman.
(08:37):
He took over for Omar Infante,who was really one of the probably
two negatives in the Royalslineup at the time.
I think if I'm looking at it,you, if you really believe in war,
there were two players on the2015 Royals roster that had a negative
(08:59):
WAR in the starting lineup.
And it was Omar Infante andAlex Rios, the right fielder.
So you have Ben Zobris come inand play 59 games, have 16 doubles,
23 RBIs and bat 284 and justget on base and be almost just in
(09:21):
the middle of rallies all the time.
And while he was here for ashort time, he was, I think, a key
piece to the Royals winning a championship.
And while it would have beengreat to have somebody like Sean
Mania be on your team, becauseif you look at Sean Mania, he's had,
(09:44):
he's had a nice career.
I think he had a career yearin 2024 with the Mets.
But that's a classic situationof you have to give up talent to
get talent.
And that Benzobers is exactlywhat the Royals needed at the time.
And I, that is why I'm puttinghim at number four, at number three
(10:04):
on my list.
We gotta go way back in timein Royals history.
We're going back to November30, 1972, when the Kansas City Royals
got Hal McCrae and a tradewith the Reds that sent Roger Nelson
and Richie Sheinblum over to Cincinnati.
(10:27):
So I think that Hal McCrae,looking at the royals of the 70s
and 80s, how McCray kind offeels like he was maybe the heart
and soul of that team.
I know that somebody duringthat era can probably speak better
(10:50):
to it than I can.
But during his time with theRoyals, he was a three time All Star.
He won.
He was part of the 1985 WorldSeries Championship team.
He was a Silver Slugger awardwinner in 1982.
Al RBI leader in the eight in82 as well.
And he's in the Kansas CityRoyals hall of Fame.
(11:10):
He managed the Royals for afew years as well, but spent most
of his career as a player inKansas City.
Has 2,000 hits, over athousand RBIs at a.290 career batting
average.
And how McCray has one of thecraziest highlights that you'll ever
(11:31):
see, something that youactually will never see in Today's
game in 1977.
In game two of the ALCS, HalMcCrae is seen sliding into second
base, sliding really well pastsecond base.
Taking out Willie Randolph andgiving Freddie Patek a chance for
the Royals to score.
(11:52):
Go look that up.
It's insane.
And when you look at today'sgame, it's something that would never
fly, but it's super cool andjust straight up.
Had no intention of being safeat second.
Every intention of taking outWillie Randolph and giving his team
a chance to get runs on the board.
At number two on my list, Ihave the Zach Grinky trade for Lorenzo
(12:21):
Kane and Alcides Escobar.
So In December of 2010, ZachGrinke decided he wanted to be part
of a contender.
And honestly, rightfully so.
He had just won a cy Young in2009 and had realized that at this
point in its career, theRoyals were not ready to compete
(12:44):
and he wanted out.
So the Royals traded him tothe Milwaukee Brewers.
Got Lorenzo Kane, AlcidesEscobar back in the trade.
Zach Grinke went on to be inthe postseason immediately with Milwaukee.
They went to the NationalLeague Championship that year and
(13:07):
then made his way over to theAngels and then eventually with the
Dodgers for a while.
Made a ton of money there andwas in the postseason quite a bit
with those teams.
If you look at AlcidesEscobar, he was the Royals leadoff
batter during their run.
He was solid at shortstop.
I was just looking.
He never actually won morethan one gold glove in Kansas City,
(13:30):
just won one in 2015.
But very reliable at gettingon base.
Started so many differentrallies for him.
I remember in the 2015 WorldSeries, game one, he had an inside
the park home run off of, Ibelieve, Matt Harvey.
And looking over at LorenzoKane, I remember my dad and I went
(13:53):
to spring training in 2012 andthis was right around when all of
this was starting to cometogether with the young core of Moose,
Haas, Kane, Escobar, Salvi.
And I remember watching my dadand I watching Lorenzo Kane and we're
(14:14):
like, that guy is going to bereally good.
And I many times I make theargument that Lorenzo Kane was the
best player on the Kansas CityRoyals during the championship era.
He was an incredible defender.
I still think it's a crimethat he never managed to win a Gold
(14:35):
Glove in Kansas City.
I don't know if it had to dowith Alex Gordon being so dominant
in left field that it tookvotes away from Lorenzo Kane.
I know Mike Trout being acenter fielder in the American League
had a lot to do with it, buthe should have won multiple Gold
Gloves in Kansas City.
In my opinion, in 2015 he wasa finalist for MVP.
(15:02):
That's when you're a player inKansas City.
That is an incredible feat.
He, in fact, two differenttimes in his career was an MVP finalist.
The other time was actually in Milwaukee.
But great player.
He got on base like nobody's business.
He had popped and was just aleader in the clubhouse.
(15:27):
And it's cool to look atplayers like Lorenzo Kane and Alcides
Escobar and go the Royalstraded Zach Grinke, one of the best
player, one of the bestpitchers of his generation at the
time and got two criticalpieces of a championship team in
(15:47):
that trade.
Now let's move on to what Ithink is the number one trade in
Kansas City Royals history.
And I think it is when Royalstraded their number one prospect,
Will Myers for James Shieldsand Wade Davis.
So they had Will Myers, whowas the future, but realized that
(16:15):
the Royals didn't Have anybodythat had any experience winning,
they go and realize that andthey go.
We need somebody that's madedeep playoff runs and can be a leader
for a young pitching staff atthe time, and that was James Shields.
(16:41):
So James Shields had been partof the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays.
They lost in the World Seriesto the Phillies.
Bring him over to the Royalsin 2013.
And in that season he made 34starts and had 228 innings pitched
(17:02):
at a 315 ERA, he went 13, 9.
That was.
The Royals went 86 and 76 that season.
So they came up just short.
I believe they were incontention until like the last weekend
of the season that year.
But him coming in was a hugepart of that.
(17:24):
Then in 2014, say, almost same stats.
227 innings pitched, 321 ERA,34 starts.
Again, didn't pitch for theRoyals in 2015.
That was when he left.
He went to San Diego, but hewas here.
James Shields was here longenough to kind of turn that around
(17:46):
and get a pitching staff in aspot and get their mindset and lead
them to be championshipcaliber team.
Now let's talk about Wade Davis.
Because Wade Davis, it wasn'tlike the Royals went out and were
like, we're going to get WadeDavis too.
Because Wade Davis was kind of interesting.
(18:07):
He came in, he came up as a starter.
2012, he didn't make any starts.
He was out of the bullpen.
But when he came over to theRoyals with James Shields, the Royals
tried him out as a starter.
Didn't work out very well.
So they moved him into the bullpen.
(18:28):
And in 2014, through 2017,excuse me, through 2016 with the
royals, you already know hewas fantastic.
In 2014, he had an ERA of 1over 78, 71 appearances.
He pitched 72 innings thatseason, give up 38 hits and 8 earned
(18:50):
runs.
So absolutely incredible.
This was when he was the setup man.
If you remember the HDH era,the seventh, eighth and ninth innings
of a Royals game in 2014, itwas, as long as our starters can
go six innings, we know thatour bullpen is going to get us to
(19:13):
the end.
So let's get to the seventhwith a lead and we feel like we can
put a bow on this game.
And they did the same thing.
And 2015, 2015, he was evenbetter at 69 appearances, an ERA
of 0.94, 67 innings pitched,and just incredible.
(19:38):
He ended up being the closerfor an injured Greg Holland down
the stretch, ended up having17 of his own saves.
And struck out Wilmer Floreswith a fastball in the inside corner
looking to win the World Series.
So I think as important asJames Shields was for the Royals
(20:00):
to kind of help get theirmindset and their pitching staff
turned around, Wade Davisended up being even more important
for somebody that when he cameover, it felt like, oh yeah, you
can have Wade Davis too.
And he ended up being phenomenal.
(20:21):
Part of a historic bullpenwith Kelvin Herrera, Greg Holland,
Wade Davis, and then Luke HoChaver at points as well.
Now looking at Will Myers.
Will Myers spent only twoseasons with the Tampa Bay Rays.
He ended up being Rookie ofthe year in 2013.
But between 2014 and 2015, hewas traded to the Padres, where he
(20:45):
spent most of his career.
He had a nice career.
He's hasn't played since 2023.
That was with Cincinnati, butwas a part same with Eric Hosmer.
He was a part of kind of aresurgence in success for the San
Diego Padres.
(21:06):
Made it, Got a nice contractin San Diego as well.
But same with like Sean Mania.
I think if the Royals had todo it all over again, they would
trade Sean Mania for Ben's Obrist.
They would trade Will Myersfor James Shields and Wade Davis.
So you look at those, you lookat their careers and go, yeah, they
(21:27):
would have been nice pieces toa Royals team.
But when you win achampionship, you pretty much can
ignore all of the what ifs andjust be extremely happy for a championship.
Because as a small market teamthat the Kansas City Royals are,
the.
The odds of them winning achampionship, history will tell you,
(21:48):
are very small.
There's a lot of small marketteams that get there, but a lot of
them don't actually win the thing.
And a lot of teams thatactually do get there, don't lose
and then immediately come backthe following year.
It's usually just we made itand then that's the end of it.
So what the Royals had builtwith these trades was super unique
(22:11):
and all of them were worth it.
Now, before we get out ofhere, I do have some honorable mentions
that I want to go over.
One of them is actually aworthy honorable mention.
One of them is just for fun.
But the Brandon Finnegan tradefor Johnny Quaido, if you remember
Brandon Finnegan, the Royalsdrafted him in 2014 and called him
(22:33):
up to be part of the 2014postseason team.
So you went from pitching inthe College World Series to pitching
in the Major League WorldSeries all in one year, which is
a feat on its own.
But 2015 Royals neededpitching Cincinnati had pitching,
(22:55):
they went out, got Johnny Cueto.
And the reason that he didn'tmake the top five is because when
I look at his stats for theregular season with the Royals, it
wasn't all that impressive.
He went 4 and 7 over 13 startswith a 476 ERA.
(23:17):
But he was great in thepostseason and made this trade absolutely
worth it.
And that he made two startsduring the ALDS with a 386 ERA, 14
innings pitched in.
He made one start in the ALCSdid not go well.
(23:37):
He only pitched two inningsthere against the Toronto Blue Jays.
But he made one start in theWorld Series and it was a complete
game.
He gave up two hits in one runover those nine innings.
That was in game two of theWorld Series.
So again, fantastic in thepostseason, but honorable mention
(23:58):
just because I remember in theregular season being a little bit
frustrated with him, but hemade it all worth it in in the postseason.
Now my final honorable mention again.
This had really no impact onthe success of the Royals, but In
June of 2004, the Royalstraded Carlos Beltron for Mark Tian
(24:23):
and John Buck.
And the reason that I'mbringing this up is because I watched
so much Royals baseball, badRoyals baseball in the 2000s.
I remember Mark Tian and JohnBuck super well.
I think outside of MikeSweeney, John Buck was probably my
(24:44):
first favorite player that Ihad, and a lot of that had to do
with.
He was the first player that Iever got an autograph from.
I remember going to a gamewith a friend and John Buck was standing
in the dugout and I gave himmy hat.
He signed it and I was like,he's the coolest guy ever.
So just an honorable mentionthere just for the fun of it.
But those were my top fivetrades in Kansas City Royals history.
(25:10):
Thank you so much forlistening today.
I will see you next week.
Welcome back to this is Baseball.
My name is Brandon Johnson.
Happy Thursday.
Today's episode is going to bepretty fun.
So the Kansas City Royals arecelebrating their 2015 World Series
championship.
It is the 10 year anniversaryof that accomplishment, which is
crazy to think about becausedoesn't feel like it was that long
(00:23):
ago, but it was.
So during the 2025 season, theRoyals are celebrating that just
periodically throughout the season.
If you listen to them on theradio, there's just moments that
they're doing basically everyday that are in celebration of that
Royals team.
And I was looking at theroster from about 2010 to 2015 and
(00:50):
just looking to see who waspart of that run.
And there was a ton ofhomegrown talent and there were a
lot of players that werebrought in via trade.
And it got me wondering, whatare the top trades in Kansas City
(01:14):
Royals history?
So I have five trades that Iwant to look at today, along with
some honorable mentions that Iconsider some of the most impactful
or best trades in Kansas CityRoyals history.
There's obviously some bigtrades back in the early days of
(01:36):
the Royals.
There's some interestingtrades in between 1985 and about
2010 that on all gloss over.
But obviously in that era ofKansas City Royals baseball, there
was not really a lot to celebrate.
So there weren't really manytrades that were that impactful or,
(02:00):
or that benefited the Royalsin great ways.
But a lot of the trades thathave happened in the last 15 years,
I know some of these you'regoing to be like, oh yeah, obviously
that's on your list.
But let's go ahead and getinto my list of Royals traits.
(02:23):
So at number five, we're goingto go back to 2023.
June 30, 2023, the Kansas CityRoyals traded our oldest, Chapman
for Cole Reagan's.
Now, at the time of thistrade, Cole Reagan's was in the bullpen,
(02:44):
but he was viewed as a starter.
The Royals viewed him as a starter.
This ended up being a reallygreat trade.
I'll get into the numbers herein a second, but something that the
Royals were kind of doing anda lot of teams that are in a spot
where they're not competitiveand they're rebuilding, they're trying
(03:05):
to get to a point of beingcompetitive is they sign veteran
players with almost with theintention of trading them at the
deadline.
So you sign a player likeAroldis Chapman, who at this point
in his career was kind of at a crossroads.
He had not been very effective.
I believe he had just been Cutby the Yankees in the prior season,
(03:28):
had some character concerns,but our oldest, Chapman, was one
of the most electric closersin all of baseball.
We know him for being able tothrow a ridiculously insane fastball.
Right.
So with the Royals, you.
You bring somebody in like ouroldest, Chapman, and you have a few
scenarios that you're hopinghappen with him.
(03:50):
Number one is you sign him andhe's great and you're not a very
competitive baseball team, buta team like the Texas Rangers is
in need of a reliever, as aremost competitive teams that are always
looking for pitching.
But you hope that somebody'sinterested in a Chapman and they
(04:14):
want to give you some nicepieces back.
So there's that scenario.
There's scenario two where yousign Chapman and you're competitive
and he's part of your team success.
Or there's the third scenario,which isn't what you want, is Chapman
is bad and you don't getanything in return for him.
(04:34):
But Royals got Cole Reagan'sin return for our oldest, Chapman,
and he immediately was apositive impact on the team.
Let's get into some numbers.
So Cole Reagan's comes to theRoyals in 2023.
He had made 17 appearances.
He hadn't made a start in, in2023 yet.
(04:55):
Like I said, he was out of the bullpen.
But he comes to the Royals andhe's immediately a starter.
He goes 5 and 2 over 12 starts.
He has a 264er and has 89strikeouts over 71 innings pitched.
So he comes into 2023 and youget to see that, oh, he's a, a strikeout
(05:20):
machine.
And he's going to most likelybe a great start in the starter in
this league.
So fast forward 2024, ColeReagan's is named the opening day
starter.
He has a 314 ERA, 186 inningsand has 223 strikeouts and is averaging
(05:44):
10.9 strikeouts per nine innings.
And he's an all star thatseason and a top five Cy Young Award
candidate.
2025, he is starting off kindof in the same spot.
He's started four games so far.
(06:04):
He has a 2.28 ERA, 23 innings pitch.
He already has 34 strikeouts.
So he is picking up rightwhere he left off.
Quality starts, keeping histeam in the game, being a strikeout
machine and just being the acethat the Royals brought him in that
they felt like he could be.
They even signed him to anextension in the off season.
(06:26):
That runs through the 2027 season.
And you could say It's alittle early to call this one of
the top five trades in MajorLeague Baseball, but last season,
you look at the pitching forthe Royals, the pitching was especially
the starting pitching.
It was a major factor in theroyal success.
(06:50):
You could make an argumentthat it was the main reason that
the Royals made the playoffs,because they had phenomenal starting
pitching.
Seth Lugo right in that mix as well.
You had two Cy Young candidate pitchers.
And I think Cole Reagan's isjust going to continue to get better.
And if you look at the Rangersside, the Rangers won a World series
in 2023.
(07:10):
So it was 100 worth movingCole Reagan's to get Chapman and
in return win a World Series.
And now you have in KansasCity, you have Cole Reagan's that
looks like he's going to be along term part of a Royals team that
is trying to build sustainable success.
(07:30):
Now let's move on to number four.
So I weighed back and forthfor this one.
This going back to 2015.
This was between the trade I'mabout to mention and another significant
trade that was a pivotal pieceof the Royals run.
(07:52):
But I will save the one that Idon't mention here for honorable
mentions at the end of the episode.
So number four is the Royalsgetting Ben Zobr from the A's for
Shawn Maniah.
So Ben Zobras came over to theRoyals at the perfect time.
In fact, I feel like hecompleted the Royals lineup.
(08:17):
He did a great job filling infor an injured Alex Gordon for a
little bit, played left field admirably.
During Alex Gordon's absence,he missed eight weeks in the back
half of the season due to aleft groin strain.
But once Alex Gordon cameback, Ben Zobris basically became
the everyday second baseman.
(08:37):
He took over for Omar Infante,who was really one of the probably
two negatives in the Royalslineup at the time.
I think if I'm looking at it,you, if you really believe in war,
there were two players on the2015 Royals roster that had a negative
(08:59):
WAR in the starting lineup.
And it was Omar Infante andAlex Rios, the right fielder.
So you have Ben Zobris come inand play 59 games, have 16 doubles,
23 RBIs and bat 284 and justget on base and be almost just in
(09:21):
the middle of rallies all the time.
And while he was here for ashort time, he was, I think, a key
piece to the Royals winning a championship.
And while it would have beengreat to have somebody like Sean
Mania be on your team, becauseif you look at Sean Mania, he's had,
(09:44):
he's had a nice career.
I think he had a career yearin 2024 with the Mets.
But that's a classic situationof you have to give up talent to
get talent.
And that Benzobers is exactlywhat the Royals needed at the time.
And I, that is why I'm puttinghim at number four, at number three
(10:04):
on my list.
We gotta go way back in timein Royals history.
We're going back to November30, 1972, when the Kansas City Royals
got Hal McCrae and a tradewith the Reds that sent Roger Nelson
and Richie Sheinblum over to Cincinnati.
(10:27):
So I think that Hal McCrae,looking at the royals of the 70s
and 80s, how McCray kind offeels like he was maybe the heart
and soul of that team.
I know that somebody duringthat era can probably speak better
(10:50):
to it than I can.
But during his time with theRoyals, he was a three time All Star.
He won.
He was part of the 1985 WorldSeries Championship team.
He was a Silver Slugger awardwinner in 1982.
Al RBI leader in the eight in82 as well.
And he's in the Kansas CityRoyals hall of Fame.
(11:10):
He managed the Royals for afew years as well, but spent most
of his career as a player inKansas City.
Has 2,000 hits, over athousand RBIs at a.290 career batting
average.
And how McCray has one of thecraziest highlights that you'll ever
(11:31):
see, something that youactually will never see in Today's
game in 1977.
In game two of the ALCS, HalMcCrae is seen sliding into second
base, sliding really well pastsecond base.
Taking out Willie Randolph andgiving Freddie Patek a chance for
the Royals to score.
(11:52):
Go look that up.
It's insane.
And when you look at today'sgame, it's something that would never
fly, but it's super cool andjust straight up.
Had no intention of being safeat second.
Every intention of taking outWillie Randolph and giving his team
a chance to get runs on the board.
At number two on my list, Ihave the Zach Grinky trade for Lorenzo
(12:21):
Kane and Alcides Escobar.
So In December of 2010, ZachGrinke decided he wanted to be part
of a contender.
And honestly, rightfully so.
He had just won a cy Young in2009 and had realized that at this
point in its career, theRoyals were not ready to compete
(12:44):
and he wanted out.
So the Royals traded him tothe Milwaukee Brewers.
Got Lorenzo Kane, AlcidesEscobar back in the trade.
Zach Grinke went on to be inthe postseason immediately with Milwaukee.
They went to the NationalLeague Championship that year and
(13:07):
then made his way over to theAngels and then eventually with the
Dodgers for a while.
Made a ton of money there andwas in the postseason quite a bit
with those teams.
If you look at AlcidesEscobar, he was the Royals leadoff
batter during their run.
He was solid at shortstop.
I was just looking.
He never actually won morethan one gold glove in Kansas City,
(13:30):
just won one in 2015.
But very reliable at gettingon base.
Started so many differentrallies for him.
I remember in the 2015 WorldSeries, game one, he had an inside
the park home run off of, Ibelieve, Matt Harvey.
And looking over at LorenzoKane, I remember my dad and I went
(13:53):
to spring training in 2012 andthis was right around when all of
this was starting to cometogether with the young core of Moose,
Haas, Kane, Escobar, Salvi.
And I remember watching my dadand I watching Lorenzo Kane and we're
(14:14):
like, that guy is going to bereally good.
And I many times I make theargument that Lorenzo Kane was the
best player on the Kansas CityRoyals during the championship era.
He was an incredible defender.
I still think it's a crimethat he never managed to win a Gold
(14:35):
Glove in Kansas City.
I don't know if it had to dowith Alex Gordon being so dominant
in left field that it tookvotes away from Lorenzo Kane.
I know Mike Trout being acenter fielder in the American League
had a lot to do with it, buthe should have won multiple Gold
Gloves in Kansas City.
In my opinion, in 2015 he wasa finalist for MVP.
(15:02):
That's when you're a player inKansas City.
That is an incredible feat.
He, in fact, two differenttimes in his career was an MVP finalist.
The other time was actually in Milwaukee.
But great player.
He got on base like nobody's business.
He had popped and was just aleader in the clubhouse.
(15:27):
And it's cool to look atplayers like Lorenzo Kane and Alcides
Escobar and go the Royalstraded Zach Grinke, one of the best
player, one of the bestpitchers of his generation at the
time and got two criticalpieces of a championship team in
(15:47):
that trade.
Now let's move on to what Ithink is the number one trade in
Kansas City Royals history.
And I think it is when Royalstraded their number one prospect,
Will Myers for James Shieldsand Wade Davis.
So they had Will Myers, whowas the future, but realized that
(16:15):
the Royals didn't Have anybodythat had any experience winning,
they go and realize that andthey go.
We need somebody that's madedeep playoff runs and can be a leader
for a young pitching staff atthe time, and that was James Shields.
(16:41):
So James Shields had been partof the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays.
They lost in the World Seriesto the Phillies.
Bring him over to the Royalsin 2013.
And in that season he made 34starts and had 228 innings pitched
(17:02):
at a 315 ERA, he went 13, 9.
That was.
The Royals went 86 and 76 that season.
So they came up just short.
I believe they were incontention until like the last weekend
of the season that year.
But him coming in was a hugepart of that.
(17:24):
Then in 2014, say, almost same stats.
227 innings pitched, 321 ERA,34 starts.
Again, didn't pitch for theRoyals in 2015.
That was when he left.
He went to San Diego, but hewas here.
James Shields was here longenough to kind of turn that around
(17:46):
and get a pitching staff in aspot and get their mindset and lead
them to be championshipcaliber team.
Now let's talk about Wade Davis.
Because Wade Davis, it wasn'tlike the Royals went out and were
like, we're going to get WadeDavis too.
Because Wade Davis was kind of interesting.
(18:07):
He came in, he came up as a starter.
2012, he didn't make any starts.
He was out of the bullpen.
But when he came over to theRoyals with James Shields, the Royals
tried him out as a starter.
Didn't work out very well.
So they moved him into the bullpen.
(18:28):
And in 2014, through 2017,excuse me, through 2016 with the
royals, you already know hewas fantastic.
In 2014, he had an ERA of 1over 78, 71 appearances.
He pitched 72 innings thatseason, give up 38 hits and 8 earned
(18:50):
runs.
So absolutely incredible.
This was when he was the setup man.
If you remember the HDH era,the seventh, eighth and ninth innings
of a Royals game in 2014, itwas, as long as our starters can
go six innings, we know thatour bullpen is going to get us to
(19:13):
the end.
So let's get to the seventhwith a lead and we feel like we can
put a bow on this game.
And they did the same thing.
And 2015, 2015, he was evenbetter at 69 appearances, an ERA
of 0.94, 67 innings pitched,and just incredible.
(19:38):
He ended up being the closerfor an injured Greg Holland down
the stretch, ended up having17 of his own saves.
And struck out Wilmer Floreswith a fastball in the inside corner
looking to win the World Series.
So I think as important asJames Shields was for the Royals
(20:00):
to kind of help get theirmindset and their pitching staff
turned around, Wade Davisended up being even more important
for somebody that when he cameover, it felt like, oh yeah, you
can have Wade Davis too.
And he ended up being phenomenal.
(20:21):
Part of a historic bullpenwith Kelvin Herrera, Greg Holland,
Wade Davis, and then Luke HoChaver at points as well.
Now looking at Will Myers.
Will Myers spent only twoseasons with the Tampa Bay Rays.
He ended up being Rookie ofthe year in 2013.
But between 2014 and 2015, hewas traded to the Padres, where he
(20:45):
spent most of his career.
He had a nice career.
He's hasn't played since 2023.
That was with Cincinnati, butwas a part same with Eric Hosmer.
He was a part of kind of aresurgence in success for the San
Diego Padres.
(21:06):
Made it, Got a nice contractin San Diego as well.
But same with like Sean Mania.
I think if the Royals had todo it all over again, they would
trade Sean Mania for Ben's Obrist.
They would trade Will Myersfor James Shields and Wade Davis.
So you look at those, you lookat their careers and go, yeah, they
(21:27):
would have been nice pieces toa Royals team.
But when you win achampionship, you pretty much can
ignore all of the what ifs andjust be extremely happy for a championship.
Because as a small market teamthat the Kansas City Royals are,
the.
The odds of them winning achampionship, history will tell you,
(21:48):
are very small.
There's a lot of small marketteams that get there, but a lot of
them don't actually win the thing.
And a lot of teams thatactually do get there, don't lose
and then immediately come backthe following year.
It's usually just we made itand then that's the end of it.
So what the Royals had builtwith these trades was super unique
(22:11):
and all of them were worth it.
Now, before we get out ofhere, I do have some honorable mentions
that I want to go over.
One of them is actually aworthy honorable mention.
One of them is just for fun.
But the Brandon Finnegan tradefor Johnny Quaido, if you remember
Brandon Finnegan, the Royalsdrafted him in 2014 and called him
(22:33):
up to be part of the 2014postseason team.
So you went from pitching inthe College World Series to pitching
in the Major League WorldSeries all in one year, which is
a feat on its own.
But 2015 Royals neededpitching Cincinnati had pitching,
(22:55):
they went out, got Johnny Cueto.
And the reason that he didn'tmake the top five is because when
I look at his stats for theregular season with the Royals, it
wasn't all that impressive.
He went 4 and 7 over 13 startswith a 476 ERA.
(23:17):
But he was great in thepostseason and made this trade absolutely
worth it.
And that he made two startsduring the ALDS with a 386 ERA, 14
innings pitched in.
He made one start in the ALCSdid not go well.
(23:37):
He only pitched two inningsthere against the Toronto Blue Jays.
But he made one start in theWorld Series and it was a complete
game.
He gave up two hits in one runover those nine innings.
That was in game two of theWorld Series.
So again, fantastic in thepostseason, but honorable mention
(23:58):
just because I remember in theregular season being a little bit
frustrated with him, but hemade it all worth it in in the postseason.
Now my final honorable mention again.
This had really no impact onthe success of the Royals, but In
June of 2004, the Royalstraded Carlos Beltron for Mark Tian
(24:23):
and John Buck.
And the reason that I'mbringing this up is because I watched
so much Royals baseball, badRoyals baseball in the 2000s.
I remember Mark Tian and JohnBuck super well.
I think outside of MikeSweeney, John Buck was probably my
(24:44):
first favorite player that Ihad, and a lot of that had to do
with.
He was the first player that Iever got an autograph from.
I remember going to a gamewith a friend and John Buck was standing
in the dugout and I gave himmy hat.
He signed it and I was like,he's the coolest guy ever.
So just an honorable mentionthere just for the fun of it.
But those were my top fivetrades in Kansas City Royals history.
(25:10):
Thank you so much forlistening today.
I will see you next week.
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