Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star had an interesting article this morning about the Royals and the MLB trade deadline. He says the always-rebuilding Royals should be treating this deadline as if they were going to contend in 2013.
Deal now, worry about the return later. It is time for the Royals to let go of any faint hopes that 2010 would be anything other than another losing season and take tangible steps to make sure it doesn’t become another lost season.
He suggests trading Jose Guillen to get Kila Ka’aihu in the lineup and trading Scott Podsednik to make room for Alex Gordon, who is tearing it up in AAA.
Both players have been rumored in trades the past few weeks. Royals GM Dayton Moore indicated that they're at least willing to listen to offers.
He goes on to say that both Ka’aihu and Gordon are producing in the minor leagues so it wouldn't be "baseball malpractie" to bring them up, even though they're not expected to replicate those numbers in the major leagues.
Should the Royals go ahead and start shipping all veteran talent out? I can see the logic and, frankly, it's probably the only logical option remaining. That said, I have a hard time agreeing with moves that ship good players out of town. But, as Mellinger suggests, there's no reason to try to improve from 68 to 70 wins if it won't improve your team in the long-haul.