The Royals Hold Several Candidates For An August Trade

Now that the trading deadline is behind us, it might be surprising to know that plenty of Royals could still make the move away from Kansas City and find themselves in a pennant race. In fact, a few Royals seem prime candidates to be sought out additions for those last playoff roster tweaks.

The more games played in August, the more injury chances there are to rock a team's chances for postseason play. Consider a team like the White Sox who traded for pitching after losing Jake Peavy for the season, or the Yankees who traded for Lance Berkman when the Nick Johnson offseason signing didn't turn out so well. This month will find some teams separating from the pack, but several races will come down to the wire in this upside-down season and teams will pay a price to get them over the hump if they become desperate enough.

MLBTradeRumors.com ran a look at waiver candidates during the month of August, the requirement needed to trade a player after the deadline. If a player has a large contract, that's usually the best indicator of who would slide past all teams in the ML. For the Royals, they guessed that Gil Meche and David DeJesus might still make it through waivers, but they weren't likely candidates to be placed out there. Instead, they noted:

We'll be curious to see what happens when Yuniesky Betancourt, Brian Bannister, Kyle Davies, Willie Bloomquist, Wilson Betemit, and Bruce Chen hit the wire. Bloomquist may go.

Guillen has already been designated for assignment and rumored once to the Giants and perhaps they knew they didn't have to make a deadline deal to still acquire the slugging outfielder. While his power would be missed, his contract is not and Royals fans are happy to see the Royals get younger and give guys like Kila Ka'aihue and Alex Gordon consistent at-bats at the major league level.

Back of the rotation veterans like Chen or Davies could be valuable to preserving younger rotation arms for the post-season for several teams like the Cardinals, Rangers and Padres. They would also provide something in return for the farm system for the Royals as well as major league innings for Bryan Bullington and Philip Humber among others.

The Royals need to know exactly what they have available for 2011 resources as they move forward and the last two months of the season gives them the best time to find out. Clearing the guys in front is part of that much-needed process.