Dayton Moore is on a roll. He said from the outset that the mission this coming offseason was to impact the starting rotation with new arms, and the general manager of the Kansas City Royals is doing just that. While he might not have an ace just yet and there's plenty of work to do, the recent acquisition of Ervin Santana is a major step forward. Yet it's also clear he's moving forward.
The Royals and Los Angeles Angels announced a trade yesterday that sent Brandon Sisk, a left-handed minor league reliever, in exchange for $1 million and Santana. It gives the Royals a pitcher who can eat up a significant chunk of innings with high upside.
"I don't know where he fits. We're not done," said Moore. "We're going to continue to try to upgrade our rotation through trades that make sense, work internally, evaluate our young pitchers, perhaps one or two our guys in the bullpen, and we're going to explore free agency. ... It's very difficult to answer where he winds up because we don't have the full stable of candidates for our rotation at this point."
The Royals also claimed Chris Volstad this offseason as well, bringing two more names to the table that weren't present just weeks ago. Given the returns from injury at some point in 2013 of Danny Duffy and Felipe Paulino and the further work to do, the Royals should have more options than any point in recent history.