Royals' 27-Year-Old Rookie Surprisingly Named As Possible Trade Bait
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It feels as though the Kansas City Royals are going to have a busy trade deadline, one way or the other.
At 31-29, the Royals are stuck in Major League Baseball's middle class. They pulled out their trump card on Sunday night, calling up superstar prospect Jac Caglianone to make his major league debut.
Whether Caglianone can save the Royals' season is yet to be determined. But he's going to get his at-bats no matter how he's performing, which means less opportunity for corner outfielders who had been filling roster space.
First, Dairon Blanco was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Caglianone. But a Royals writer believes that another outfielder could eventually be traded away to more permanently clear up the logjam.
On Sunday, Mike Gillespie of FanSided named rookie outfielder John Rave as a "hot prospect" who could be trade deadline fodder for the Royals to address other needs.
"Through Saturday, (Rave is) only 1-for-11 since the Royals selected his contract from Triple-A Omaha May 26; but if the club keeps him in Kansas City long enough, he could move into trade conversations," Gillespie wrote.
"And what he's done in the minors suggests he's better at the plate than his early big league numbers might reflect. Rave was slashing .301/.382/.549 with nine home runs, 25 RBI, and a 142 wRC+ when summoned to Kansas City for his big league debut."
If it's not Rave who gets traded, it could just as easily be Nick Loftin or Drew Waters. The Royals should call around until they get the best offer they can find for any of these fringy young outfielders, and there's no guarantee any of them bring back something useful in the here and now.
Rave might not get a ton of at-bats in the next few weeks, but he'll need to make the most of those he does.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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