The MLB trade deadline is next month. What are the Royals’ plans & biggest needs?
The Royals entered Tuesday’s game against the Rays with a 38-40 record and 2 1/2 games back in the wild-card race.
As this season has shown, fortunes can turn quickly for a Major League Baseball team. The Royals are a prime example, having won 16 of 18 at one point while also suffering through a six-game losing streak at Kauffman Stadium earlier this month.
The MLB trade deadline is a little more than five weeks away, so the Royals could be buyers again as they were a year ago when they dealt for pitcher Lucas Erceg and infielder Paul DeJong.
But another ugly stretch of play could push the Royals to the fringes of the playoff race. It’s why an ESPN story on top trade deadline candidates lists the Royals as potential buyers and/or sellers.
Royals general manager J.J. Picollo talked about the team’s outlook and plans at this point with the deadline on the horizon. Here is what he said.
Will the Royals be buyers or sellers?
Picollo was asked what direction he thought he’d be going with the team.
“We’re always going to be thinking about it, because we want to improve our team any way we can,” Picollo said. “Whether it ends up being that we’re in a position that we’re in it, or a position we’re not. You’re always trying to improve your team. But I think just the way the league is set up, I think we’re going to be very similar to a lot of teams, and we’re just going to read the room as we go. We’re optimistic that we’re going to be in this thing, and we’re in it right now.
“And if you look at our schedule in August, we play a lot of divisional teams, two of which are fighting for wild cards. Detroit’s clearly got a leg up on everybody, but the schedule after the deadline is pretty important. So I don’t think anything’s going to be dead come July 31 and there’s still a lot of games after July 31. So we’re just going to make the best decision we can throughout the month of July to decide which way we go.”
A magic number?
Determining whether to be buyers or sellers can be tricky. A year ago, the Tigers were sellers at the trade deadline, then got hot over the final two months and made the playoffs.
“If we’re within striking distance, and I don’t know what that record would be, because .500 seems to be a playoff record right now — if we’re within striking distance, I don’t think we should panic and say the season’s over, because there’s just too many games left in the season,” Picollo said. “We’re trying to build off of something that was really positive last year and making the playoffs again this year would be really important to this organization, be really important to the city.
“So I don’t think there’s a magic number. It’s just as long as we feel good about our team and some of the things we talked about today, we’re still feeling good about, I don’t see why we would have moved forward.”
Building for the future
After acquiring Erceg a year ago, Picollo talked about building last year’s team without mortgaging the future. Is that still the team’s philosophy after making the playoffs last fall?
“Well, I think that’s always the preferred way to go. Again, it just depends on what the team’s doing through the month of July and what the pool of available players are. If there aren’t players available that have control, you’re limited to a potential one year or half-a-year rental. So we won’t rule that out, given that we made the playoffs last year. We believe we can make the playoffs again this year, and we want to make the playoffs again this year. So I think it’ll be a little bit different, but I think it’s going to be more so dictated by the available player pool than anything else.”
What are the Royals’ positions of need?
Picollo was asked what he views as positions of need for the team.
“Well, I think there are obvious ones. I mean, our pitching has been outstanding, but I say it every week, you never have enough pitching, because things can change so quickly,” Picollo said. “So you’re always going to need pitching somehow, someway. But the clear thing is our offense. What else can we do to help our offense? I think because we have some versatile guys, we can think with a little bit more flexibility. It doesn’t have to be any one position. I think the clear thing is the outfield, getting more production out of the outfield. But there’s other ways that we can cover in the outfield, if it’s the right bat.”
Will the Royals trade prospects?
The MLB trade deadline rarely features deals involving a swap of major-league players. One team usually deals minor-league prospects. Would the Royals be willing do that?
“That’s part of what we have to work on right now is: What’s our tolerance level?” Picollo said. “Which guys are the ones that we won’t want to trade, who are the guys we’re going to stay away from? Some of that is reflective of what we might get in return in terms of years of control. If you get a lot of years of control, there’s some guys we might not want to trade that you’re more willing to do it, because you’re getting a now-major-league player for a number of years.
“So I don’t want to say everybody’s in play, but you have to be open minded, because you never know what another team is thinking about that maybe we’re not thinking about. Somebody you don’t think is available that is available, and if it’s somebody that’s very impactful when it’s going to be a little bit more hurtful to part with some prospects.
“But something that we try to keep in mind is a lot of our finances, our assets, are our prospects. So we have to factor that in somehow. As much as we love to run out 26 guys out of our system every night to compete at a high level, it’s a very difficult thing to do. I don’t think there’s any team that does that. So that’s where we’ve got to think both ways. Who are our best guys you don’t want to trade and OK, if it’s this player, we know what it’s going to cost, somebody we don’t want to trade. But right now, we don’t see that type of player out there that’s available to our knowledge.”
Adding to the payroll?
The Royals’ opening day payroll was $126 million, according to Cot’s Contracts. I asked if owner John Sherman would be open to spending more money to help the team?
“John is very much excited about where our pitching is and believes in our pitching,” Picollo said. “And because of the belief in pitching, we watched it for however many games it’s been now. Basically every night, we’re in the game, we’re a hit away from winning a game. So because of that, John’s pretty optimistic about our team, and has said, ‘I’m open to anything that you bring to me.’
“So I think it speaks to his desire to win, his belief in our team and where the organization is going. And even our long-term vision for the club, part of it is establishing a winning culture in the major leagues on a consistent basis. So he’ll be open minded to it.”
Talking with teams?
Picollo spoke to reporters in the Royals dugout. And at one end of the bench a number of scouts sat chatting quietly. Picollo referenced them when I asked if the Royals were already talking to teams about potential trades.
“If you look to my right, there’s a group of guys that are in town, so we can talk about all these things,” Picollo said with a chuckle. “We’re always preparing for what might happen, whether it’s July 1 or June 1. I mean, those discussions, a group of our professional scouts are always having weekly meetings about what the landscape looks like across the game. So what we want to do is prepare any way we can so wherever the team is, whatever the pool of players are, we’re not starting discussions July 15; we’re ready to move in a certain direction.”
When to pull the trigger?
While the Royals made multiple trades last year just before the deadline, they acquired pitcher Cole Ragans in a deal on June 23 in 2023. That was more than a month before the deadline.
Picollo was asked about trying to find the right balance of when to make a trade.
“Just communication with other clubs, their scouts, we’ll start seeing more scouts at the ballparks here, not necessarily in the major league ballparks, but in the minor league ballparks,” Picollo said. “And we track who’s watching our teams. That gives us a better idea of who might be looking to make a move with us. That’s usually a predictor, but it’s communication, it’s just knowing what teams are thinking in any given moment.
“They may be thinking one thing today, and a week later they may be thinking something else. I think it’s just going to be that kind of roller-coaster ride for a lot of teams that are in that that path, that are around .500, and it can be emotional, you know? And what we got to do is stay composed and stay prepared, and really, in a lot of ways, just run parallel tracks that we’re prepared to do one thing or the other.”
Fortunes can change
Three division winners make the playoffs along with three wild-card teams. As of Monday, six other teams in the American League are within 3 1/2 games of a wild-card spot.
In the National League, 10 teams are either in a playoff spot or within 2 1/2 games, so it’s tough knowing what teams will be willing to make a trade.
“You think about how this thing goes, if any one of these teams goes 10-2 over the next two weeks, they’re out in front,” Picollo said. “I mean, that’s kind of how this thing’s going to work. So all it takes is one good week of baseball, two good weeks of baseball, and you’re clearly in the middle of things and probably thinking, ‘What can we add for 25?’”
This story was originally published June 24, 2025 at 6:51 PM with the headline "The MLB trade deadline is next month. What are the Royals’ plans & biggest needs?."
