Beat me to it

Sonny Gray: 87 ERA-, 79 FIP-, 78 xFIP-
Trevor Cahill: 89 ERA-, 80 FIP-, 78 xFIP-

Yeah. Cahill is a really, really intriguing piece. The slider he added this year has been very successful and also seems to have helped him improve the effectiveness of his curve. He still is a groundball machine, but has added significant K rate to that.

He has been Kluber-lite this year. Not only does that offer a huge improvement over Travis Wood/Junis/Skogland, it offers a guy who potentially is an asset in a playoff series and not just someone you send to long relief.


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Wasn't he injured earlier? Anything to be concerned with?

Cahill just needs to stay healthy. That's the biggest risk. But I love the trade. This team had to get another starter. They had to. Even if it wasn't a front of the rotation guy, you needed someone just so you didn't have to roll Travis Wood out there every 5 days and hope for the best. It quietly hamstrings you in so many ways. To get a guy who could be in a playoff rotation is just icing on the cake. Now they can count on everyone in the rotation to at least give you 5 every night.

Then they got 2 controllable bullpen pieces on top of it, granted one of them was older. I'm honestly not sure what the Padres strategy was here. They have to really love Diaz and Strahm. At least Wood will get some chances to hit again playing in the NL.

Phenomenal trade.

I feel at times that if Hootie was on his medication, he'd post like you.

This is good stuff.

Hahahah

I don't know if I should be offended, say thank you, or both.

I'd go with both.

Bullpen pitched 24 2/3 scoreless innings...been money

It's 2017, where you can be both thankful.. and offended. :)

Nice call on the Cahill deal Duncan.

The bullpen bonus arms are intriguing.

Hated to see Strahm go, but you gotta give up something to get something. This is probably the Royals last chance to make a legitimate World Series run for a while, so why not. Try and take advantage of that window while it's barely still open.

Speaking of the bullpen and called shots, I'm going to make a fairly obvious one for 2018, but not-as-obvious reasons: Kansas City will trade Kelvin Herrera.

That's an easy prediction to make with the Royals looking to be moving into a rebuild phase and Herrera set for free agency after 2018. But that's not why I think KC does it. I think it simply becomes an inventory thing.

KC has control over the following bullpen pieces for 2018:

Herrera
Joakim Soria
Scott Alexander
Brian Flynn
Brandon Maurer
Ryan Buchter

It also has a plethora of relief prospects in AA and AAA in Kyle Zimmer, Richard Lovelady, and Miguel Almonte.

Neftali Feliz is doing a nice job rebuilding his value with KC/Dave Eiland, and KC will have a shot to sign him to a reasonable deal, I think, given his success in KC and his history with Dayton Moore (who signed him in Atlanta).

Mike Minor has a mutual option, and likely will decline it, but again, KC could be in the mix.

Add it all up, and I think the Royals could move Herrera simply because it has the inventory to make it worthwhile. This assumes he continues to pitch well the rest of the year and finishes looking more like the guy we've seen for most of his career.

In doing so, you'd save $10 million or so, presumably pick up some nice prospect pieces, and slide Joakim Soria into the closer's role.

If the Royals unexpectedly contend, the bullpen should be strong enough to hold up its end of the bargain. If the Royals do not contend, you now have Soria racking up Ks and positioned well to trade him at the deadline if he's performing like is this year.

It's an interesting to path to tread in light of picking up not just rental relief pieces, but guys with control moving forward.

Who do we send down with the three 3 acquisitions we got?