Recently I asked some questions of Craig Brown of Royals Authority and Will McDonald of Royals Review. They kindly supplied some great answers, so check out their blogs. I’ll do this in a few parts.
Which Royal is most likely to be traded this spring?
Craig: It always sounds stupid to say a team coming off a 100 loss season has a "logjam" at a position. It reminds me of that Spinal Tap album review: "They are treading water in a sea of mediocrity." But the Royals do have a logjam in the corner outfield. By moving Mark Teahen to make way for Alex Gordon the Royals now have three players for the two corner spots. The Royals thought enough of Emil Brown that they offered him arbitration for the second year in a row (they settled) and also have Reggie Sanders in the mix. Sanders was on his way out of town last August before a groin injury put the kibosh on the rumored deal to the Yankees. New acquisition Ross Gload can also play the corner and that’s also the position of future star Billy Butler.
I think Moore will try to deal Sanders, but due to his age, declining production and recent injury history, will find the market to be underwhelming. The prediction here is there will be no trades made while the Royals are in Arizona.
Will: Hopefully Justin Huber, but the Royals have done so much to poor-mouth him, who knows his value. Posnanski wrote today that the team is looking to acquire a veteran 1B backup to Ryan Shealy. This seems utterly nonsensical to me, but alas. I think the Royals are done for the spring, but an in-season trade of Emil Brown, Mark Grudzielanek or Reggie Sanders seems highly likely. A Dotel trade seems like a lock as well. I think the Royals WANT to trade Teahen, they just aren’t sure what he is and may want to let him accrue more value.
