Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star discusses the Royals’ surplus of starting pitching with GM Dayton Moore in today’s article. The Royals have Luke Hudson and Scott Elarton coming back from injuries very soon, so they may have an arm or two to spare.
The one obvious trade candidate right now is southpaw Odalis Perez, who turns 30 in June. Elarton would come next, but he’s recovering from a torn labrum. Perez at least has no health issues. He simply has performance issues, with just 14 strikeouts in 34.2 innings.
Perez began throwing a sinker this year, and it’s at least helped him get his groundball rate up to where it was in L.A. He deserves to be someone’s fifth starter, probably in the NL. While he’s earning $7.75MM in the last year of his contract, the Dodgers covered most of that. From what I can determine, an acquiring team would probably have to pay him around $2MM.
Clark Fosler gives his take on the team’s oddly configured roster over at Royals Authority.
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