Royals Notes: Brett, Santana

The Royals announced via press release that George Brett has resigned as the club's interim hitting coach and will return to his position as vice president of baseball operations. “My lifelong passion after playing was not to be a hitting coach, but Dayton [Moore, the Royals' GM] asked me if I would consider it, and I did, but only on the promise that it would be on an interim basis,” Brett said in the release.

A first-ballot Hall-of-Famer, Brett logged more than 20 years in the big leagues and retired after the 1993 season with a career .305/.369/.487 line. Pedro Grifol will assume the role of hitting coach in Kansas City. A couple more Royals links:

• In a piece for Fangraphs, Jeff Sullivan opines that it wouldn't be unreasonable for the Royals to request more in a trade for Ervin Santana than the Cubs received for Matt Garza, saying the right-hander may have the most trade value of anyone on the market. We learned last night that the Royals will listen to offers for Santana, who's posted a 3.06 ERA in 138.1 innings this year and is arguably on pace for the best season of his career. His time in the AL gives him an advantage over Garza, Sullivan says, and he's a better bet to stay healthy than the White Sox's Jake Peavy.
• Discussing a potential Santana trade in a column, The Kansas City Star's Sam Mellinger reports that there are "strong indications from the front office" that the Royals "won’t pass up a deal that makes them better in 2014 just to win an extra game or two in 2013." Mellinger concurs with Sullivan's assessment that the Cubs' return for Garza is a good starting point for a Santana deal, warning that the case against Moore as a general manager "grows more imposing" if the Royals whiff on a trade.