Wil Myers to the Rays

[JayBruceFan]

"The Royals have traded No. 1 prospect Wil Myers, No. 3 prospect Jake Odorizzi, No. 6 prospect Mike Montgomery and IF Patrick Leonard to the Rays for pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis and a player to be named."

[joe51391]

wow I would have gave them baily and cingrani easy for that haul

[JayBruceFan]

Kinda curious to see who the PTBNL will be.

[RedTruck]

REALLY bad trade for the Royals.

You aquire James Shields and Wade Davis..both above average pitchers..but nothing remarkably special. It's obvious there trying a win now approach..but I feel like James Shield is nothing more than a number 2/3 pitcher..Obviously the royals are still lacking an ace, and some star position players as well.

They had some strong prospects, especially Will Myers..now what? This could end up being another decade of disaster for royals fans.

[holster10]

Wow, KC gutted the farm for a solid but not great starter and a reliever. Wade Davis was good as a reliever last season but was only so-so as a starter. Tampa Bay's pitching has greatly benefited from all the visibility of repeatedly been involved in trade rumors the last few seasons.

[5TimeWSChamps]

This is a terrible trade for KC. Good Lord

[joshua]

You have to wonder what the Rays were willing to give up for Mesoraco...and wonder if they still want him and would throw Myers our way.

I wish Walt would completely fleece one of these dumb GMs the way other teams seem to...but teams seem hesitant to make deals with him.

[RedTruck]

You have to wonder what the Rays were willing to give up for Mesoraco...and wonder if they still want him and would throw Myers our way.

I wish Walt would completely fleece one of these dumb GMs the way other teams seem to...but teams seem hesitant to make deals with him.

If the rays are in a rebuild mode...which it seems like they are...

Than...

Mesoraco + Hamilton + Cingrini + Didi Gregorious should NO DOUBT land us David Price.

DO IT WALT. :thumbup:

[[deleted]]

This is what happens when baseball's best FO runs into one of its worst. If I'm a KC fan, I'm seething right now. This is such a remarkably bizarre, indescribably awful trade for them.

After the Reds, the Rays are easily my favorite MLB team. And though I'm happy for what this means for them, I still feel sympathy for Kansis City and that fanbase. I wish this hasn't happened.

[HometownHero]

People over value prospects just go look at team Top-10 prospects lists over the years or even how many Top-100 guys fail to live up to the hype. I like this deal for the Royals they think they have a window to win now before the prospects that actually panned out cost to much and are going for it.

They picked up two winners from the most stacked offensive division in baseball and put them in the far weaker AL Central. The Royals can already hit finishing 7th in MLB in BA and have a solid pen finishing 6th beast in ERA but they had a 26th worst ERA at 5.01 from SP.

[MBZags]

People over value prospects just go look at team Top-10 prospects lists over the years or even how many Top-100 guys fail to live up to the hype.

I agree with this premise to an extent, though I still hate giving up six years of Meyers, especially when the Royals are not a championship contender even with this trade. The Royals offense is already below league average.

Moreover, despite acquiring Shields and Davis, the Royals rotation is not exactly elite. Shields may be a #1, but Davis has shown nothing to indicate that he's a #2. He is probably better suited for the bullpen, given what he did this past year.

Guthrie is a poor man's Bronson Arroyo, and Ervin Santana looked God awful last year (and his peripherals suggest that he might have been even worse). And any time your best option as a fifth starter is Bruce Chen, well, l'm already pulling out my lollerskates.

[HometownHero]

I agree with this premise to an extent, though I still hate giving up six years of Meyers, especially when the Royals are not a championship contender even with this trade. The Royals offense is already below league average.

Moreover, despite acquiring Shields and Davis, the Royals rotation is not exactly elite. Shields may be a #1, but Davis has shown nothing to indicate that he's a #2. He is probably better suited for the bullpen, given what he did this past year.

Guthrie is a poor man's Bronson Arroyo, and Ervin Santana looked God awful last year (and his peripherals suggest that he might have been even worse). And any time your best option as a fifth starter is Bruce Chen, well, l'm already pulling out my lollerskates.

The Royals can expect an offensive upgrade due to everyone being a year older and guys being healthy. Salvador Perez will be there for more than half the year, Eric Hosmer should post better than a .663 OPS, Moustakas better than .709, and Jeff Francoeur better than .665. They hit .265 as a team good for 7th in baseball even with those 3 hitting .232, .242 and .235 and the replacement for Perez hitting .236 over 1/3 of the teams total ABs.

The 2012 rotation has tons of potential and that's why they are now heading to people sleep team of the year for next year. Chen was 24-15 with a 3.96 ERA over 2011-2012 for KC if he gets back to that he will be a very good #5 starter. Jeremy Guthrie turned it around for KC going 5-3 with a 3.16 in 14 starts for the Royals if he can keep it around 4 like his early days with the O's they have something working.

Ervin Santana is a former All-Star who is about to turn 30 the start of next week so there is plenty left in the tank. He's either good or terrible and last year was one of the bad years but between the good years he has 3 years of 16 wins or more not counting 2011 when he had a 3.38 ERA. Big Game, James has a 3.15 the last two years despite pitching in the AL East so he is legit and Davis just turned 27 and from age 23-25 held his own with a 4.22 ERA as a young SP in the Al East a year seasoned and moving to a weaker division should let him slide under a 4 ERA.

All 5 of these guys could easily get under a 4 ERA in 2013 while giving around 200 IP and all 4 of the new guys have ERA under 4 in their career vs the Tigers. You never know what will happen on the field but the 2013 Royals have a very good shot and making the Playoffs if they see decent bounce back years form several talented players.

The Tigers apparently already are looking over their shoulder
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/danny-knobler/21340483/if-royals-deal-is-so-bad-how-come-the-tigers-were-hoping-they-wouldnt-make-it

[Alpha Zero]

From a pure talent perspective, this isn't a horrible trade. Shields is a solid front of the rotation arm and Davis is probably an above average 4/5 starter with the potential to become a decent #3. The main problem is that Shields is 31 and under contract for just two more years, and Davis has only his 3 arbitration years left.

Meanwhile, the Rays get 6 years of both Odorizzi and Myers. Odorizzi is probably better than any pitcher currently in the Reds system and Myers is what Jay Bruce was to Reds fans when he was a prospect.

If the Royals were 2 starting pitchers away from being a World Series contender, this might make sense. I still think they'd be lucky to sneak into a Wild Card slot with their current roster. They've still got quite a few holes to plug.

[Pony Boy]

People over value prospects just go look at team Top-10 prospects lists over the years or even how many Top-100 guys fail to live up to the hype.

But Myers looks like a legit star. Baseball America minor league player of the year alumni usually become all-star caliber players (Delmon Young notwithstanding).

[Mitri]

Impact arms like Shields are hard to come by, especially ones as durable as his. They control him for 3 more years at a fairly reasonable price. Add to that a guy in Davis who looks like he could become one of the more dominant middle relief guys in the game. It is hard to bring in guys like this via free-agency to a place like KC.

Myers looks like a talented kid, but he's still just a talented kid. I would've kept him, but I could see this deal being a win for KC if Shields anchors the staff and carries them into a WC spot in the next few years.

[19braves77]

Wade Davis is a potential 4th or 5th starter controlled for the next 5 years well below the going rate for that level of Sp's

This is one of those trades the Royals win in the short term and Rays win in the long term.

[HometownHero]

But Myers looks like a legit star. Baseball America minor league player of the year alumni usually become all-star caliber players (Delmon Young notwithstanding).

They become MLB players but many take all their pre-arbitration years learning the game and don't come consistent until its time to stat paying them. They Royals are a team that's been burned by hype several times and they seen how it took Alex Gordon 4 down years before he broke out, they had to lock him up after just one good season or risk losing him if he had a 2nd good year in time to become a FA. Lucky for them he came back with a 2nd good year and it didn't blow up in their face but they ended up paying him nice money before they got what they expected out of him.

There are the Mike Trouts out that make people want to hold on to every single player but there are 10 times as many Brandon Wood's out there who looked can't miss hitting 43 HR as a SS at 20 who would go on to be 28 next March with a .513 MLB OPS in 700 AB.

[Hondo]

This is a terrible trade for KC. Good Lord

100% Agree. I Tweeted to the Royals that that was the Worst Trade because they didn't get David Price back for Wil Myers. I also said in the same Tweet that Dayton Moore is the Worst GM in Major League Baseball... I even got all that in under 140 characters!

I wish Walt would trade Mesoraco for Myers.... Awesome Thumper!

[MBZags]

Impact arms like Shields are hard to come by, especially ones as durable as his. They control him for 3 more years at a fairly reasonable price. Add to that a guy in Davis who looks like he could become one of the more dominant middle relief guys in the game. It is hard to bring in guys like this via free-agency to a place like KC.

Myers looks like a talented kid, but he's still just a talented kid. I would've kept him, but I could see this deal being a win for KC if Shields anchors the staff and carries them into a WC spot in the next few years.

Not sure if this makes a difference in your analysis, but the Royals will control Shields for only two years.

[Mitri]

They control the team option, another $12MM year, so 3 years, $33MM.

One aspect of the trade I didn't really notice is the contract the Rays had Davis signed to. That could become a real sticking point for this trade. If he flops at his return to a starting role that could become a very bad deal for KC. Basically, they are banking on WD to turn the corner and become a solid 3/4 starter and for Shields to anchor/mentor the staff into legitimacy. It's a huge risk, but one I admire them for making...at the very least, they know what they'll get out of Shields. You can't really say that about any other piece in the deal.

[MBZags]

The team option is for 2014: https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/277998363750825985