With the best record in the American League at 57-37, a 6.5-game lead in the Central and a 9.5-game clearance for the wild card, which is 11 games over Toronto in the loss column, the Royals are cruising toward the playoffs.
The offense is humming along in Kansas City, with a .322 team wOBA that ranks seventh in the majors, while the pitching staff’s 3.50 ERA ranks eighth in baseball. It’s a well-rounded team that gained a lot of confidence from last October’s run to the World Series, and the Royals are positioned well to make another charge for the pennant, and more.
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The Royals can look at the trade deadline as an opportunity to shop for October, rather than what they need to get to October, and look at situations that they know will come up in October. For instance, the Royals do not need a left-handed bench bat to get to the playoffs, but once the postseason gets going, there are more situations where you want either that bat or the threat of that bat on your side.
A perfect candidate for this role would be Alejandro De Aza, who has hit .283/.335/.478 with six homers in 180 at-bats against right-handed pitching this year for the Orioles and Red Sox. De Aza was traded to Boston in June for Double-A right-hander Joe Gunkel, and throwing a mid-system arm Boston’s way should be enough to secure someone who would be able to take some important at-bats with confidence in October.
There’s also the small matter of “do you really want Edinson Volquez to be your starter in Game 1 of a playoff series?” a question to which the answer should be no. Volquez has had a really nice season, but he’s still working with a 3.59 FIP, and that’s the lowest in the Kansas City rotation.
Johnny Cueto is the most obvious pitcher the Royals should target – he has a high strikeout rate, a 3.16 FIP this year and works deep into games. Playing Kansas City catenaccio, though, does not require a starter who works deep into games. That strategy depends on getting six solid innings from a starter, scratching out enough runs to win and turning things over to a lockdown bullpen. Having starters who exceed this is not a bad thing, of course, but there’s also the question of what Kansas City should be willing to give up for a rental.
Jeff Samardzija? He’s a slightly sexier Volquez, working more innings and striking out a few more hitters. Again, there is the matter of the cost for a rental when what Kansas City needs is not a difference-maker down the stretch, but in the playoffs.
The pitcher the Royals should go after is an old friend who has reinvented himself since leaving Kansas City. Jesse Chavez was a pretty terrible reliever for the Royals in 2010 and 2011, then went to Toronto on waivers and was pretty terrible there, too. It was not until Chavez got to Oakland that he put it all together, and although his record this year is an unimpressive 5-9, he has a 3.21 ERA and 3.11 FIP, with a rate of 7.85 strikeouts per nine innings that would establish him as the K king of Kansas City, ahead of even Yordano Ventura.
Chavez is not a big name, but names don’t matter. Performance does, and Chavez can bring that. He’s also not a rental, as he is not eligible for free agency until after next season. With a 2015 salary of $2.15 million, Chavez would not be in line for a crazy salary next year, which also is nice for Kansas City.
The Royals could choose to go for a bigger splash, and they would not be wrong to do so. Chavez, though, would fit Kansas City both this year and next. Like the Royals, he has remade himself in the last four years, and the reunion is worth pursuing.