Dayton Moore explains why the Kansas City Royals largely stood pat at the deadline

Whit Merrifield remains a member of the Kansas City Royals, as do Carlos Santana and Mike Minor.

While each arguably might have had intriguing trade markets and been attractive to multiple suitors, they all cleared Major League Baseball’s trade deadline without having to change uniforms.

It’s hardly surprising they weren’t traded at the deadline, considering Royals general manager Dayton Moore’s public declarations in the days leading up to the deadline.

Even though 10 players who were selected All-Stars this season changed teams prior to the deadline, the Royals only parted with players who had free agency on the horizon this offseason: veteran pitcher Danny Duffy and outfielder/designated hitter Jorge Soler.

Moore still sees greater value in keeping Merrifield, Santana and Minor, each under contract at least through next season, than dealing them away now.

That value comes in their potential impact on next year’s club as well as their potential to bring in bigger returns in later trades.

“I believe in our team,” Moore said. “I believe in this group of players. We’re going to keep winning together. We’re going to keep winning more games together. We still have work to do to complete our roster, to upgrade our roster. We’ll continue to focus on that.”

The Royals started the youth movement on their pitching staff during last year’s pandemic-shortened season with the major-league debuts of Brady Singer, Kris Bubic, Carlos Hernández and Tyler Zuber as well as the increased bullpen roles of Josh Staumont, Kyle Zimmer and Scott Barlow.

The organization’s next young wave of elite position player prospects is presumably highlighted by highly touted shortstop and former No. 2 overall draft pick Bobby Witt Jr. and first baseman and former No. 14 overall draft pick Nick Pratto.

Moore contends the experience and presence of players like Merrifield and Santana will ease the integration of young prospects into the major-league lineup as will the experience and presence of Minor take pressure and workload off the shoulders of inexperienced starting pitchers.

“It’s important to transition young players to the major leagues,” Moore said. “You’re more successful doing that when you have guys like Carlos Santana and Whit Merrifield and Mikey Minor a part of your major-league team, veteran guys who have won and can help stabilize a lot of things, can hit behind or in front of young hitters, help balance out the lineup, take the ball and give you innings in Mikey Minor’s case.”

Reportedly, multiple teams expressed interest in Merrifield, Santana and relief pitcher Scott Barlow at the deadline.

Interestingly, Moore didn’t completely close the door on potential trades involving his established veterans after the season.

Several of the most high-profile trades Moore oversaw took place during the winter months, including trading away Zack Greinke for a package that included Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar and Jake Odorizzi (December 2010), acquiring pitchers Wade Davis and James Shields from the Tampa Bay Rays (December 2012), sending Wade Davis to the Chicago Cubs for Jorge Soler (December 2016) and acquiring Andrew Benintendi (February 2021).

“The most important time, if you’re going to maximize a deal and you want to get back major-league talent, the time to do that usually is in the offseason,” Moore said. “Now, there’s more players available. Free agency kind of floods the market at time, but free agency can be very expensive at times.”

A disappointing season

The Royals (45-57) went into Friday having won eight of nine games and three consecutive series, including one against the AL Central Division-leading Chicago White Sox.

This season, which started with the Royals posting the best record in the majors in the first month, has included two prolonged losing slides of at least nine games and seen them fall as far as 18 games below .500 and 19 games behind first place in their division.

“We’re not where we want to be,” Moore said. “We’ve felt a level of disappointment based on our win-loss record, but our effort has been tremendous. I feel like our young starters are starting to gain some traction, which is really important. We want to get some guys back healthy, specifically, Adalberto Mondesi.”

Moore said he hoped Mondesi, who is on the injured list with an oblique strain, could go on a rehab assignment as soon as this next week.

Moore and his front office continue to express faith in the core of players, including the established players under club control, and a desire to keep that group together.

“We just know — and we’ve seen a glimpse here lately when we put the pieces together — what we can do,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said on Friday. “We believe it’s just the tip of the iceberg of us taking those steps forward. We have all the belief in the world. … We believe that we’ve all in this together too. Moves that are made or are not made, we trust the group upstairs that makes those decisions.”