The July 31 MLB trade deadline used to be a soft deadline—trades could still happen in August, albeit through a more convoluted and limited manner. That is no longer true: the July 31 trade deadline is the sole deadline. There can be no dillying, no dallying, no hedging of bets.
So with a little over a week to go, the Kansas City Royals still haven’t decided if they are buyers or sellers. What should they do? Buy, or sell? Maybe even stand pat? Here at Royals Review, multiple writers have different
opinions on the matter. Yesterday, Jeremy wrote that the Royals should be buyers at the deadline. I disagree; the Royals should sell.
First, let’s go over the reasons in favor of the Royals acting as buyers. Like the Royals did last year at the trade deadline, deals are out there that demonstrably improve the team but don’t require huge prospect capital. Additionally, there’s no guarantee that acquired players will do anything to help the team in the future. Wasting a year of Bobby Witt Jr.’s prime is a hard pill to swallow. And finally, while the Royals are behind six teams in the Wild Card standings, three teams—the Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Guardians, and Los Angeles Angels—are unlikely to pose much of a threat.
Why, then, should the Royals sell? It’s easy—the 2025 Royals are simply a bad baseball team. We are 100 games into the season and the Royals are 48-52 with a -28 run differential. The Royals are the fourth-worst batting in the league per wRC+, but the Royals’ problems don’t stop there. Kansas City’s bullpen is right in the middle of the pack with a 4.03 FIP. They keep running into outs on the bases, with the third-worst stolen base rate and the fourth-most outs made at third base.
Compounding the fact that this is a bad baseball team is that they’ll probably have to win more games than last year to get a Wild Card slot. Last year, the Royals won 86 games. But as I write this, the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners have the second and third Wild Card slots and are both on pace for just under 87 wins. And with the Rays already on pace for 84 games and on the outside looking in, 87 games seems reasonable.
Does this seem like a team that can get to 87 wins? It does not. 82 wins? Sure. But 82 wins isn’t gonna cut it.
Finally, what sucks about this year is that it has revealed just how many holes this team has and will have in the future. Nearly all of the guys seen as the position player core have played themselves out of Major League Baseball, let alone out of a starting gig. In other words, the same failings that the 2025 team has encountered also apply to 2026, and if you buy at the deadline, you won’t have fixed next year at all.
As a result, the Royals just shouldn’t shop Seth Lugo. They should also shop Kris Bubic and Carlos Estevez and Salvador Perez—all three of whom will be free agents after 2026. They should think about shopping Kyle Isbel and Freddy Fermin and Lucas Erceg. It sounds like a lot, yes. But this team could use a reset so it can step into 2027 with a strong farm system, a bunch of money to spend, and an eye on winning the division.
That might be too much for some people, and I would be shocked if the Royals decided to enact such a strategy while employing Witt and trying to squeeze Kansas or Missouri for taxpayer money for a new stadium. But at the very least, you have to be able to understand where your team is and what trades help your organization achieve sustainable success. And that means selling. Or, at the very least, not buying.
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- Royals Rumblings - News for July 21, 2025
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