The Kansas City Royals were preparing to be sellers at the trade deadline after a rough start to the season, but a strong turnaround has them lingering just outside the playoff picture.
They now appear to be going the other direction at the deadline and are aggressively pursuing starting pitching. According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Royals have engaged the Oakland A's in talks about acquiring Sonny Gray:
The trade blueprint teams had all along was to pick off all the Kansas City Royals' potential free agents. The Royals went 7-16 in April, scoring just 63 runs, their fewest in a calendar month since April 1992.
Well, a funny thing has happened ever since. The Royals started winning and have climbed so far out of their hole that they actually have engaged in the bidding for Gray, too. They’re not expected to make a major move, but they’ve thwarted a whole lot of plans by hanging onto their players, making one last run.
Kansas City is also interested in Lance Lynn of the St. Louis Cardinals, but Gray is their top target. Gray is the hottest name on the trade market right now with seemingly every contender trying to acquire him.
Gray, who has two more years of arbitration before becoming an unrestricted free agent following the 2019 season, is 5-4 with a 3.72 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 14 starts this season.
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