There’s hardly anything in the game of baseball that rises to the level of a “deal with the devil.” The magnitude just doesn’t meet that standard.
However, for teams like the Royals who rely heavily on their farm system, there’s certainly a catch-22 that comes along with the highest level of success.
Homegrown talent provided the foundation for the Royals’ two most recent runs to World Series in 2014 and 2015. Those teams’ lineups and pitching staffs were built largely on players shaped by their minor-league system. The system also provided the means to acquire players through trades to fill holes on the major-league roster.