The Royals are buyers. Here’s what to like most about their trade deadline moves

A frantic few hours Tuesday saw a Royals roster incorporate yet two more players that it did not include at the onset of the day. That required all of a 30-yard walk for one of those two, and he’s not exactly known for his walks.

The additions of intriguing relief pitcher Lucas Erceg in a deal with Oakland and veteran infielder Paul DeJong in a separate trade with the White Sox conclude a busy July — you know, same as it was a year ago.

Well, with one tiny difference.

The Royals are buyers at the trade deadline for the first time since J.J. Picollo headed the baseball operations department, offering us the first glimpse at what he might do with a team in the thick of the playoff race.

The reply? Help on the margins, you could probably frame it, keeping sidelined from the action a relatively frail farm system’s top prospects.

But I’ll add another takeaway: The Royals managed not only to assist their playoff race in 2024, but also perhaps even more obviously for 2025 — and beyond. Hard to do, particularly in what became a seller’s market this deadline.

As the Royals make their first push toward a postseason since lifting the World Series trophy nine years ago, it’s an important aspect of their entire trade deadline haul that could easily get lost in the shuffle.

It shouldn’t.

Erceg, drafted as a position player before moving to the mound, has five years of control remaining. Hunter Harvey, a reliever whom the Royals acquired earlier this month, has a year of control after this season. They’re not rentals, in other words.

And if you can allow yourself to look this far ahead, ask yourself what the Royals’ biggest priority should’ve been next offseason.

It’s an easy answer: the bullpen.

And let’s get more specific: power arms in the bullpen.

Erceg has a 26.4% strikeout rate this season, after posting a 27.1% rate the year before. Sam Long is the only member of the Royals bullpen who is better than 21% this season, other than the small sample size from the return of left-hander Kris Bubic.

A front office that dominated last offseason — an executive of the year-caliber winter for Picollo and his staff — just shortened the to-do list for the winter, all the while quite clearly improving the roster for this year. It’s often one or the other — rarely both. Well, either that or the cost is often astronomical, and some teams appeared willing to pay the premium.

The cost to the Royals is a handful of minor leaguers — none of their top-10 prospects, though some intriguing arms of their own. I’m certainly not saying the Royals gave up nothing.

But whatever happens this season, they won’t conclude it with nothing leftover, either. Those bullpen additions will be in uniform again next year, and one of them through 2029 if they wish, a trickle-down effect that, heck, might even conclude with Erceg throwing the ninth inning at Kauffman Stadium some day. After all, the Royals have five years to see him reach his ceiling, and he’s only been a full-time pitcher for three years.

The Royals entered the deadline with a list of two sets of players — their own players on each. On the first list: players they would not trade. The second: players they’d give up if only they could gain some additional years of control in the return.

Will Klein and Mason Barnett, part of the package to Oakland along with outfielder Jared Dickey, fell into the second bucket.

But, well, so does Erceg. He has just one year of control less than that group, and he’s a proven asset at the major-league level. Excuse me, an improving asset at the major-league level. He was drafted initially as a third baseman before transitioning to the mound. It means a bit more, in that case, that his second season with the A’s looks a lot better than the first, particularly in his strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.15 this season, up from 1.89 last year).

“Sometimes you think you know what’s going to happen, but when you get a chance to strike, you’ve just got to strike,” Picollo said, after noting this would be a point of focus in the offseason too. “And that was a chance for us to strike and hopefully lock down our bullpen, again, not just this year but years moving forward.”

If this was the middle of December, we’d be crediting the Royals for following through on their promise to become more transactional.

That’s the lens in which this should be viewed. Extra lens, actually, because it’s not as though the 2024 impact is a footnote.

It didn’t make much sense for the Royals to sacrifice a heavy part of a future that includes Bobby Witt Jr. just for a single push this season, but it equally seemed a tall task to suggest they improve the 2025 roster while keeping the promise of 2024 before them.

Truth is, I still have doubts about whether the Royals have enough in their bullpen to make an argument for anything beyond a ticket to the dance. I still don’t know who throws the ninth inning if the Royals have a one-run lead, and I certainly don’t know who I’d feel comfortable protecting that lead. Picollo mentioned Erceg as having future closer potential, but the emphasis was on future. There’s a lot to like about James McArthur, but less to like about him throwing the ninth inning on, say, Tuesday night in Chicago this week or Friday night in Detroit.

But, at a manageable price, they definitively have more options for the later innings.

Now.

And in the future.