Lesky’s Notes: The dominoes are starting to fall
The Royals have made three trades in the last two days. Leslie thinks it's because of the situation with the qualifying offer. He thinks the trades don't feel like Dayton Moore's style. Leslie is a regular contributor to Inside the Crown newsletter. It's free and it comes directly to your inbox as soon as he publishes. The newsletter is about baseball.
Whit Merrifield is going to be traded. Scott Barlow and Michael A. Taylor are likely to get traded, Cam Gallagher, Brad Keller, Hunter Dozier, Josh Staumont and Zack Greinke are less likely. Lesky's notes that the dominoes are starting to fall. The Royals are going through a lot of transactions. They are also going though some difficult ones. The team is also negotiating with the Brewers. It is possible that they will get back Ethan Small or Tyler Black.
The Royals have a lot of young pitchers in their system. They have added Andrew Hoffmann, Beck Way, TJ Sikkema, Jonathan Bowlan and Brady Singer. Kris Bubic has been good recently and has a better than average ERA. Brad Keller is a decent pitcher who gives innings and keeps his team in games. Lesky would like to keep Zack Greinke on one-year deals until he retires. He feels better about the staff if they fire Cal Eldred. He would also like a combination of Daniel Lynch, Jonny Heasley, Drew Parrish, Angel Zerpa.
Lesky looked at strikeout percentage, walk percentage and strike out to walk ratio for young pitchers in baseball. The Royals have acquired four young pitching prospects. Sikkema is third out of the list that is now 22 in strikeouts, Champlain is 10th, Way is 12th and Hoffmann is 13th. The current Royals crop of young pitcher fits in with some of baseball's best pitchers. They strike hitters out and limit walks. It's nice to see that's what they've been targeting in deals. The team has made an effort to find pitchers who should have an easier transition up the ladder.
Tyler Gentry is hitting .331/.416/.562 for Quad Cities and Northwest Arkansas this season. He's a quality defensive outfielder and he can work a walk and hit for a high average. Gency is not likely to make the Opening Day roster, but he's going to be a non-roster invite. The Royals have a lot of left-handed players on their current roster. They might be willing to move someone like Edward Olivares to bring back some pitching.
