The Athletics and Royals have announced a swap of outfielders, with the fleet-footed Billy Burns headed to Kansas City in exchange for Brett Eibner. Both were playing at the Triple-A level for their respective teams, but have been in the majors at points earlier in the year.
[Related: Updated Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals Depth Charts]
Burns, 26, brings to Kansas City an elite set of wheels that should play well in the spacious outfield at Kauffman Stadium, and his overall skill set should fit in well with the Royals’ general style of play. Burns boasts an extremely high contact rate and has fanned in just 13 percent of his plate appearances at the Major League level, which is characteristic of the approach the Royals have utilized to great effect in the past two seasons. However, his overall offensive game took a notable step back in his sophomore season. After posting a .294/.334/.392 slash in 555 PAs last season (good for fifth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting, though that award was really a two-horse race), Burns batted just .234/.270/.302 in 292 PAs before being optioned back to Triple-A earlier this summer.
Eibner, 27, has just 85 plate appearances at the Major League level, where he’s batted .231/.286/.429 with three homers and six doubles. He ranked among the Royals top 30 prospects, per Baseball America, in each of the past five offseasons, checking in at No. 17 overall on the two most recent iterations of said list. Though the former second-rounder is older than most would associate with the term “prospect,” he does have an impressive track record in Triple-A, where he’s hit .280/.354/.471 with 37 homers in 961 plate appearances in parts of three seasons. Oakland has been home to no shortage of late bloomers under president of baseball operations Billy Beane, and the hope for Eibner is that he’ll seemingly be the next such success story.
Depending on the Royals’ plans for Burns, he could be controllable through the 2020 or 2021 season. Burns entered the season with one year and 20 days of big league service time, and he picked up an additional 97 days of Major League service before being optioned out earlier this month. He’d need another 55 days of service time in the Majors this year to reach two full years, which would put him on track for free agency following the 2020 season. However, if the Royals view him as more of a September call-up for the expansion of Major League rosters, Burns will fall shy and won’t be eligible until following the 2021 campaign. Eibner, meanwhile, is controllable through the 2022 seeason.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
What a shame. I loved burns.
So did I and he still had upside also. Can run and play defense. Eibner is the opposite. Not to mention Burns was a fan favorite.
He’s basically Jarrod Dyson 2.0
Good trade for all.
He seems like a very KC type player.
Solid move for the royals.
It’s just as swap trade because both can play CF. Could have gotten Hill or so on to.
This trade makes 0 sense. I don’t understand what goes through the A’s front office when they make trades. It’s absolutely terrible
Does it have to do with service time, arbitration, options, etc.?
Burns will be packaged with Miley/Kennedy
Good trade for both teams.I have seen a few games of KC and Eibner has played well for Kansas City. However, Burns is a great outfielder, very talented.
this year it looks good. coming into the year would have been crazy. still nice buy low by kc.
How so?
Good move for both sides
Once Burns loses a little of his speed, he’ll be out of the majors since his bat won’t play in a corner OF position. I’m willing to bet Eibner has a longer MLB career than Burns…
burns is 26. the speed is there for a little while.
I dont undertsand this trade
All I want to know is why?
Why, what?
This looks like the deck hands re-arranging the chairs on the Titanic AFTER it has already struck the iceberg
I wonder if this mean that the Royals have a deal involving Dyson
Burns got figured out this year after a nice 2015. KC hitting coaches have a lot of work to do with him. He also strangely is kind of a bad base stealer in that he doesn’t run often enough and only steals bags at a 78% clip. He’s a poor man’s Dyson (who has a career 85% SB). Burns will probably play out his days as a career 4th OF, Eibner is the more interesting player of the two, for sure, but has less of a sample to work with. Like those AAA numbers though.
Fair deal for both sides
seems like the a’s gave up on burns pretty quickly
So, the A’s should stick with the below average defense, limited ability to get on base, poor base running, zero power and below average defense until Burns figures it out? Or should they flip him for a player with more years of control, better defense, decent OBP and good power for CFer?
funny how you forgot 2015 when he had 26 steals, a near 300 avg and was 5th in rookie of the year voting. kc will do what they did with dyson, flatten the swing out and tell him even or down is better for a guy with his speed.
Burns does not have below average defense. He made some amazing plays … The rest are fair but he was amazing last year so the possibility is there, if he gets playing time or figures it out
Power and speed in Eibner for just speed in Burns. Two additional option years versus none. Typical royals target. Doesn’t walk or strikeout much, so if Burns keeps hitting at his current pace then this is a real head scratcher for a KC team that needs offense.
yeah comparing the speed of these two makes a lot of sense.
Not exactly sure why this trade was done. It seems like the Royals and A’s were just sitting there and decided “Eh, screw it, let’s just throw something together to make it look like we’re trying.”
I liked burns. He was having a bad first half but the guys a solid talent and it sucks to see him go
Eibner has been and still is injury prone. Minors career littered with injuries and it didn’t take long for him to get hurt when The Royals called him up this season.
He’s fragile.
Plus all of his power numbers from the minors really didn’t translate to the big club. He’s looked lost at the plate the entire time to me.
Seems like a good guy though. A’s fans definitely do not need to worry about character. Hopefully he does well for you guys.
The trade does seem kind of like a lateral move though. Either The Royals think they can fix Burns or he is getting packaged in another deal.