Royals GM Dayton Moore strongly downplayed the likelihood of the team dealing away star utilityman Whit Merrifield, as Tom Martin of KCTV5 covers (video link, on Twitter). Calling Merrifield “one of the best players in all of baseball right now,” Moore says “the ask would be just crazy” if rivals come calling this summer.
It’s sensible for the K.C. exec to take a strong public position on Merrifield with the deadline now in sight. After all, he’d surely need something truly compelling to justify parting with a player who has now fully established himself as a high-quality all-around performer who’d improve any team in the league given his defensive versatility.
At the same time, Moore has now set a rather lofty standard at the outset of the trade season. Perhaps the Royals really do not have any interest at all in moving Merrifield. If they’d like to consider offers, though, they’ll now have to deal with a public perception that any return must be overwhelming.
There is an argument to be made that Merrifield would best be utilized as a trade piece. The Royals seem to be a ways from contention and still need to gather up youthful, controllable core assets.
Merrifield is already 30 years of age, which won’t be a turnoff to contenders but perhaps places him outside the optimal range for the Royals. He’s signed to quite an appealing contract that would suit most any budget, making him a high-value trade target. We just ranked Merrifield tenth on our initial list of the top 2019 deadline candidates, but that placement would be much higher if he was clearly available. Merrifield would perhaps be the most widely pursued position player on the market if put up for bidding.
Good player, but “one of the best players in baseball” is laughable. Royals can keep him, but they won’t be winning any time soon.
He said “right now.”
He did say “right now”
Closer to “one of the best” than “good player.” He has the highest bWAR among second basemen since the start of ’18. Even higher than Altuve.
Which is kinda funny saying most of the time I see him in right field.
Only this year and only the last few weeks. He was almost exclusively 2B before that.
53 games in right field (31 of which were this year) vs 337 at 2B (32 this year).
So pretty even this year. Im just saying every time I caught them on something. He has played right and Lopez at 2nd. I know what position the guy plays. He played 2nd in college at South Carolina too.
Lopez just got called up a couple weeks ago, prior to that Whitley has played 2B. Also he played CF for most of his college career 🙂
Just to confuse everyone, he’s played 1B the last two days (one day after we didn’t use Terrance Gore to pinch run for Duda on second base with no outs down 1 in the because we didn’t have a backup first baseman #yosted)
That’s right. What the hell am I thinking. Wingo played 2nd.
I would take DJ Lemahieu over him in a second.
Why? There is literally nothing that LeMahieu does better than Whit. They slash about the same, Whit has more home run power, hits more doubles, and steals 30-40 bases. And LeMahieu’s contract is 3 times as expensive. Whit can also play any position on the field aside from C.
I’ll take that back, I think LeMahieu plays a bit better defense at 2b than Whit, but not near enough of a difference to off-set everything else.
@mizzourah87 does “everything else” include the Royals perceived asking price?? LeMahieu wouldn’t cost the quantity and quality of prospects and that’s a big difference.
I mean yes, a player who has a much more team friendly contract, and is overall a better and more valuable player, will have more of an asking price.
Dayton said basically the same thing about Moose last year but dealt him anyway. Any GM worth their salt is going to set a high price on a player in June. Dayton would be stupid to come out now and say “Oh yea Whit is available but we’re not going to care if we’re blown away or not”.
Moose was a rental. Merrifield is controlled through 2023. Huge difference.
Doesn’t matter….as was said above….good player…bloomed late…can he continue at the same level which is good but not great as he ages?
Absolutely it matters! WIth Moose, their options were A. Take what they could get or B. Lose him for nothing. Not the case with Merrifield.
The Merrifield and Moose situations are completely different. And Dayton didn’t say the same thing about Moose last year! When they signed him to a 1 year deal, Dayton knew he was going to trade him at the deadline, otherwise he never would of signed him.
He said the same thing about Moose in **2017** and didn’t trade him. Moose was signed in 2018 for the specific purpose of trading him at the deadline.
Royals were in possession of the 2nd AL Wild Card spot at the 2017 TD. Of course they didn’t trade Moose at that point.
And moose went on to break the royals single season record for home runs in 2017.
Closest comparison to Whit Merrifield was Logan Forscythe a few years back. Tampa received a top 35 prospect in Jose De Leon for Forscythe.
Gonna take an arm and a leg for the royals to part with Merrifield who’s under team control for what 3.5 more years? He’s a late bloomer and only be around 4ish years in the majors.
Forsythe was a year younger and his game was not based on speed.
De Leon was not a top 35 prospect at the time of the trade. He was #84 on the MLB list. Not listed in top 50 mid season for Baseball Prospectus. Not on Baseball America’s Top 100 list at all.
baseballprospectus.com/prospects/article/32224/201…
m.mlb.com/prospects/2017
Merrifield’s game isn’t based on speed either.
You gotta love it when folks say a players game is built on speed when he’s hitting .302 and hit .304 the year before. Merrifield’s played 455 games in the majors and he’s hitting a career .295. That’s not a game built on speed. That’s a game built on competence with a bat. Oh yea, and he’s an elite defender too.
Whit is the PERFECT Royal. He’s a .300 hitter with a glove who can rotate positions. I’ll take 3-4 more just like him.
de Leon was ranked #28 on MLBPipeline when he was traded. The MLBPipeline link you gave was as of the 2017 midseason reranking.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_De_Le%C3%B3n#Tampa…
I’d say a closer a comparison is a Ben Zobrist type with a bit more speed.
Seems like a mistake since he doesn’t fit their window
How many times do I have to say this, Dayton Moore will not trade Whit Merrifield, Salvador Perez, Danny Duffy or Alex Gordon (who will veto any trade anyway) unless someone pays him a Kings ransom and maybe not even then. He’s loyal to players, sometimes to a fault. There is no point in debating whether he should trade them, because he’s not going to. Every year he makes a comment like this that basically says “never say never” but realistically it’s not going to happen.
I agree that he won’t trade Perez or Gordon, but I do think he is willing to trade Duffy and Whit if the price is right.
Operative term being “if the price is right” as he said in this story. Duffy would be the easiest to pry away I think, I’m just saying Dayton says something like this every year and national baseball writers always make it sound like the Royals are shopping these guys and anyone who has paid any attention to how Dayton Moore operates should know it’s not serious.
Moore would be foolish to trade Whit. Historically, guys who lead baseball in hits typically play well into their mid-to-late 30s because while speed and power fade, the ability to swing and make contact does not.
Look at the list and tell me I’m wrong: baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hihits4.shtml Most these guys made it to 34-35 with several playing at a high level to 38. .
Given Whit’s late rise, and his lack of dependence on power, he could be on the field well into his late 30s, not unlike Ben Zobrist (and in his prime, Whit has a better bat).
He is basically DJ Lemahieu.
i dont see why not to be honest. versitile defender, top of the order batter, speedy as they come nowadays, cheap and controllable. what’s not to love here?
He’s 30 and best case scenario Royals contend at the back end of his contract.
Came up at 27 or so. Age doesnt mean much with him.
When he came up is irrelevant. The aging curve doesn’t just go away because he spent more time in AAA than the next guy.
Lol^^^^
So? He’s 30 and he’s hitting .302 a year after hitting .304. Give me a break. Dude will be in powder blue til he’s at least 35.
Interesting how dismissive the comments are about a guy who led the AL in both hits and SB in 2018. One of the best players in baseball? Maybe not, but it’s a pretty big stretch to call Moore’s comment “laughable”.
He’s been a .300 hitter for 4 years who plays great defense. How is he not one of the best players in baseball?
Never posted an OPS+ above 130.one season above four war. Hes good. Not one of the best. Who care if he hit 300. Average is meaningless.
Average is meaningless.
Tell that to Ty Cobb.
I will take a team with 300 hitters.against your team of 200 hitters any day of the week.That is only one hit in ten at bats better.
You can even cherry pick the best home run hitters.
With the same pitching staffs,we will see who wins.
Idiots
already 30 yrs old is enough for me. They should be selling high on him immediately!!
Because Ben Zobrist wasn’t any good past 33.
If the Royals were contenders then I would not have felt thia way. what others do at 33 is not a great metric anyway
If the Royals were contenders then I would not have felt this way. what others do at 33 is not a great metric anyway
So… Merrifield to Cleveland? Awesome!
Cubs or Diamondbacks are both great fits but their farm systems are lacking. I’d say the Rays.
Funny, I was thinking the same thing. Something built around Nate Lowe and Shane McCalahan, I would think. Both are redundant (B. Lowe to 1B, where he belongs); most of the Rays pitching prospects are LHs.
There would have to be more, but I think that gets it started.
I feel like the royals would shoot for one of their best prospects. The rays have many and I doubt they’ll get all scared over giving away at least one. Definitely not Franco unless they’re getting a top 5 player in baseball.
Royals Acquire:
Willy Adames (SS)
Brendan McKay (LHP), #25th top prospect.
Rays Acquire:
Whit Merrifield (UTL)
Seems a bit crazy, but I personally think Whit Merrifield is worth that much.
Why? The Royals are years away from competing again… why not trade a piece that’s not even going to be around when that franchise starts winning again?
That is funny. A 30 year old player whose game is based on speed and Moore thinks he can get a “crazy asking price” for him. I hope that Royals fans enjoy losing. They may see another decade of it before they get better.
Ya, nobody wants a 5.5 WAR player with three years of cheap control
Crazy asking price….hmm sounds like a job for Texas or Tampa Bay!
Ok. So then you won’t be trading him.
Merrifield to the Dodgers for Joc Petersen and Dustin May (highest ranked LH in minors).
MacKenzie Gore would like to have a word with you outside…
That’s impressive considering that May throws with his right hand.
Go home! You already know the Dodgers already aren’t going to trade May. Lux is going to have to be moved to 2nd due to his defensive issues, and it would take a lot more than that to acquire a piece the Dodgers don’t really need. You personally may not like Pederson or Baez, but they aren’t getting traded at the TDL no matter what package you try to fit them in. They also fit the team extremely well. You also seem to be ignoring the obvious that Moore has no desire to trade Merrifield.
So the Rays aren’t trading McKay; hard stop. Not trading Franco, either.
I thought of Adames, and while that seems to work, they really don’t have a glove-capable SS in their system. Not that Adames is; the Rays seem to be the only team on the planet that thinks Adames is a shortstop. The fact that he’s an idiot on the basepaths doesn’t make things better. And the bat is “meh” at best. Moore’s too smart to be taken in by the hype.
Nate Lowe can move in to 1B now (I mean, Lucas Duda???); McCalahan is at least a 3rd starter, tho a couple of years away. It would take another piece (Nate’s brother Josh, maybe; make it noteworthy for its oddity).
TB needs quality infielders, despite this myth of any “glut”. Adames is miserable, barely a MLB-er; Robertson and Wendle (tho you gotta love him) are spare parts. At best. Duffy’s a walking IL-case, and Lucius Fox is Mendoza without the glove. None of the Cronenworth/Wong/Brousseau/Solak gang have any IF defensive value. Again, spare part/utility types (hey, Cronenworth even pitches).
It might be a bit light, but it’s a starter.
Makes sense. I’m not sure how much these players mean to the rays future plans since I’m a royals fan. I was recently thinking about a Merrifield trade to San Diego with Luis Urias as the headliner but it looks like the Padres are leaning more to selling than buying now.
Why would the Padres trade a player who is better than Merrifield and controlled longer plus more for Merrifield?
Really? I’m not saying it would be a good trade but dude is hitting .089 let’s pump the brakes on him being “better than Merrifield” for now. Future value is debatable but I think we can all get behind Merrifield’s present value being greater than Urias.
Urias may end up being better than Merrifield, but to say he is better than Merrifield now is crazy, I can see how you don’t want to trade a highly touted prospect, but to say that he is better now is so not true.
Padres can afford to wait on Urias (who is 8.5 years younger than Merrifield by the way).
If the Padres aren’t far back of playoff contention come July, give up a player who has a chance of not even panning out for an elite contact/speed player who can play almost every position out there. It annoys me how soft people get over losing prospects in order to push for October baseball. That’s why the sport is getting boring because come August half of the teams want to rebuild.
1. The Padres aren’t contending for anything in 2019.
2. Merrifield also has a chance of not staying good and a VERY good chance of not staying this good considering he’s already 30.
Again, the Padres can afford to wait on Urias.
That is a very fair comment and may be the best choice for them. The only point of yours that I had an issue with was that Urias was better than Merrifield. The Padres certainly hope that comes true.
He will be during their actual window.
You hope he will be. You don’t know that for sure as many high prospects do not make it.
Uness you think all 3 of Luis Urias, Xavier Edwards and C.J. Abrams will bust the Padres are set at 2B.
It’s certainly possible that all 3 will bust. It has happened before.
It’s also possible that Merrifield’s production falls off a cliff soon, especially considering he’s already 30.
I resemble your statement about Lucius Fox Mr Tillman.
I think he said B Lowe to 1st and McClanahan is a stud I’ve told people he had a chance to make it to MLB this year as a rp. I don’t know what tier he’ll fit in and if you do go sign up to be a scout for someone. Bauer, Scherzer, Corbin are all players one team didn’t believe in and traded off. The Rays traded Vasquez as part of a package for Karns (I believe) I hated the deal later but with the name change I guess I missed it. Marquez was part of a deal for Dickerson, and Padlo. Teams miss evaluate prospects and players all the time. That being said not trading him is dumb.
Merrifield would be nice on the south side of Chicago.
Merrifield and Chris Young look like brothers, if not twins.
Just from this photo it seems, not their team photos.
If he played in NY he would be on here daily and Yankee fans would be clamoring for a Hall of Fame vote now. He plays for the Royals so he can’t be “ that good”.
Yep
The only way the Royals would trade to the Rays is if they get Franco. Merrifield is so valuable and the Royals are not going to give away a generational player for a couple of mid-level prospects to “help the rebuild”
Whit’s not a generational player lol
He is not for the whole mlb but for the royals he is for sure a generational player
Ok Royal fans. What positions would y’all like to see in a return for Whit?
Package requested for Whit : ten Aaron judges, 5 verlanders & an altuve in a pear tree
I’m not sure if Duffy would want traded….Before he deleted his Twitter account he constantly said “Bury me a royal”. I think like Alex he would like to end his career with just one team.
little birdie told me Dodgers dangling #1 & #2 prospects
The Royals don’t have any need to trade him since he’s under contract for 4 more years after this one, and with a very team friendly contract. Then again, he’s also a late bloomer and already 30, so I doubt his value is going to increase from here. I guess the Royals just want people to know they won’t sell him cheap, and that’s not a bad position since there’s no reason to let him go for peanuts.
After this article came out, he has a 2 home run, 6 RBI night and people are saying he’s not one of the best players in baseball right now? He’s definitely at least in the conversation.
Ian Happ, Addison Russell, Pedro Strop for Merrifield and a reliever or a minor league player. Happ can play 5 positions. Russell would benefit from a change of scenery. whit Merrifield can play 2nd every day and lead off for the Cubs. Cubs improve on offense and defense at 2nd. Russell and Happ are controllable for 4 more years each.
Interesting proposal but they’re looking to pick up more quality talent the same age as our core in High A-Ball. Happ and a top-100 pitcher could be interesting though
Russell is still a good defender. A change of scenery would be good and he and happ are 6 years younger than Merrifield. The Cubs have needed a lead off man since dexter Fowler. Before Fowler their only legit lead off man was Kenny lofton. And because Hendry is an idiot..he refused to spend 8 mil over 2 years on lofton. All because he thought Corey Paterson was a superstar.