Tanking on purpose? I wish they were tanking on purpose and go the route that Houston and Chicago Cubs went, but this isn't that. You don't sign losers like Hamilton, Duda, and Owings if you're tanking on purpose. You trade away Merrifield if you're truly buying into a tank and rebuild.

Dude, you want the worst record in baseball...you sign duda, hamilton and Owings. They aren't trying to win this year. They and the Orioles are going to be 1/2 again this year for the top pick. They're going to trade off anything of value at the deadline.

My guess is Barlow. But who knows. They've done a few unexpected things lately, so they could surprise. McCarthy is definitely an "up/down" to Omaha candidate this year if he can't take the next step and build off last year. I've been disappointed with what I've seen of him thus far. Part of me is just ready to get Ynoa, Lovelady and maybe Newberry and Staumont up and see if the higher quality arms can rise to the occasion. That creates 40 man issues that I'm super doubtful we're ready to address this early.

I'm not sure what they have that has any value.

True. Most of this trash is here just to get us to the all star break - I think after that you shed all the corpses and start to see some guys like Lopez, Staumont, Lovelady etc.. I think merrifield is a bridge player for us between waves... but the point is that the future of the team is in Wilmington.

I don't think Moore has the cajones to trade Merrifield, but we'll see.

I love the idea of Lovelady and Ynoa making it before the end of the year. I doubt we'll see them any time soon. I think the Royals are hoping guys like Boxberger, Diekman, and Peralta have a good first half so they can be moved at the deadline. Even Homer Bailey or Duffy could be gone mid year if they have good first halfs. And, if we want to live in fantasy land, we can hope that Ian Kennedy has a great first half in the bullpen and someone will take him and his salary off the Royals hands.

Kennedy as a semi-lockdown back-end arm or closer is really the only possible way we unload that contract. It's a decent strategy, if that's part of the thinking. Of course, we would get nothing more than a lottery ticket in return if we're intent on unloading most of the salary (which we should be). Not sure how many teams will bite on that.

You absolutely do add some veterans if you’re in tank/rebuild mode, with an eye on flipping them at the deadline.

The key is not blocking any young players who are MLB ready. Duda does that, Owings does that, if they’re taking ABs away from O’Hearn or Dozier.

They would trade Merrifield if someone pushed forward the right offer, but I don’t believe it came. With the way teams now hoard prospects, it is going to get harder for teams to justify trading players with lots of control just because the window is still several years off.

The lack of success of recent tankers like the White Sox also offers a cautionary tale. What they got for a player very similar to Merrifield has not really impressed.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Per sources, the Royals have discussed the Brandon Finnegan and Dan Straily situations, but it&#39;s not likely anything will go further than that. They are at 39 on the 40-man roster and that final spot likely goes to Homer Bailey.</p>&mdash; Jeffrey Flanagan (@FlannyMLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/FlannyMLB/status/1112727100165947393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Bring back Finnegan!!

It’s just great out there. We were behind the 1B dugout when Zimmer came off, really nice ovation. He exhaled very noticeably when he hit the steps.

Boston Red Sox 2019 opening day salary = $225 million.

KC Royals 2019 opening day salary = $100 million.

https://www.royalsreview.com/2019/4/...from-last-year

Meh on Finnegan’s return.

He didn’t do a good job staying in shape after his initial debut, he chafed at being relegated to the pen, and his stuff regressed.

He also trash talked the Royals on the way out, then fell flat on his face.

If he’s willing to apologize and accept being a bullpen guy, cool. Would have to show some change to get this front office believing again, though.

This FO usually doesn't take criticism from its players too well. Crow was gone the instant he was remotely critical of the FO (same with players on the shitty teams pre-2013). I'd be a bit surprised if Finny was brought back after getting a lot more critical than Crow was after he was traded - especially since he's let his physical condition slide immediately after the 2014 playoffs.