If the Kansas City Royals are going to re-sign 33-year old lefty starting pitcher Bruce Chen they need to do if before other teams can start talking to him. Chen pitched in 33 games (23 starts) for the Royals last year and he was 12-7 with a 4.17 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. He has now pitched in 50 games (32 starts) in two years with the Royals and he is 13-13 with 1 save, a 4.66 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP. There is not a lot of starting pitching available on the free agent market so if the Royals want to bring him back they should re-sign him right now and reward him for a solid 2009.

The Royals could really use some pitching and that’s what the deal I would propose would bring back to them. First off is Jose Guillen. The Royals want to really move him and the Padres have some major league ready relievers to offer them. I would trade Guillen to the Padres for righty relievers Adam Russell and Ernesto Frieri and I would put them right into the pen. This kind of deal would allow the Royals to call Alex Gordon back up. I would turn around then and deal Kyle Farnsworth and IF/OF Willie Bloomquist to the Tigers for righty relievers Jay Sborz and Casey Fien. Finally I would be willing to flip Mike Aviles to the Rockies for IF/OF Eric Young who has tremendous speed just like his daddy did. The Royals should be looking for pitching in the next couple of weeks.

The Kansas City Royals are 37-46 on the season which has them in 4th place in the A.L. Central, 8 games behind the Tigers. If the Royals get hot they likely won’t be having their annual fire sale this season. In fact if they get hot they might turn into buyers rather than sellers. Mike Aviles, David DeJesus, Jose Guillen, Kyle Farnsworth, Willie Bloomquist and Yuniesky Betancourt would probably be the guys the Royals choose to trade if they become sellers. If they turn things around and become buyers they will be looking for starting pitchers. The Royals will be a very interesting team to watch in July.

I commend the Royals for using their revenue sharing money on major league free agents but they continue to pick the wrong players and that is the direct result of the G.M. not doing his job. With that in mind the Royals need to make a bunch of moves with the future in mind but they need to bring in quality young talent in return. They can’t be making trades just to save money. I think with four trades the Royals could set themselves up decent for the future. The first trade I would make is with the Tigers as I would offer them Yuniesky Betancourt, Chris Getz, Willie Bloomquist and cash for Scott Sizemore and Ryan Raburn. Then I would call up the Reds and offer them Kyle Farnsworth and Brad Thompson with cash for Micah Owings and Paul Janish. The Padres would get call #3 in which I would offer them David DeJesus and cash for Edwin Mujica and Adam Russell. The final move would be the biggest one as I would trade Jose Guillen, Gil Meche and a lot of cash to the Nationals for Matt Chico, Luis Atilano, Roger Bernadina and Justin Maxwell. The Royals aren’t going anywhere right now or even in the near future with the current roster so these are the kind of moves a rebuilding team has to make.