The Royals have assets to deal this week but they are going to want young players back who are major league ready. Melky Cabrera, Jeff Francoeur, Mike Aviles, Bruce Chen and Jeff Francis are going to be talked about a lot this week. Matt Treanor and Kila Ka’aihue are two other players who could be on the move this week. The Royals could decide to package players to maximize the return they can get in deals. For instance, the Pirates or Giants could use a shortstop and a catcher. The Royals would get more for Mike Aviles and Matt Treanor if they packaged them than they would get for one of them on individual deals. That being said, Mike Aviles has a lot of possible suitors other than the Giants and Pirates. Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francoeur are also hot commodities with the Rays, Indians, Rangers, Phillies, Braves, Pirates, Diamondbacks and Red Sox needing outfield help. Bruce Chen and Jeff Francis are also going to be hot names on the trade market as there are not a lot of quality lefty starting pitchers available. The Royals need young outfielders, a catcher and young starting pitching back in deals this week as those are the areas they will need some help down the road.

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.

The Royals need starting pitching and the Orioles might be willing to part with Jeremy Guthrie. I think a package built around 1B Kila Ka’aihue, SS Mike Aviles and RSP Luke Hochevar could net the Royals Guthrie and either Chris Waters or Rich Hill. That would be a trade that would help both teams as Ka’aihue could start at 1B for the Orioles, Aviles could start at SS over Cesar Izturis if he is healthy and Hochevar would replace Guthrie in the starting rotation. Guthrie would slot behind Zach Greinke and Gil Meche which would give the Royals a pretty decent top three of the rotation. Hill or Waters could then battle Kyle Davies for the last spot in the rotation behind Brian Bannister. This would be a good trade for both teams.