By Seth Herrold
When the Royals named Dayton Moore general manager, the era that preceeded him was supposed to be over. David Glass was actually starting to pony up the big bucks and, even if the Royals did have to trade a star, Dayton Moore was going to get a future star in return.
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There have been an abundance of bad trades in the history of the Royals franchise with Allard Baird, the man who preceeded Dayton Moore as the Royals GM, taking the heat for most of them. To Baird’s credit, he served as the Royals GM during the worst possible time. There was an abundance of talent coming through the Royals’ farm system and Glass had a tighter grip on his cash box than Henry F. Potter in “It’s A Wonderful Life.”
Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran and Jermaine Dye were all shipped off for prospects Baird thought could eventually fill the shoes of the previous stars he had just shipped off. He didn’t do it because he hated Kansas City or because he was trying to burn down the organization from the inside. No, he did it because he simply didn’t have money to keep those rising talents in Kansas City when they became free agents. After all, it made more sense to get something out of them than nothing. With Johnny Damon and Carlos Beltran he got that. something. Guys like Angel Berroa and Mark Teahen were acquired in those deals and while they never became superstars, they were starters on the club for many years.
Then there was the Jermaine Dye trade – the trade I view as the worst trade in the history of the franchise. In return for Dye, who started an All-Star game and would go on to become a World Series MVP for the Chicago White Sox, the Royals got shortstop Neifi Perez. Perez was, in a word, horrible. He was a liability at the plate, had no power, no average, no speed. In the field he often looked as if he was giving little to no effort. He had terrible range and committed 25 errors in under 200 games with the Royals. You may have heard of a five-tool player before. Well, Neifi was a zero-tool player.
Trades like that were supposed to be a thing of the past when Dayton Moore came to town and when faced with the task of trading away a superstar in Zack Greinke, Moore delivered, hauling in shortstop Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain, both of whom are starters on the big league club. He also got Jeremy Jefress in the deal and he has seen some time in the majors as well.
Then came the Melky Cabrerra trade. Moore got swindled big time in this deal and I rank it the second worst trade the Royals have made behind only the Dye trade. Cabrerra became an All-Star Game MVP and Jonathan Sanchez didn’t even last a season in Kansas City. The Royals also got minor leaguer Ryan Verdugo who, after one start, was promptly demoted back to Triple A Omaha.
Moore needs to get starting pitching in Kansas City. Hopefully, he learned from this deal.