Kansas City Royals Still Interested In Trading For Jarren Duran

Ragans really doesn’t make sense for KC to give up.  But the rest of their rotation is also a bit questionable or lacking control…

15 minutes ago, notin said:

Ragans really doesn’t make sense for KC to give up.  Ragans.  But the rest of their rotation is also a bit questionable or lacking control…

MLB police just pulled you over for seeing double... or at least typing a double meaning.

Do the Royals' starting pitchers walk a lot of guys or does KC only have them under contract for a year before they reach free agency?

(thrilled that my brain is now wired this way about a pastime; imagine all those kids out there making Christmas wish lists on a budget)

36 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Bubic for Bleis and Masa? 

Ok! 

Getting Bubic should definitely be more about unloading.  He’s had one good season and didn’t even last all the way though it, and now has only one season left until free agency…

47 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

I'd love to see the medicals on Ragans.  I like Duran a lot and think he would do very, very well for KC.  But Ragans has a 2.79 FIP for KC in maybe 319 innings.  It's almost impossible for me to think they would trade him for anything less than a star.

Unless they anticipate major arm problems.

It sounds like KC is far more interested in acquiring Duran than they are in trading Ragans.  I don’t see a deal happening here…

A healthy Ragans is worth 2 Durans, but...

30 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

He almost has to be injured.  Some his game logs are sick, and about as impressive as Crochet was when we got him.

• 4/2-4/43 ---31/2 K/W and 1 HR in 18.2 IPs
• 5/5-5/16 ---26/4 K/W and -0- HRs in 15
• 9/23-9/28 ---18/2 K/W and 1 HR in 9.1

Those numbers define the term 'unhittable'.

The guy is very attractive, but I'm so tired of hoping for health, especially with pitchers.

The 2025 season was an IL merry-go-round, that also included a nice return by Gio and a "healthy" Buehler stinking up the place.

How about these samples from the 2025 game logs?

3/31 to 4/15: 18.2 IP, 13H, 21K/5BB, 1HR, 0.96 ERA/2.71 FIP

5/3 to 6/1: 39.1IP 24H, 42K/10 BB, 1 HR 0.69 ERA/2.09 FIP

That was his teammate Bubic, but Kris finished the season at 4.61/3.60 in his last 8 GS and 41 IP

8 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

We do not have to trade any of our outfielders!  So  applaud bres-slow for not charging the maximum for any of them!!! 
 

I would prefer we keep the four we have now 

We do not, but we do have a surplus of outfielders and a shortage of infielders.  We need a team with their surpluses and dearths reversed…

10 hours ago, vjcsmoke said:

Ragans when healthy was missing bats with his pitches. 14.3 strikeouts per 9 last season.

He was injured and only played for 13 starts so it's a small sample size. But if he's fully recovered he would be a very interesting addition as a potential top 3 pitcher. So of course this deal won't be happen.

I think it doesn’t happen because I do not believe KC to be that stupid.

Third team? Maybe…

2 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

It's why I sometimes prefer to have someone that had the TJS and has put it behind him, like Alcantara.  Alcantara looks good recently, and is unlikely to require a follow-up procedure in the next two years.  A guy like Ryan finished awful.  6.47/5.85 with 10 HRs in his last 32 IPs.

Not all guys who finish poorly end up sucking or needing TJS soon afterwards.

While Crochet did not end 2024 as poorly as Ryan did, he did drop a ton:

3.07 ERA/2.32 after 21 GS

5.19 ERA/3.86 in last 11 GS

34 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

A little bit of an aberration.  He had a 47/3 K/W in his final 27.2 IPs.  That's unhittable.  Ryan had a still very respectable 41/12 in 32 IPs.  It's not a disqualifier, but that is way down from 2023 and 2024, and from his earlier 2025 results.

Yes, and that is one downside of just finding sample sizes to make a point. Crochet was a damn good pitcher, despite the 5.19 ERA over a rather large sample size, and so is Joe Ryan, despite 4 bad games pitched in his last 7 starts of 2025.