Now that the Royals have gotten Jeremy Guthrie to sign, it's time to make some trades to land the final pieces of the championship puzzle.

Trade #1

Send Jeff Francoeur, Jorge Bonafacio (High A), either Chris Dwyer or Mike Montgomery, Yordano Ventura and $1.5m to the Miami Marlins for Giancarlo Stanton and maybe a single A lottery ticket.

Trade #2

Send Wil Myers, Kelvin Herrera, (maybe) Jake Odorizzi and Cheslor Cuthbert to the Tampa Bay Rays for Jeremy Hellickson

Okay, so why do these two moves?

Giancarlo Stanton is somewhat unhappy with the situation in Miami, and probably will not sign an extension with him. Rather than parting with him for 75 cents on the dollar, the Royals send them Francoeur (covering about 20% of his salary) for this season, along with a top pitching prospect, a potential reclamation project and a RF of the future that is not yet alienated by the franchise. If things go well, Miami gets three cost controlled players, plus one season of Jeff Francoeur smiles and bacon. Even if things don't work out perfectly, Miami still gets a guy in Ventura that will probably be an above average reliever at worst, along with a shot at a decent RF in Bonafacio.

Trade 2 nets the Royals the starter they need. By landing Stanton, Wil Myers is expendable. Tampa covets him anyway, so centering a deal around him with Herrera as a bullpen piece and Cuthbert to round out the deal makes sense.

These deals also open up some cash to possibly address the 2B problem that the Royals have.

It gives them an everyday lineup of Gordon 7, Escobar 6, Hosmer, 3, Butler DH, Stanton 9, Moustakas 5, Perez 2, Cain 8, Getz/Gia/Falu/Abreu 4, and a rotation of Hellickson, Guthrie, Santana, Chen and Mendoza before the break with Duffy and Paulino available as reinforcements sometime around August.

Hellickson and Stanton are both cost controlled, but the other teams get back several cost controlled players in the deal as well. Also, Hellickson, Guthrie, Chen, Mendoza, Smith, etc. help lessen the blow of trading away the two most developed pitching prospects in the organization.