So apparently the Royals want to get both salary relief and major league help for Hochevar, which just reinforces the absurdity of the Royals' ideas about player evaluation, relative to the rest of baseball. They live in an alternative universe.

But that got me to thinking: suppose that the Royals decided that they just wanted to get out from under their bad contracts for replacement-level veterans - Chen, Hochevar, and Francouer. And suppose all they wanted was salary relief - no real prospects or major league talent. Frenchy is owed 6.75 million, Hochevar 4.56, Chen 4.5. How much of this salary could they get other teams to pick up in trades? Of the approximately 15 million owed to these three, could they get other teams to eat half of it?

To be clear, I'm not saying that the Royals would ever do this. But if they could unload, say, 10 million dollars in salary, that could open the door to (for example) sign a certain well-known veteran starting pitcher who has lingered on the market much longer than expected. Or maybe draw Roy Oswalt out of retirement. Or use the money in some other way that would actually contribute wins to the team.

Thoughts?