Royals Acquire Outfielder Justin Maxwell

We still have about an hour left until the trade deadline, and while things are pretty quiet, the Royals have struck!

Sources: #Royals acquire OF Justin Maxwell from #Astros.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 31, 2013

Maxwell is a 29 year old speedster outfielder for the Astros hitting .241/.311/.387 in 151 plate appearances. You may remember that organization as the one that gave us such hits as Jason Bourgeois. He slugged a career high 18 home runs with a .460 slugging percentage in 2012 with the Astros in his only real shot at a full-time job. Maxwell has spent parts of five seasons in the big leagues with the Nationals and Astros, hitting .222/.311/.419.

Maxwell is a right-handed hitter that can play all three outfield positions so he should be able to platoon with Lough nicely. He has okay power, okay plate discipline, and was a pretty good defender in past years, although the advanced stats are not kind to him this year. He was a 2 WAR player in 2012, and is a 0.4 WAR player this year.

He seems like a nice bench player, but you really hope Dayton did not give up anything of consequence here.

UPDATE: The Royals traded High-A pitcher and 2011 4th round pick Kyle Smith to Houston in exchange for Maxwell. Smith had good numbers in Wilmington, but then who doesn't?