Royals acquire Josh Willingham

The Royals have acquired outfielder Josh Willingham from the Twins for minor league righty Jason Adam, according to ESPN's Daren Wolfson. The Kansas City Star's Andy McCullough was the first to report Adam was involved with the deal.

Willingham is batting .210/.345/.402 with 12 homers and 34 runs batted in over 278 plate appearances with Minnnesota this season. He missed 41 games in April and May with a fractured left wrist. He had made just 23 plate appearances when he sustained the injury, so most of his production has come after his return.

Last season, Willingham also struggled to keep his batting average respectable -- he hit .208 in 111 games. Batting average isn't a great yardstick with which to measure offense production, but if he manages to hit somewhere around his career average -- .253 -- he could be make a huge contribution to the team's collective on-base percentage. This year, he's walking in over 15 percent of his plate appearances, and although he's striking out at a career-high rate as well, he has a .333 wOBA this year. That's good enough to rank second on the Royals, behind only Alex Gordon (his wOBA is .350).

Adam, 23, reached Triple-A Omaha for the first time this season. In 15⅓ innings with the Storm Chasers -- eight appearances, no starts -- he posted a 2.35 ERA and 3.61 FIP. His line in Double-A was less impressive, however. In 98⅓ innings, he put up a 5.03 ERA (though he did have a 3.54 FIP), and has put together a career minor league ERA of 4.38 over four seasons in the Royals system after being drafted in the 5th round of the 2010 amateur draft out of Overland Park, Kansas.