Reactions to the Nate Karns/Jarrod Dyson trade

Last week, the Royals acquired pitcher Nate Karns from the Seattle Mariners for outfielder Jarrod Dyson. Trade rumors had been swirling around Dyson for awhile, so the move wasn’t a huge surprise. Karns has several controllable years left, but an inconsistent track record. Here how others reacted to the deal.

Dayton Moore says Karns will compete for a rotation spot, but they like the bullpen as a fallback.

"[Karns] has a power arm that is hard to come by," Moore said. "It's an arm that could translate to the bullpen as well."

He liked acquiring a player with several controllable years.

"I don't want to speak for [Mariners general manager] Jerry [Dipoto]," Moore said, "but I think giving up a player with that much club control was a hurdle."

Rustin Dodd writes that Jarrod Dyson will be remembered for his personality.

In moments, he was a swaggering hype man. In others, he was a cackling rapscallion. On most days, though, he was simply the loudest voice in the room....

It was Dyson, of course, who coined the his iconic tagline ("That’s what speed do") and Dyson who ripped off the infamous "vroom vroom" gesture against the Oakland A’s during the 2014 Wild Card Game. It was Dyson who irked the Baltimore Orioles with a victory guarantee during the 2014 American League Championship Series, and it was Dyson, just months after the 2015 World Series, who was unafraid to talk about the looming elephant in the room. A group of best friends and ballplayers had won a world championship together. But the party could not last forever.

"We know this group isn’t going to be together forever," Dyson said last February, during the opening days of spring training. "So we’re trying to take advantage of it"

Dyson saw the writing on the wall.

And he thanked the organization.

He even called into 610 KCSP within minutes of the trade to thank Royals fans.

Sam Mellinger looked back at Dyson’s tenure.

Dan Szymborski of ESPN wanted the Royals to go for it.

David Lesky at Baseball Prospectus Kansas City gets the move, but doesn’t love it.

Personally, I’m not in love with this move, but I get it because four years of control of a starting pitcher is a big deal. The Royals do have Billy Burns, who is sort of similar to Dyson in that they both play outfield and they’re both fast. The problem is that Burns isn’t especially good at anything Dyson is. I think the bats might be somewhat comparable, but Burns doesn’t have the plate discipline Dyson does. He’s not a very good defender, and he isn’t a great base runner, in spite of his speed.

That doesn’t mean he can’t be valuable to the Royals in 2017 and beyond, but it’s to say that I believe the Royals got worse in their outfield situation.

Dave Cameron at Fangraphs sees Karns as a reliever.

On the plus side, Karns has a 99 xFIP- in 265 big league innings, most of those coming in the rotation. His curve is a true outpitch, and with a solid fastball, he has a two-pitch combination that misses bats, so the foundation is in place for Karns to be a quality pitcher. The problem is that everything else needs a lot of work, as his his command is pretty lousy, and to this point, he’s shown a total inability to get batters out once they’ve seen him a third time in the same game; last year, batters hit .355/.417/.645 against him on the third or fourth time through the order. Given his issues working more than 4-5 innings per start and his health issues, Karns is a prime candidate to be converted to the bullpen, and it wouldn’t be too surprising if the Royals turned him into a very good reliever, as they’ve done with other failed starters of late. The Mariners bullpen isn’t particularly great at the moment, so they could have used him in a similar role, but if you can swap a reliever for an above average starting outfielder making just a few million dollars per year, well, that’s a swap you generally want to make.

Jim Bowden at ESPN sees the trade as necessary for club control.

His FIP marks between the two seasons were almost identical, 4.09 in 2015 and 4.05 in 2016. If he pitches to that same level in 2017, he’ll be an asset in almost any role the Royals find for him....

For the Royals, they did what they had to do in trading one-year of club control of a player who wasn’t going to be extended to get four years of control on a pitcher who could help round out their rotation.

Lookout Landing likes the deal for 2017, but notes there are drawbacks.

Of course, there are drawbacks. Dyson is 32 years old, and speedy outfielders with a golden glove and a less-than-golden bat tend to drop off fairly quickly. And though he’s pretty cheap, as an arbitration-eligible player, he does have just this year remaining of team control.

And he cost the Mariners some of that recently-acquired pitching depth in Nathan Karns. Karns, acquired last year as part of the return for Brad Miller and Logan Morrison, struggled last year with injuries, stamina, and production, posting a 5.15 ERA for the season. But he’s only 29, with four years of team control ahead and a major FIP-ERA difference that points to significant improvement next year.

Fans were sorry to see Dyson go.

The Kansas City gives you five things to know about new Royals pitcher Nate Karns.

Nate is ready to be in Kansas City, so welcome him to town!