What to know about the Royals and the 2022 trade deadline

The 2022 trading season will end today, August 2 at 5 p.m. CT. This will be the only trade deadline, as teams are no longer permitted to make waiver trades as they did in past seasons.

The Royals have already made a few notable moves this summer, including:

• Trading first baseman Carlos Santana to the Seattle Mariners for pitchers Wyatt Mills and William Fleming on June 27.
• Trading the 35th pick in the 2022 draft to the Atlanta Braves for third baseman CJ Alexander, outfielder Drew Waters, and pitcher Andrew Hoffmann on July 11.
• Trading outfielder Andrew Benintendi to the New York Yankees for pitchers Chandler Champlain, T.J. Sikkema, and Beck Way on July 27.
• Trading third baseman Emmanuel Rivera to the Arizona Diamondbacks for pitcher Luke Weaver on August 1.

The Royals still have a number of trade candidates including Scott Barlow, Hunter Dozier, Brad Keller, Whit Merrifield, Josh Staumont, and Michael A. Taylor.

The team doesn’t have a history of trading players other than impending free agents very often, although Kansas City Star columnist Sam McDowell thinks that could change this year. General Manager J.J. Picollo seems open to the idea, but with the caveat that the Royals won’t aggressively shop players with more than one year of club control left.

“The players we have remaining have years on their contracts, so we don’t have to be the aggressor,” Picollo said last week. “... I think it will get interesting. I don’t know where it will go. If the players that are on this team are with us next year, it’s not a bad thing.

“It’s really a matter of whether or not we can improve our team or the organization moving forward by using these players. And that’ll be dictated by the level of interest and competition that may exist to acquire any one player.”

He also told Alec Lewis of The Athletic that the Luke Weaver deal could allow them to move other bullpen pieces.

“Hard to tell,” he said. “Obviously, there are discussions. I think we have players that other teams value. We’re doing a lot of listening right now. There are obviously still a lot of good players that are out there that potentially could be traded. So, we’re just waiting it out to see what we think, if anything, makes sense for us. What this move does allow us to do is feel like we have depth in the bullpen if something makes sense with one of our bullpen arms. Then we’ve protected ourselves a little bit. But, hard to tell what’s going to happen between now and (Tuesday) afternoon.”

Here are the latest trade rumors.

Royals relievers are drawing interest.

The Royals won’t be trading Zack Greinke.

Atlanta has shown interest in outfielder Michael A. Taylor.

The Royals are more open to trading Whit Merrifield than they have been in the past and the Dodgers could be interested.

Here are some of the other rumors around baseball:

The Cardinals, Dodgers, and Padres are the finalists for Juan Soto, but the Cardinals are balking at including outfielder Dylan Carlson.

The Dodgers see Cub outfielder Ian Happ as a backup plan if the Soto deal falls through.

The Dodgers are also targeting Marlins pitcher Pablo Lopez.

The Rays and Mets are in the mix for Cubs catcher Willson Contreras.

The Phillies and Blue Jays are interested in Angels pitcher Noah Syndergaard.

The Mets are eyeing Tigers pitchers Michael Fulmer and Andrew Chafin.

Here are the trades that have already happened this week:

• The Cubs traded pitcher Scott Effross to the Yankees for pitcher Hayden Wesneski
• The Brewers traded pitcher Josh Hader to the Padres for outfielder Esteury Ruiz, and pitchers Taylor Rogers, Dinelson Lamet, and Robert Gasser.
• The Orioles traded first baseman Trey Mancini to the Astros with the Astros sending outfielder Jose Siri to the Rays and pitcher Chayce McDermott to the Orioles and the Rays sending Seth Johnson to the Orioles and pitcher Jayden Murray to the Astros.
• The Athletics traded pitchers Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino to the Yankees for second baseman Cooper Bowman and pitchers Ken Waldichuk, J.P. Sears, and Luis Medina.
• The Red Sox traded catcher Christian Vázquez to the Astros for infielder Enmanuel Valdez and outfielder Wilyer Abreu.
• The Red Sox traded pitcher Jake Diekman to the White Sox for catcher Reese McGuire.
• The Reds traded outfielder Tommy Pham to the Red Sox for a player to be named later.
• The Astros traded pitcher Jake Odorizzi to the Braves for pitcher Will Smith.
• The Pirates traded pitchers Jose Quintana and Chris Stratton to the Cardinals for infielder Malcolm Nunez and pitcher Johan Oviedo.
• The Tigers traded outfielder Robbie Grossman to the Braves for pitcher Kris Anglin.
• The Rangers traded pitcher Matt Bush to the Brewers for infielder Mark Mathias and pitcher Antoine Kelly.
• The Orioles traded pitcher Jorge López to the Twins for pitchers Cade Povich, Yennier Cano, Juan Nunez. and Juan Rojas.