The deadline has not passed yet, we still have three hours left, so this one may be a little premature. I am a skeptic and a cynic about our trade deadlines and what the bloated front office with way too many vice presidents is using it for. Remember trading Jorge Soler for Kasey Kalich, who got (quietly) released from double A a couple of months ago? This, after Soler was WS MVP. I went through all of the Royals' major moves since 2015 when they won the Series and most of them are absolute head scratchers. 2015 was fun and all, and I would not trade it for anything, but deep down I know Dayton just got lucky. He traded our best pitching prospect, Sean Manaia to Ben Zobrist and somehow that was the year of miracles and it worked.

The next year, he wanted to repeat the magic. It reminded me of the South Park episode where the whole town pools their money on roulette to save the town, wins, then decides if they play one more time, they also can get rich. Of course, the end was predictable.

Dyson for Nate Karns . Wade "Cyborg" Davis for Soler when we still in the window to "compete." Brandon Maurer for Matt Strahm ( a pitcher WE successfully developed) and Estuary Ruiz, Strahm had several good years, and Ruiz is now the Terence Gore of 2023. There was Soria AND Scott Alexander for Trevor Oaks and Scott Meija. Alexander, whom we also developed, was a great ground ball pitcher who is still decent but we had to trade him because we had overpaid Soria and that was the only way to get Soria off the books. There were the resignings of past players, almost all unsuccessful- Holland, Davis, Dyson, Gore, Betancourt, Soria, and on and on.

Lets fast forward to the 2022 Dayton and 2023 Piccolo moves. Normally in a rebuild, you find building blocks and build. We had a few blocks. Andrew Benintendi was finally good his last year with us, both offensively and defensively, and was the right age to build around. So of course, we have to trade him so we don't "lose him" for nothing. Not sign him, we have to trade him. Why couldn't we sign him? We have paid plenty of stiffs over the years, and he was not a stiff.

We give an incomplete on the trade of Benintendi until the book is written of Sikkema, Champlain and Way. Merrifield is still an All Star and similarly, the jury is "out" on Samad Taylor and Max Castillo. Then, Michael A Taylor could be on the roster of a championship team, and we gave him up for Steven Cruz and Evan Sisk? Are you kidding me? We need THREE outfielders now and we traded two (MAT plus Benintendi, plus Whit Merrifield who often played outfield). You need three outfielders? They were ON OUR ROSTER IN THE PAST TWO YEARS. Don't forget Brent Rooker, an All Star, that we dfa'd that could have been the fourth outfielder.

In the infield, we traded Carlos Santana, Nicky Lopez, Adelberto Mondesi , Mike Moustakas . The guy we traded Nicky for was available for FREE one week before. Each one has a story-- but the bottom line, all were given away.

On the pitching staff, besides Strahm and Alexander, we developed Jacob Junis, Richard Lovelady , We had Jorge Perez on our roster. This give away was an ECHO of 1993. In sum, we traded potential pieces, peripheral pieces mostly (except Benintendi) for prospects that will probably not amount to anything. Is there a single trade that we can say, right now, was a resounding success? Reread the preseaon chatter in 2022, some thought we could contend, and we held it together through April before we folded. That is not on player development or the field manager. Its on the general manager. We are worse, WAY WORSE, than a season ago.

When we buy, we overpay; when we sell, we seem desperate and get fleeced.

There is one silver lining. The Royals, perhaps alone in major league baseball, can afford to play and develop guys in the majors, the way we developed Frank White, Hal McRae and George Brett. Maybe there is a diamond in the rough. Lets keep him on our roster.