With questions flying around this offseason of who the Royals should and shouldn’t trade, a name often brought up was Whit Merrifield. One of the more productive players on the 2017 Royals, he had legit value on the market. While it always remained unlikely that the Royals would ever bounce on a deal involving him last winter, it seemed obvious that the question would still float around for all of 2018.
The reasons for the Royals trading Merrifield last offseason weren’t too hard to think up. The Royals were entering an unavoidable dark period, whether they’d like to admit it or not, so trading any assets off for any younger returns made perfect sense.