The Kansas City Royals just delivered the Pittsburgh Pirates their second gift of trade season. The first one was sending a power-hitting shortstop for Adam Frazier, while the second was involved extending Seth Lugo to a two-year contract Sunday night.
Although it may seem completely irrelevant to the Pirates at first blush, this actually helps them a lot on the trade front. Lugo was a very hot name on the market as a frontline starter and one of the limited All-Stars available. Now, Kansas City feels like they can compete with Detroit for the AL Central (in the long-term, and maybe the short-term, too), and they wanted to make it known that this group is serious, inking Lugo for longer.