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Recent Royals move gives Pirates reason to thank Kansas City ahead of trade deadline

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.