Kansas City acquired a pair of right handers, James Shields and Wade Davis, from the Tampa Bay Rays. In return, the Rays get a host of minor league talent, and I do mean talent. Tampa gets outfielder Wil Myers, right hander Jake Odorizzi, lefty Mike Montogomery, and third baseman Patrick Leonard.

Shields has been one of the better starters in the league over the past two years, but comes to KC at a steep price. Image: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

It’s a classic veterans-for-prospects deal that’s made by teams in contention all the time. In this case, however, it’s a trade that is made in hopes of turning a pretender into a contender. The Royals are betting the farm that they can win in the next two seasons, because that’s all the longer they are guarenteed to have Shields in their uniform.

Shields is an outstanding starting pitcher and Davis is a guy capable of holding down a spot at the back-end of your rotation. Kansas City had already added Ervin Santana to their rotation and re-signed Jeremy Guthrie. Those four, along with holdover Bruce Chen, should give the Royals a much, much stronger starting corps than they’ve had in years. Couple them with a bullpen full of power arms and suddenly Kansas City has all the makings of a strong pitching staff.

Of course, Chen pitched to a 5.07 ERA last season, Davis has a career 4.22 ERA as a starter and 4.59 ERA away from Tropicana Field, Santana allowed an amazing 39 home runs last season and posted a 5.16 ERA, and Guthrie was so bad in the first half last year that the pitching-starved Rockies put him in the bullpen before unloading him. So to say that these additions are a sure-thing is a long ways from the truth. Every one of these four have warts. Every one raises red flags.

From a Rays perspective, you have to love this deal. Yes, losing Shields hurts, but the Rays have great depth of starting pitching (so much so that Davis couldn’t crack the rotation). They dealt away a guy who makes a pretty good salary ($9 million in 2013), which is always a concern in Tampa Bay, but they didn’t give up any of their younger starters. As good as Shields is, the Rays still have a starting rotation that would be the envy of many clubs, including the Royals.

Tampa gets Kansas City’s top two prospects, plus two additional prospects. Myers and Odorizzi are ready to help right now and could have been playing prominent roles for the Royals in 2013 and for years to come. Montgomery has been rated in the top-20 prospects in all of baseball, though he struggled mightily in 2012 and Leonard is a 20-year-old kid who slugged 14 home runs in 62 games in his first taste of pro ball last season. There is a lot of talent heading to Tampa Bay and it’s all under team control for the next six years at least.

The Royals made this trade because they think they have the pieces to win now, but I’m not even convinced this deal makes them a better club than they were last week. Do they have more recognizable names in their rotation? Sure, but many of those names comes with questions. General manager Dayton Moore has dipped into a very talented and deep minor league system and plucked out some awfully talented kids to use as trade fodder. He’s gambled that his young lineup is ready to compete and he’s done what he felt was necessary to support those young hitters and give his franchise a better chance to compete.

But it won’t be good enough just to compete; Moore has to win. If Kansas City goes from 90 losses to a playoff appearance, this deal still  could wind up being regrettable. The only way it isn’t is if Shields helps lead the Royals to a World Series title. If that happens, it won’t matter how good Myers or Odorizzi winds up being for the Rays or what happens in their careers.

Because flags fly forever. And that’s what the Royals are gambling on.

Matt Ryerson-USA TODAY Sports

Splitting time in Double-A and Triple-A last season, Myers drove in nearly 110 runs with a monstrous .600 slugging percentage and 37 home runs to go with a .314 batting average. He is arguably the best hitting prospect in baseball and has all the tools to be an elite hitter in this game with his power and ability to hit to all fields. Myers’s pitch recognition is also something that deserves praise.

A potential trade involving Myers for Dickey isn’t the only thing the Royals and Mets are talking about, because the Mets biggest need this offseason is bullpen help. They have been actively discussing a deal to acquire a reliever from the Royals, but it is unclear how talks have progressed in this regard.

The Royals have made it apparent that they aren’t willing to part ways with Myers easily, given his enormous wealth of potential and incredible hitting capability. But I’d bet they’d be willing to discuss a deal with the Mets when it involves a pitcher the caliber of Dickey, even if the Royals would much rather trade a haul of less-heralded prospects.

In the end, I don’t think it’s in the best interest for the Royals to do this sort of a deal.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.

Kansas City Royals GM Dayton Moore is seriously considering doing just that, according to Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.

Moore wants to add at least one more impact arm and would prefer to do so by trading prospects from the club’s farm system rather than deal someone off the major-league roster.

“I’d like to use our farm system in a way to support our major-league club now that we have good, young players who are all under control. Now, it’s time to do everything we can to begin to move forward,” Moore told the Star.

Aug 18, 2012; Papillion, NE, USA; Omaha Storm Chasers center fielder Wil Myers (8) talks with his teammates before the start of their game against the Nashville Sounds at Werner Park. The Storm Chasers had on OmaHogs jerseys during the special promotional night. Mandatory Credit: Matt Ryerson-US PRESSWIRE

Dutton’s piece says trade talks involving the Royals have been underway and that the likes of Boston’s Jon Lester and Tampa Bay’s James Shields have been the targets, with Myers going the other way. As important as a front-of-the-rotation starter is, Kansas City would have to take on a lot of salary and get only a couple years of security from either pitcher. Lester is due to make better than $11 million next year and has a club option for 2014. Shields will earn a total of $21 million over the next two seasons.

Myers, meanwhile, will be under team control for six years and has the potential to be a legitimate cleanup hitter with 30 homer, 100 RBI potential. As one member of the Royals front office wondered, “You’d have a middle-of-the-order bat that’s controllable and affordable. What’s more important?”

I understand the frustration from fans of the Royals. They’ve seen re-building plan after re-building plan come through town for the past 20+ years. They’ve watched as their young hitters have matured, played well, and were traded away. Now, here’s a new batch of young hitters, a group perhaps more promising than any they’ve produced at one time in recent memory. And Myers have the highest ceiling of any of them.

He’s a prospect that has other clubs drooling about acquiring. He might not be rated as highly as Bryce Harper or Mike Trout were last year, but he’s isn’t far behind. Myers clubbed 37 home runs and drove in 109 in 134 games between Double-A and Triple-A in 2012 at age 21. There is no reason, including the contract of Jeff Francoeur, that Myers shouldn’t be the everyday right fielder for the Royals in 2013.

I like Shields and Lester is one of the better southpaws in the game, and arms like those don’t come cheaply. But Myers has a real chance to be a once-in-a-generation bat for a franchise that hasn’t had one of those since George Brett retired, and that’s an awfully difficult thing to want to give away.

If Moore wants to trade away a young player or two to land an impact arm, he’d do well to dig a bit further into his well-stocked farm system.

But “The Process” that Moore has been preaching has taken its toll on the fans and most likely on the front office as well. The pressure is one Moore to bring his club a top-tier pitcher and for the Royals to mature into the winning club they’ve promised to be.

It’s a desperate situation for a man who has staked his career to being patient with his young talent. It would be unwise to jump ship now.

Mandatory Credit: Matt Ryerson-US PRESSWIRE

It’s easy to see where the Royals got the idea to leverage Myers for pitching. Kansas City starters were underwhelming to say the least a season ago, throwing just 890 innings (third to last in all of baseball) and compiling a 5.01 ERA (fifth worst) in the process. Top pitching prospect Mike Montgomery stalled in 2012, posting a 6.07 ERA accompanied by a 1.62 WHIP across the top two minor league levels, and no other internal names seem poised to turn things around for the parent club’s rotation.

Still, giving up a position player with Myers’s hitting ability always carries the potential to haunt an organization, so should the Royals find a suitable trading partner, the return will need to be eye-popping.

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