Phillies, Royals interested in Nick Markakis?

In the hopes of improving their respective outfields, both the Philadelphia Phillies and Kansas City Royals have been recently connected to veteran right fielder Nick Markakis.

In the past year, the Atlanta Braves have been the biggest seller in all of baseball. Before the start of the 2015 season, Atlanta shipped out former all-stars like Jason Heyward, Justin Upton and Craig Kimbrel, which signaled a major rebuild under the new leadership of John Hart. They not only jettisoned building blocks, but many other solid major league pieces as well, including Melvin Upton, Jordan Walden and Tommy La Stella.

Throughout  that year, Atlanta shipped away as many as seven players on their major league roster, which does not even include them trading Jose Peraza, who was one of their top prospects, in a deal to get Cuban second baseman Hector Olivera.

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The selling spree continued into this past offseason as the team traded away possibly one of the best defenders in the majors in Andrelton Simmons as well as two of their most productive players in 2015 in Shelby Miller and Cameron Maybin.

By trading all of these key pieces, the Braves signaled to the league that they open for business on on pretty much any player on their roster. This has lead to speculation about the availability of Nick Markakis.

The longtime Baltimore Oriole signed with Atlanta on a 4 year, $44 million deal in 2014. The signing of the 32 year-old right fielder was interesting one for the Braves because of the immense selling that was going on at the time of the signing, which could possibly show the fondness that Atlanta’s front office has for the left-handed hitter.

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So far, Markakis has been solid for Atlanta, but without much protection in the lineup, he is certainly zoned in on far more than he would be if he were on a winning team. Last year, Markakis hit for a respectable .296 batting average and got on-base at a fairly high .370 clip. But what has doomed the veteran right fielder is that his power has been on a steep decline over the past couple seasons.

Markakis only hit 3 home runs in 2015 after finishing every season, including his rookie year with double digit long balls. He’s continued this type of low power production to start this season as he only has one homer through 42 games. This sudden decline should be of some concern to teams looking to trade for his services, but it hasn’t held teams back from inquiring on the 11-year vet.

According to the Boston Globe, the Phillies and Royals have both looked into acquiring Markakis at some point before the August 1 trade deadline. Both teams could use help in right field with the Royals using a combination of Paulo Orlando and Jarrod Dyson. The Phillies are currently using Peter Bourjos in right field, so trading for Markakis would certainly be an offensive upgrade for the team.

The Phillies and Royals are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum right now in terms of where they thought they would be at this point in the year. The World Series champs are currently sitting at one game over .500 with multiple underperforming players, while the Phillies are the darlings of the major leagues as many of their young pieces have grown up quickly as the team sits at 25-19.

Both clubs shouldn’t give up too much in return for Markakis because of those declining power numbers in combination with his high salary over the next 2.5 seasons. But he would provide a balanced hitter in both lineups with his ability to get on base. He might even produce better numbers with superior talent around him.

Philadelphia and Kansas City should continue to look at ways to improve their ball club in the early parts of the season, and trading for Nick Markakis should definitely should be one of those possibilities as we get into the middle of the summer.

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What do you think about a possible Nick Markakis trade for Kansas City or Philadelphia. Share your thoughts in the comments below.