New York Yankees: Why the Kansas City Royals may be their ideal trade partner

The New York Yankees may have some holes they need to fill out on the roster down the road this season. The Kansas City Royals may have some players who can help them fill some of those holes.

The New York Yankees probably haven’t gotten off to the start most people would’ve thought.They are 7-7 and find themselves 5.5 games behind the scorching hot Boston Red Sox in the division. The New York Yankees have had a ton of injuries. Jacoby Ellsbury, Clint Frazier, and Greg Bird haven’t seen the field yet.

Aaron Hicks has already spent time on the DL. Brandon Drury finds himself there now. CC Sabathia will come off the DL this week. Even a prospect that they called up in Billy McKinney got injured.

The Kansas City Royals are off to just a 3-10 start this season, and according to Fox Sports and the Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, the Royals may be looking to move some pieces at some point this season.

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The pieces he mentions in the video are Mike Moustakas, Danny Duffy, Whit Merrifield and Kelvin Herrera. Any and all of those pieces could help the New York Yankees down the road this season.

Let’s start with Merrifield and Moustakas. Gleyber Torres should be coming up sooner than later. He could be at second, but he could also find himself playing a little bit of third as well. Miguel Andujar has struggled, and we don’t know when Drury is coming back and what he will exactly what he will be.

If Torres remains at second, Moustakas and his left-handed hitting power stroke would be perfect for the New York Yankees as long as they stay in contention.

As Rosenthal noted in the video, Moustakas would only cost around $2 million were he to be acquired around the trade deadline. If Bird can’t stay healthy, I’d also throw Lucas Duda‘s name out there as a possible target for the New York Yankees to play first.

On the pitching side, Duffy and Herrera would make sense. Duffy signed a five year, $65 million extension, but has $60 million of it coming between now and 2021. New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman has said all along he wants to add rotation depth.

Duffy will be an expensive add in terms of money and prospects, but both are things the New York Yankees have plenty of. If their bullpen continues to struggle, Herrera’s power arm would give Aaron Boone another late-inning option in front of Aroldis Chapman. Chapman, Dellin Betances, Chad Green, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, and Herrera. That would be scary if they are all on their game.

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The Kansas City Royals decided to try and keep their contention window open last year and went for it. They didn’t make the playoffs and didn’t get any prospects in deadline deals last year. For a team that should clearly be in rebuilding mode, any and all players should be available. If the New York Yankees are in contention for the playoffs come trade deadline time, expect them and the Royals to have some conversations.