Kansas City Royals: The lineup just got a bit more interesting

The Kansas City Royals and San Diego Padres pulled off an interesting deal late-Thursday night.

In a surprising, late-Thursday night trade, the Kansas City Royals sent left-handed reliever Tim Hill to the San Diego Padres in exchange for outfielder Franchy Cordero and right-handed pitcher Ronald Bolaños.

Instant reaction to this deal was that it doesn’t make a lot of sense for the Padres, but is a very solid get for the Royals as they acquire two young players in a Top 30 prospect in Bolaños and a Statcast darling in Cordero while giving up just a bullpen piece. However, this deal could end up being a win-win for both franchises.

For San Diego, the Padres add another impressive bullpen arm to their already dangerous group of relief arms. General manager AJ Preller was able to add Emilio Pagan from Tampa Bay earlier this offseason, forming quite the late-inning trio with Kirby Yates (41 saves, 101 K/60.2 IP) and Craig Stammen (31 holds).

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Hill, 30, was effective last season, but was notably dominant against left-handed hitters, holding them to a .186 average and producing a ground ball rate just south of 60%. San Diego relievers allowed a .259/.326/.444 slash against LHH in 2019. Hill’s experience and success against LHH will be a noted addition to the Padres pen.

But let’s give kudos to the Kansas City Royals for completing this deal. Still, a few years away, the Royals are building for an exciting future, led by a plethora of high-profile pitching prospects and high-upside infield prospects in Bobby Witt Jr and 2020 draft pick Nick Loftin, just to name a few.

They now add an extremely talented outfielder in Franchy Cordero to the major league roster, who at 25 years old has enormous upside ahead of him. Unfortunately, Cordero hasn’t been able to stay healthy over the last few years and found himself buried on San Diego’s depth chart, even with Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot moving to Tampa Bay during the offseason.

When Cordero is healthy, he’s an enormous talent with plus-raw power and speed and a strong outfield arm. Now with the Royals, Cordero has an opportunity to play every day, as long as he stays healthy.

Going back to 2018, when Cordero appeared in a career-high 40 games, the lefty posted a 51.9% hard-hit rate (34.5% is league-average) with an average exit velocity of 92.6 mph, about 5 mph harder than the major league average.

In his last major stint of extended action, Cordero played in 93 games at the Triple-A level back in 2017, hitting 17 home runs, 21 doubles, and 18 triples, while also swiping 15 bases in 19 chances. It’s that kind of production that the Padres were hoping would emerge at the major league level. It’s now Kansas City’s turn to see if they can have any luck.

The Royals will now feature a lineup with Whit Merrifield and Adalberto Mondesi at the top, with a whole lot of power in Jorge Soler, Hunter Dozier, and Cordero falling in line behind them. While the Royals won’t be making the playoffs in 2020, they did become a bit more interesting.

Getting pitching prospect Ronald Bolaños in this deal is also a solid addition for Kansas City. MLB Pipeline has already slotted Bolaños in as the 16th-ranked prospect in Kansas City’s system. Here’s Pipeline’s scouting report on the newest Royal,

“At 6-foot-3, Bolaños features a strong starter’s build, and he could still grow into his frame a bit. His fastball sits around 94 mph, though it can touch 97. Bolaños has made strides with his secondary options as well, particularly his breaking pitches. Both are high-spin offerings, with the slider sitting in the mid-to-high 80s and biting sharply, while the curve drops but still hits 80 mph. During his brief time in the big leagues, he used both to some success.”

It’s difficult to seriously question an AJ Preller trade and with plenty of outfield and pitching depth in the system, he had excess pieces that he was able to use and fill a void. But it’s even more difficult to not like this deal for the Kansas City Royals.

Now, can Franchy Cordero stay healthy and turn those eye-opening Statcast numbers into long-term success? Royals fans will get their first looks in just a few days.