Atlanta Braves getting interest from Kansas City on Garcia

Now that the All-Star break is over, the rumors are flying as teams begin to make their decisions about the rest of 2017.

Since Jon Heyman left CBS Sports for FanRagSports.com, he’s been a very consistent source of rumors from all over baseball. This time of year he’s got a pile of thoughts already – some of which involving the Atlanta Braves.

Yesterday, he dropped words about the American League and about the Kansas City Royals in particular. Ready? Here they are:

"The Royals have interest in Jaime Garcia and other rental pitchers."

Sorry, that was it… literally just one line.

A Royal Predicament

Kansas City has some reasons to break this trend toward “young controllable pitching” – in fact there’s two reasons: (1) their limited budget; and (2) their limited window of opportunity.

At the end of 2017, the Royals could lose Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas, Jason Vargas, Alcides Escobar, Neftali Feliz, and even Peter Moylan – all to free agency.

The group that won their world championship title back in 2015 is about to be broken up, and this is their last hurrah.

So to a great extent, long term deals don’t make a lot of sense and taking on a lot of money makes even less sense for a team whose payroll has leaped up so dramatically in the past 6 seasons:

2011: $38 million
2012: $64 million
2013: $82 million
2014: $92 million
2015: $113 million
2016: $131 million
2017: $143 million

Wow. Still, they need some help, and that’s why Jaime Garcia could make some sense for them as a back-end-of-the-rotation helper.

Back to the money thing: the Braves are paying Jaime Garcia $12,000,000 this season, but that money could actually be used in a positive way – if the Royals are willing, Atlanta could eat most of the remaining $5.3 million in order to ‘buy’ a better prospect in return.

That Might Not Be All

Heyman also notes that the Royals have been needing an upgrade at the lead-off position and that they are “enamored” with the Marlins’ Dee Gordon.

Gordon, however, is due $38.9 million for the years 2018-2020 and apparently (despite the money coming off of their books), KC isn’t so enamored with Gordon’s contract.

I have a suggestion for them: Brandon Phillips. They could have him, too, for basically nothing… except a decent prospect.

More from Tomahawk Take

Let’s go a little further, even. Want a veteran who can help out in right field? How about the Braves send Nick Markakis to Missouri with a check for… oh, maybe half of the roughly $16 million left on his deal that runs through 2018?

So there’s cash and three players that the Royals could really use right now for 3 of the best KC farmhands (they really don’t have that many great ones) coming back to Atlanta.

Actually, that could be the rub: their farm system has no Top 100 prospects. Not even their #1 pick this year, 1B Nick Pratto (who’s ineligible to be traded until after the World Series).

So there’s another reason that the Royals are shopping in the bargain aisles this July – their wallets and their farm crops are both suffering from a famine.

Next: More Trade Ideas

We’ll just have to keep tabs on how the Braves receive this overture. Lots of possibilities, but the fit could be difficult.

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