Royals Balk at Braves’ Asking Price

John Verburg has already written here about the availability of Martin Prado (and Jair Jurrjens), yesterday news broke that a deal that would have sent both Prado and Jurrjens to the Kansas City Royals fell through when the Royals decided they weren’t willing to part with the package of Lorenzo Cain and Wil Myers. Clearly it wasn’t Cain that was the sticking point here – he is in some sense superfluous even if the Royals do not resign Melky Cabrera. Wil Myers was a top-10 prospect according to BA entering 2011 and probably the top prospect still in the Royals minor league system (as opposed to the guys who are now on the 25).

For my two cents:
This trade would have elevated the Royals substantially – to a position where they could have contended in 2012 if enough things went their way. Myers and Cain have value, I don’t dispute that, but they won’t do much to improve the Royals chances of winning now. The mere fact that the Royals were willing to consider this speaks volumes: the team isn’t going to be a big player on the free agent market (ever) but they have an abundance of prospects and look to be willing to part with some to acquire known quantities to fill known wholes (like the whole rotation). Their offseason will bear paying attention to – they could enter spring training with a legitimate shot. I’m not sure why the Royals didn’t make this trade… Myers made the BA top 10 as a 19-year-old catcher with a .930 OPS in A-ball. Last year he was moved up a level and converted into an outfielder, and a 20-year-old right-fielder with a .745 OPS in AA doesn’t seem worthy of a ranking quite so high. As for the Braves, this makes me wonder how much of a financial pinch they are feeling… maybe they were depending on that playoff appearance to stay in the black.

From Detroit’s perspective – Prado and Jurrjens are still available and I’d love to see them both wearing the D. For the Tigers blogosphere – now we know what the Braves are charging. It seems likely that Andy Dirks and Nick Castellanos would be enough to bring both players here, and that’s a deal I’d make.