Orioles' $8.7 Million 'Top Trade Candidate' Should Be Priority Target For Royals

It's long past time for the Kansas City Royals to upgrade their outfield.

Pointing out culprits is as easy as looking around the depth chart, particularly at the corners. Hunter Renfroe, Jonathan India, MJ Melendez, Drew Waters, and Mark Canha have combined for -1.8 bWAR this season. That's not going to cut it, sadly.

Maybe the solution will be as simple as promoting number-one prospect Jac Caglianone, who recently began playing right field in Double-A. But there's simply no harm in supplementing him with proven major league talent, and on the flip side, many will second-guess the Royals if they do nothing and Caglianone stumbles out of the gate.

There's an easy solution to be found on the trade market. In a piece published on Thursday, Joel Reuter named "a run producer" as the "top trade target" for the Royals, while focusing on the corner outfield position(s) as an obvious place Kansas City could improve.

"Outside of Bobby Witt Jr., Salvador Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino, the Royals are still lacking in reliable run production, though Maikel Garcia does deserve a tip of the cap for his hot start at the plate," Reuter wrote. "A corner outfielder is the obvious target, as the club's right fielders have produceda .176/.241/.236 line with one home run and six RBI on the year."

Meanwhile, Reuter named Baltimore Orioles outfielder Cedric Mullins as his team's "top trade candidate," with the 2021 All-Star off to a strong start this year (125 OPS+) and Baltimore languishing in last place in the American League East.

"(Mullins) has recorded four straight seasons with at least 2.0 WAR and plays a solid defensive center field, which should make him a hot commodity on the open market," Reuter wrote. "A long-term deal with the Orioles seems unlikely... so flipping him in July makes sense if they don't recover from a disappointing start."

The Orioles are now 15-27 after being swept by the Minnesota Twins on Thursday, so they're already starting to run out of time to make up ground in the standings. At this point, every loss they stack up is good news for Kansas City on multiple fronts.

Every day, the Royals should be nudging the Orioles about the possibility of acquiring Mullins. He could play any of the three outfield positions, provide an offensive spark, and even at his $8.7 million price tag, he'd be worth every penny.

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