Royals GM Shoots Down 'Unequivocally False' Report Of Trade Deadline Plans

It's been an uncharacteristically dramatic 24-hour period for the Kansas City Royals' leadership team.

It all started on Tuesday, when Mark Healey of The Rockaway Wave in New York posted a tweet saying he had heard from a Royals source that Kansas City's ownership had instructed general manager J.J. Picollo to begin exploring the possibility of trading away veterans at the Jul. 31 deadline.

Royals Vice President of Communications Sam Mellinger responded directly to the tweet with a swift rebuke,

This is none true. Zero percent. Please kindly stop making things up," Mellinger wrote.

Mellinger and Healey went back and forth in the replies, with each side refusing to budge. But later in the afternoon, Picollo himself chimed in with another strong reproach of Healey's report.

“Unequivocally false. That is as false as can be,” Picollo said on 96.5 The Fan. “The accountability of that writer should be in question.”

The Royals have lots of players who would be appealing to contending teams, especially starting pitcher Seth Lugo, who Healey referenced specifically as a fit for the New York Mets in his original tweet.

“I’ve dealt with PR people and front office people going on 30 years in media,” Healey said later on Tuesday during an appearance on Sportsradio 810. "I had a conversation last night with a friend of mine, and I want to protect my source, that is somebody that is connected to the Royals.”

Whether Healey's report is true or false is of little importance, because if the Royals continue playing like they did last week, they'll have to consider selling regardless.

However, it seems that the messaging is important to the front office right now, and the main question is who they're trying to signal by categorically denying that selling is a possibility.

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