Moustakas to the Brewers

The Royals traded Mike Moustakas to the Brewers in the middle of the night:

To what degree this deal might make Moustakas again some kind of factor in a Royals restoration remains to be seen, of course, in whatever those acquired for him — outfielder Brett Phillips and pitcher Jorge Lopez — come to mean to the franchise.

But that won’t be known for some time: Each has spent most of this season with Class AAA Colorado Springs; Phillips will report to the Royals as soon as possible and Lopez is headed to Class AAA Omaha.

Moustakas was one of the players nobody wanted last winter, and the Royals signed him to $11 million less than the qualifying deal they originally offered. His offense got worse but his defense improved, and now they flipped that low investment into two players. Phillips owns an amazing minor league BABIP, but strikes out so often his batting average is low. Lopez does a good job of keeping the ball in the park, but I doubt either of them will be stars. It’s not really the start of a rebuild for the Royals, it’s more an acquisition of MLB ready players.

from baseballmusings.com https://ift.tt/2uXfMSF