Franchy Cordero of the San Diego Padres, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
The Royals and Padres executed a trade ahead of the start of the MLB season.
This is the time of year when trade rumors are prevalent in baseball with the trade deadline usually at the end of July. However, this is not your normal year, as the MLB season hasn’t even started yet. That didn’t stop a pair of teams from pulling off a trade on Thursday though.
The Kansas City Royals acquired outfielder Franchy Cordero from the San Diego Padres for reliever Tim Hill, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The Royals also acquired 23-year-old right-hander starter Ronald Bolaños, who went from A-ball to the Padres last season.
Cordero, 25, is a left-handed bat who will bring power to the middle of the Royals lineup and offer another booming bat to complement Jorge Soler. In 79 games across three MLB seasons, Cordero has 10 home runs in 246 at bats. He has a career .240 batting average and a .737 OPS.
Hill, 30, has two years of MLB experience where he appeared exclusively out of the Royals bullpen, compiling a career 4.11 ERA over 85.1 innings pitched. Teams can never have too many lefties in the pen, so the Padres are hoping his stuff will play in the National League.
Bolaños appeared in five games, making three starts, compiling a 5.95 ERA over 19.2 innings pitched.
The Cuban native is 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds and is a projectable arm for the Royals to develop.
In a weird season that may not have many more trades, this won’t be a blockbuster move that has massive ramifications on a pennant chase or even in any fantasy baseball leagues. But if nothing else, this is real sports news that doesn’t have anything to do with the coronavirus or how MLB can safely move forward with the season at the end of the month and into the fall.