Royals keep it rolling into the Trade Deadline | Kansas City Royals Podcast

Royals keep it rolling into the Trade Deadline | Kansas City Royals Podcast

The Royals did what they needed to do in the first 12 games out of the All-Star break. Is it going to be enough going into tomorrow? We’ll give you our thoughts next on Locked on Royals. You are Locked on Royals, your daily Kansas City Royals podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. It is another edition of Locked on Royals in the Locked On podcast network. I’m your host Jack Johnson and you can find me on Twitter at johnnyj_15. That is jhnyj_15. You also can catch us on wherever you listen to podcasts. That can be Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, Odyssey, and YouTube. Just be sure to hit the follow button and subscribe. If you’re a first-time listener wondering how we do this channel here, I bring you episodes Monday through Friday, 30 minute episodes in length, as well as 60-cond YouTube shorts after the games. They’ll be sure to get one up uh after I post this podcast as well. And you can check out the lockdown Royals postcast which is hosted by Chance Lebo and he goes to you live for about 15 to 20 minutes after each and every Royals game and that extends into the weekend. So, if you want more content for Saturday and Sunday, you can count on Chance for that. Before we get started, want to tell you that today’s show is brought to you by Monarch Money. And uh you can take control of your finances with MonarchMoney and use code lockdown MLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off on your first year. Another thrilling victory for the Royals today. And for what the first nine innings was pretty maddening, you got a pretty exciting and eventful 10th inning as the Royals walk off the Atlanta Braves one to nothing. It marks three consecutive series wins for the Royals and they are now just one game under 500. And as I speak, three and a half games back of a wild card spot with a ninegame road trip set to begin on Friday. Now, let’s maybe start with the game before we dive into more of the complex uh I wouldn’t say issues, but topics of what we’re going to be talking about today. Uh for starters, the Royals did a pretty incredible thing without a starter today. Uh they went with a bullpen game. They did call up Thomas Hatch yesterday. he was just available in case things extended past the 10th inning or Anhel Serpa spiraled in the first or the game got out of control and you just need somebody to wear those innings and wear all the runs that the Braves were going to score. But Thomas Hatch was the only pitcher not to throw out of the bullpen for the Royals today. They win it one to nothing. They have nine different pitchers combined for a 10 inning shutout and you needed everybody today except for Thomas Hatch of course. Sera did his job. Jonathan Bolan gave you two really good innings. John Shriber maybe had the best performance of anybody out of the bullpen by striking out the side in the fourth inning. You got enough from Steven Cruz. You got enough from Hunter Harvey who’s been impressive since coming off the injured list and pitching for the first time. And what would that be? two and a half months, three months. Lucas Ersig worked out of a jam. Carlos Estz went one, two, three. And how about Sam Long? Uh Sam Long was one of two guys left in the bullpen, of course, the other being Thomas Hatch. And he faces a first and third and nobody out, and had to go through Shawn Murphy, who he struck out. He then had to go through Eli White, who he struck out, and then he got a line out to end the 10th inning. And from that point on, you just knew, all right, the Royals are walking this thing off in the tenth inning. Even though they had two hits going into the tenth inning, you knew after that moment, if Sam Long is going to work out a first and third and nobody out, you’re going to be winning this game. And it was vitally, vitally important that the Royals won this game today. If you can recall about midway through the All-Star break, we had an episode where we talked about what needs to happen before July 31st. And we specifically talked about the record, what they need to do bare minimum to give themselves a shot going into the final two months of the season. Now, 54 and 54 is not where they want to be. They would love to be holding on to a playoff spot. They would love to be leading this division. It’s just not the reality of 2025. And it’s still not a perfect scenario. They’ve got Chris Bubich who’s done for the year. Cole Reagan is on the IIL. Michael Lorenzan’s on the IIL. They still have guys like Michael Massie, a regular who’s working his way back up, that he hasn’t performed up to standards this year. They didn’t have Hunter Harvey for three months. As I said, they’ve had some players underperform, but here they are within striking distance. I will call it that, within striking distance of a wildcard spot. And I’m pretty uh interested in talking about our final segment today, which goes handinhand with segment number two, what the plan is for tomorrow, and why that plan should basically, you know, be played off of what some of these other teams are doing. And and so we’ll save that for the third and final segment. Just a little bit of a tease for you right there. But they needed to go seven and five to circle it back to our conversation in the All-Star break. They needed to go seven and five in those first 12 games to ensure that they gave themselves a chance. Now, this was before they acquired Adam Frasier. This was before they acquired Randall Gritic and they extended Seth Lugo. But in my opinion, going into that final day, the deadline being 5 PM tomorrow, you had to be one game under 500 at bare minimum. And after they got walked off on that Friday against Miami, they put up one run against the Marlins in game two, you’re thinking, man, they need to go seven and three over these next 10. And you haven’t even gone to Wrigleyfield to play the Cubs. You haven’t played the Guardians, and you haven’t played the Braves. And they go seven and three over those next 10. And if Cleveland loses tonight, they’ll have sole possession of second place. And if the Mariners lose tonight, they will be three games back going into the off day in the trade deadline tomorrow. And so I look at what today represents. It represents a team that still can be resilient, that can win with their worst offensive performance of the season. And I believe you can go as far to say that. I tip my cap to the local kid in Joey Wentz shoving today. I tip my cap to the the Braves almost pulling off a win without Ronald Akuna Jr. But still, the Royals were the team that had far more to play for than Atlanta, which is crazy to say because I thought the Braves would be a 90 plus win team this season and probably would have gotten to that point if they didn’t have all five starters from opening day go on the injury list. But you lost game one, you got thumped in game one, gave up 10. Rich Hill was disastrous. The bullpen was disastrous. The offense was good enough. But you looked at those final two games and you said, “It’s a must. You have to win these final two.” And I didn’t want to put that out before today’s game. Didn’t want to jinx anything. But I wanted to say that, you know, today is so so very important to come away with another series win cuz you’ve played great baseball in July. We’ve talked about this pace that they need to be on being about 15 games over 500 in the second half and so far so good. I mean, if you would have lost today, you’re 500. It’s not a huge difference from seven and five, but it really feels like it is. You got momentum going into tomorrow. You can make moves tomorrow and you can believe in what you’re doing. If you lost today and you limp out of town, let’s just call it as it is, a series loss to a team that’s 16 games under 500 without their star player. You’re not feeling great about the the nineame road trip. Toronto, the best record in the American League, and then you have Boston, a team you’re chasing right after that, a tough place for the Royals to play at at Fenway Park. And then you got Minnesota, thankfully. And Minnesota appears to be all in on the selling part, though. They’re faking everybody out with these fake, you know, hug watches. You had Johan Durant, then you had Willie Castro. They’re hugging players and they’re getting pulled from the game. And yet, they’re not being traded. At least of yet. Tomorrow is going to be wild. And I will always say this, though, I don’t recall if I said it last year, so maybe that’s going against my point. Tomorrow is the most fun day for me to do a podcast over for the entire season. Of course, you got the playoffs, you got opening day. That’s all fine and dandy and it’s exciting. Tomorrow is so fun, which is why I might have two episodes tomorrow. Going to try to get one out in the morning and then going to try to get one out if the Royals make any moves post 5:00. Still, I will just say I’m planning on one episode, but would not be surprised if we have two. So, if there’s a lot of moves that happen and I’ve already posted an episode at 2 or 3:00 and then at 5:00 you get more moves to happen, I will have an episode tomorrow night. You can count on that. Depending on when the Royals make moves, that will determine how many episodes we have. And I will still have a mailbag Friday the very next day. But that’s the fun part about the trade deadline and especially a trade deadline when you know your team’s going to be active. And I fully expect the Royals to be active. Now, I want to pull up something from my place of work earlier today. Uh if you’re fans of 810 WHB, Steven St. John with a new day of SSJ had assistant GM Scott Sharp on this morning and he was hinting at this team looking to add arms. Funny enough, we talked about that in yesterday’s episode, but that he said you’re looking to upgrade the rotation a little bit with the Michael Lorenzan type arm. Now, that’s going to lead me into our next segment here, which is about who the Royals can acquire and why it makes more sense. Yes, it might be piggybacking off of what we talked about yesterday, but there’s more than just pitching that this team needs. So, let’s take our first break of the show. When we come back, what is the plan before 5:00 pm tomorrow, of course, the trade deadline. We’ll talk about that next on Lockdown Royals. You are tuned in to Lockdown Royals and the Lockdown Podcast Network. I am your host, Jack Johnson, and you can find me on Twitter, Johnny_15. Want to tell you about our title sponsor today in Monarch Money. And with Monarch Money, have you ever wished that managing your money felt easier? With Monarch money, it can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all of your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. Take control of your finances with MonarchMoney and use code lockdown MLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off on your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com. code locked on MLB for half off on your first year. I promise you guys, you got to take care of your finances. I know that I do when looking at where my money’s going to. I was able to go watch the game at a bar today. Glad to know I had a little bit of money left over because yes, with Monarch Money, I’m able to make sure I have a little bit of that money left over. So, if you’re struggling with that, can’t recommend Monarch Money enough. As I mentioned, tomorrow is going to be a blast from start to finish. I expect big moves to happen. A lot of relievers are going to be traded. That’s already been happening over the first couple days of this week. I expect a bigname player or two to be moved. But when it comes to the Royals, because I know it’s what everybody comes to this podcast for, I expect them to be active. I expect them to add a pitcher and I still expect them to add a bat. Uh, I’ll put it at two for right now. I’ve seen all these trade proposals that were sent my way. Could this guy uh be acquired by the Royals for this player and this player? Um, I’m going to reiterate what I said yesterday, which is that the Royals are in this position where you are in the hunt. You are absolutely in the hunt for a playoff spot and you’re trying to evaluate what your plan should be, right? Is this an all-in year? Now, if I was to pull up a couple of our episodes from a month ago, month and a half, I remember saying, and I’ll call myself out, I remember saying this team, if they’re going to make any trades, it needs to be for players not only this year, but for the year after that and hopefully beyond that. However, if you made trades for those players, you were going to have to give up, you know, one of your top prospects. You’d have to part ways with Blake Mitchell. You’d have to part ways with maybe David Shields. And those were things that maybe the Royals didn’t want to do. But if I’m looking at the state of this team, what needs to happen for them to make the postseason? Of course, you would love to have a a player that you can pencil in the middle of the order, you can put them in the outfield, and they’re just great for you the rest of the way. In an ideal world, that could make a lot of sense. It would work out well for the Royals, and maybe even that trade, you don’t give up what you thought you had to. It’s just not how the market seems to be playing out. The market seems to be playing out in favor of some of these teams that are selling. I mean, the Mets sent three players to the Giants for 34 34y old uh Tyler Rodgers. And Tyler Rogers been great for San Francisco this year. Also, his brother Taylor was traded as well in the Key Brian Hayes deal. But the Mets give up three players. their number 10, number 12 prospect and then Jose Bh if you can remember last year shoving against the Royals when the Royals were up in Queens very early on in April. But again, the market is going to dictate a lot of this. If the Royals wanted a bigname player, well, the prices might be too high. So, it brings me back to my point. How do you go about it? Well, they’ve chosen two rental players so far. And what they gave up was a 28-year-old player who’s hitting sub 270 in Triple A. That’s Cam Deainy. Not saying it can’t get better for him, but the Royals have had Adam Frasier do just fine since being acquired from the Pirates. And then Randall Gridic didn’t have a great day today, but you gave up a mid20s reliever who’s more of a 4A guy. If you wanted to add two more rentals, a bat and then another arm, you might want to do that and still not give up anybody inside of your top 30. And I can see the logic in that. You feel they could be upgrades for what you have right now. You can tailor to the strength of your team. The Bobby Wit Juniors, the Vinnie Pascantino, Salvador Perez, you know, Seth Lugo, Michael Walka, Noah Cameron, Lucas Iran, Carlos Steves. you’re trying to give those guys a chance and you don’t want to, you know, deplete your farm system, right? Because you have to understand it’s still an uphill battle to get to the postseason. Now, if you acquire a outfielder with multiple years of control, I’m still fine with it. the right player, of course, but if you give up a Blake Mitchell and you give up a David Shields for a bigname player and it doesn’t work out and that player struggles and he’s not very good next year, you’re you’re probably regretting that decision. Now, that’s the case with all trades. You might end up regretting moving a player for a certain player when you’re trying to make the postseason. It’s why there’s always more pressure on buyers than there are sellers. If the Royals choose to go the route of the rental though, it’s not as poor of a thought process as I once thought it would be. If you acquire two more rentals and you give up nobody that’s inside of your top 30, or you give up guys that are in the 20 to 30 range, what are you stressing about? What are you panicking about? The Royals gave up Kaden Wallace, their number two prospect for Hunter Harvey last year. Kaden Wallace is hitting .209 this year in the Nationals farm system. it doesn’t always mean that player is going to thrive somewhere. But if you’re giving up guys that aren’t even on the the radar or even on even close to making their debut in Kansas City, it’s worth upgrading your team now, giving it a slight push in the second half and not parting ways with anybody that you really believe has a ton of value. So tomorrow, I believe you start with a pitcher. I believe you go and find who that starter on Saturday is going to be. Now, I’m gonna hammer in my point again why I believe it’s Aaron Cavali. Now, Annie Rogers, who’s done a great job reporting on the trade deadline and for the Royals all season long, talked to Q this morning. She puts out there that the scheduled starters will be Michael Walk on Friday in Toronto and then you’re going to have Seth Lugo on Sunday for the series finale. Saturday’s TBD and Noah Cameron would be available if needed. And it doesn’t sound like he’s going to be involved in any trade talks because that’s not what I got from the tweet, but it was that he’s can go if they don’t acquire anybody, but he can also be pushed back to the Boston series if they do acquire somebody. Aaron Cavali is on the White Socks, of course, and Aaron Cavali’s next scheduled start is on Saturday. So, you could acquire him tomorrow and just pencil him in to start Saturday. He’s already resting up to start on that game and then you got things figured out. Maybe Michael Lorenzan can start next week against Boston or against Minnesota and now you’ve got a rotation that has five guys. No more bullpen games, no more 45year-old Rich Hills. But that’s what I believe they would be looking for. And I don’t believe that that tweet is put out there if the goal isn’t to acquire someone who could start on Saturday. It’s too much smoke there. As I said before, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. So if you’re looking to add an arm and then we go back to Scott Sharp’s comments on a new day with SSJ looking for a Michael Lorenzan type that kind of feels like Adrien Howser who was scratched from the White Sox start today and then Aaron Savale who will start on Saturday if he’s not traded though I do believe he will be and the Royals can have some some insurance there in the rotation and the best case is that Michael Lorenzan comes back sooner rather than later. Cole Reagan’s comes back sooner rather than later. Both of them returned in the month of August. And then a guy like Aaron Savale is your swing starter the same way that Michael Lorenzan was last year. If you need him to be that long relief guy, that multiple inning guy, he’s there for that. If you need him to be a spot starter, you go to a six-man rotation to prolong some of the health of this team’s rotation, all the better. But I believe you can start there. You can go out there and get another rental pitcher. I do not believe that a guy like Erin Savali would cost you much. A name that I brought up was like Chandler Champlain in TripleA for Omaha. He’s got an erra over seven was acquired in the Benendi deal. Could be some upside for the White Socks, but I’m not, you know, in in ruins if he’s include included in a one forone deal. Or if it’s a lottery ticket kid that you throw in there, a 17-year-old, a 16y old, good numbers and you get that in return. You need a pitcher. That’s, you know, non-negotiable in my opinion. You can’t go with another bullpen game. I’m not throwing Thomas Hatch against, you know, Toronto or Boston. You need to have somebody that has been starting games at the big league level this year. Then I’m pivoting to another bat. You think about what this lineup has been able to do in July and really going back until the end of June. And that’s just been with adding a couple of league average guys. Randall Britick’s a league average bat. And even if he has a day like today where he’s 0 for four with two strikeouts or 0 for three with two strikeouts, he still can have days like the other night when he was two for five with a home run or had the big walk when it was second and third and one out in the sixth inning of last night’s game. You give a different look to your outfield where you’ve gotten the worst production among anybody in baseball. You know, maybe you get a deal with the White Socks and you get Mike Tman and Aaron Savali. Mike Tachman was somebody that’s been a great rental for the White Socks. Great walk rate. That’s always been a constant with him. Even last year when he was with the Cubs, not always going to have a lot of power, good enough defense, can play all three spots. Can put him anywhere in the lineup. He’s going to get on base. That feels like a a pretty nice deal. Two for maybe two prospects. And you got two cheap Reynolds. They upgrade your team on the pitching side. And they also upgrade your team offensively. So, there are going to be some players they look for to help this outfield. I’m all right with it being on the cheaper end. As long as that bat can be league average, and that’s been the theme of my talks over the last handful of episodes. If you can get a league average bat, you would be floored at how quickly it changes this lineup because the outfield as a whole has done worse than everybody else in baseball. You raise the floor of that group just a little bit and you might be able to go on that streak that we all hope the Royals can to put themselves in a playoff spot. We’ll take our final break of the show. When we come back, let’s talk about some of the other teams plans and why it may benefit the Royals. That’s coming up on Locked on Royals. You are tuning in to Lockdown Royals and the Lockdown Podcast Network. I’m your host Jack Johnson and you can follow us on wherever you get your podcast. Want to tell you about Open Phone. If you’re running a business, you know that every mis call is money left on the table. Think about the last time you had a service emergency, like a burst pipe. If the first plumber didn’t answer, did you wait? Nope. You just called the next one. That’s why having a reliable business line is so important. And that’s why you need open phone. Open Phone is the number one business phone system that helps you streamline and scale customer communication, all from an app on your phone or your computer. Open Phone is offering LockedOn Royals listeners 20% off on your first six months at openphone.com/lockedonmlb. That’s oph.com/lockdonmlb. And if you have existing numbers with another service, open phone will port them over at no extra charge. Open phone, no missed calls, no missed customers. Tomorrow we’re going to know the plan of every single team in baseball. And that’s the beauty of 5:00 p. p.m. on the trade deadline. We’re going to know who’s buying. We’re going to know who’s selling. And we’re going to know who didn’t want to do anything. They just wanted to either trust their guys or they just didn’t line up with a deal they truly liked and they wanted to move forward with their roster the rest of the year. There were many times in the rebuilding Royals era where they just didn’t trade anybody. They hung on to guys that they could have gotten value for and they just didn’t want to bottom out in the second half of the season. And in that process, they just prolonged that rebuilding phase or they didn’t trade for the right prospects. They didn’t get good enough prospects. They didn’t develop them properly. And that set them back for a handful of years, but it’s going to be the flip side tomorrow. The Royals are going to be buyers, and they’ve made that pretty clear going back to the final day of the All-Star break when they acquired Adam Frasier. And even though at the time it felt minor, it was a rental player. And if you’re selling, you’re not acquiring rental players. And then they did the same thing with Randall Griett. And then they extended Seth Lugo. And I have to wonder if a part of their thought process was in correlation to the other teams in the American League wild card race leaning towards selling. So, a team that is now behind you and you will see in two series, the Minnesota Twins. The Minnesota Twins seem pretty adamant in selling off pieces. And their current group of players, aside from Byron Buckston, who’s on the IIL, but he also wasn’t going to wave his no trade clause. Johan, Duran, Griffin, Jacks, guys that might be dealt. I doubt Joe Ryan will be, but there’s a couple of offensive guys. Carlos Koreah has been linked to Houston again. they could be blowing up this current version of the Minnesota Twins. It’s one less team you need to worry about in the playoff race if they do intend to sell, which signs are pointing in that direction. You got the Angels who are right there neck andneck with you and they went out there and acquired two middle relievers in Luis Garcia and then um Andrew Chaffen I believe was the other reliever they got in that deal. But the Angels still have one of the worst run differentials in the AL. And that’s something that I always feel is going to even out one way or another. Now, you can’t be in the negative50 negative60 department and still be an 85 to 90 win team. You just won’t be that lucky all season long. Eventually, those things are going to even out. And the Angels haven’t been to the postseason in over a decade. So, it’s not like it’s a team that always turns it on of late. They usually have collapsed at this point. So, I do tip my cap in trying to make an effort, but they could have gotten a lot of value for guys that are under team control. Couple rentals they have, but they’re going to be going for it. It’s more so a matter of do you believe the Angels are going to be there when it’s said and done. The really, really interesting team to follow is the Cleveland Guardians. With the Cleveland Guardians, you’ve got them contemplating trading away Steven Quan. a guy like Cade Smith out of their bullpen. Won’t be trading Emanuel Claus now, but who knows when he’s going to be returning because of the gambling incident could be trading Shane Bieber who’s looked good in some some rehab outings. So Cleveland instead of buying is probably leaning more towards selling and they’re neck andneck with you and you’ve still got another series against Cleveland, but it does not appear that they are a firm believer in this group turning things around. also another team that has a bad run differential. So that might be another team that should ride off a little bit. You know, a bad week and they’re going to be looking up at everybody else. Not as much, of course, as the athletics of the White Socks, but they’re going to be looking up at five or six teams. And it’s just not a team that is built to overcome a seven and a half, eight and a half game deficit. So now that brings you to Texas. And Texas, I do believe is going to lean toward buying, but more so on the bullpen side of things. I don’t see them adding to this offense, though. They absolutely could. I was pretty surprised that the Reds got key Brian Hayes, even though third base was an area they were looking to upgrade. Just didn’t seem like it was going to be an indivision trade with a guy that’s on a big time deal. So maybe Texas does go for more offensive help, though. They do really need bullpen help. that minimizes the group that you would be chasing. If you’re not a believer in the Angels and you have Cleveland and Minnesota that’s selling, that now puts you in a conversation of Tampa Bay, who also leans towards selling, uh, because they’ve just been on a treacherous stretch of play where they’ve not played maybe as bad of baseball as the worst teams in the American League for about a 15 to 20 game stretch. So, if Tampa Bay is leaning towards selling and they’re falling out of it, now you got Boston that you’re looking at. You’ve got Texas that you’re looking at and you have Seattle. Seattle has indicated they’re buying. But then you look at this wild card race and it’s not what it used to look like where there were two teams that were running away with it and there was just that final playoff spot where it’s up for grabs for about six teams. It’s all pretty interchangeable at this point in time. In fact, it’s very interchangeable. And the Royals might view it of a wideopen American League wildard race. And if we make moves, even tiny ones, a little rental players here and there, upgrading the offense here, upgrading the pitching staff here, you might be able to sneak in playing better baseball simply because everybody else is destined to play worse baseball by trading away some of their better players. If Cleveland deals Steven Quan, I can guarantee you that team is not going to be firmly in the hunt by the end of September. Too good of a player to trade away. And that’s even if they acquired some good talent in return. I wouldn’t imagine it would be for big league ready players. I’d imagine they’d be some top prospects. And maybe they would be guys they’d pencil into the lineup every single night. But Steven Quan is an incredible player for the Guardians. You trade that away and then a couple of your top end relievers. It’s just not the same Cleveland team anymore. And it’s a Cleveland team that has been struggling. Not so much in the second half, but all season long to get the offense going. They had a 10-ame losing streak before the break. That just might not be be a team that can hang on for dear life without one of its top offensive contributors. And they’re probably going to be dealing away Carlos Santana, though he hasn’t done much. That’s just another spot you have to worry about filling. Cleveland, Minnesota, the Angels, they all start to fall out of it. If the Royals can play good baseball, now you’re putting yourself in that conversation of about four teams, and that feels far less daunting than like seven teams that you’re trying to worry about. And you’ve got that head-to-head with Texas and Kansas City. You’ve got that head-to-head with Boston coming up shortly. You’ve got that head-to-head with Seattle. There are all of these matchups that can play in your favor depending on how you’re playing at that point. But the good news is the Royals will play good enough baseball to put themselves in a conversation to buy tomorrow by 5:00 p. p.m. They add a few more pieces. Who knows? Maybe here in a couple of weeks, in the next month, the Royals are right there on the cusp of a playoff spot. But a great three series stretch for them. They take two from Chicago, they take two from Cleveland, and they take two from Atlanta. Now, an off day tomorrow can just simply work on trying to upgrade the roster. And then they’ll head north for a nine game nine-game road trip where they’ll be taking on Toronto. They will be taking on Minnesota and they’ll be taking on Boston. The Boston will be the second series. Minnesota will round out the nineame road trip. Well, that’s going to do it for another edition of Lockdown Royals in the Lockdown Podcast Network. I have been your host, Jack Johnson. Thank you for making Lockdown Royals your first listen today. For your second, check out the allnew Lockdown MLB game night. Every game, every night, all season long. Get local analysis on a national scale and find MLB Game Night on Locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Tomorrow completely up in the air. Might be getting you two episodes, might be giving you one after 5:00 p.m. We’ll just play it by ear once again, but should be a blast of a day in baseball. The trade deadline will conclude at 5:00 p. p.m. Central time tomorrow. How many moves will the Royals make? Let us know in the YouTube comments below. But until tomorrow, you take it easy, Kansas City.

We recap another series win for the Royals and the position they’ve put themselves into ahead of the Trade Deadline. Next, what is the plan for the deadline tomorrow? Lastly, how will other moves around the league impact the decisions the Royals make?

Host Jack Johnson talks about it all next on “Locked On Royals”!

0:00 – Keep it rolling
11:47 – Deadline plan
22:56 – More deadline thoughts

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