By Adam Gardner | Aug. 3, 2026
The Major League Baseball trade deadline has come and passed and the Kansas City Royals did make a couple deals, though was it enough?
Lane Thomas and Kris Bubic were sent to the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively, but players like Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo remain with the club. It wasn’t a full-on fire sale like some people might have preferred, but we’ll now move forward without wondering about the future of those two starting pitchers.
Lane Thomas traded to the Braves
The Royals dipped their toe in the trading waters when they sent outfielder Lane Thomas to the Atlanta Braves for a pair of pitchers. KC also sent Bailey Falter to Atlanta in the deal which is awesome because Falter was a disaster for the Royals franchise.
Thomas spent less than a season with the Royals but he delivered one of my favorite moments of the season, launching a 3-run walk-off homer to beat the Angels in extra innings back in April.
I still had so much hope for the season back on April 27 when I wrote about that moment. The Royals had snapped an 8-game losing streak and then dominated the Angels for a series win.
It might have been the high point of the season now that I really think about it.
The Royals receive left-handed Carter Holton and right-handed Lucas Braun in exchange for Thomas. Braun adds immediate rotation depth to the Royals, according to The Athletic.
Holton was a second-round pick in 2024 but has only pitched 41.2 innings in the minors after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his elbow.
This wasn’t a “Skubal-to-LA” type of trade, but those are rare. This is a simple swap of players that can really benefit both organizations. That same Athletic article graded the trade as an A- for the Royals and B+ for the Braves. I’ll take it.
Kris Bubic to the Dodgers
Reports came out Monday afternoon that the Royals traded pitcher Kris Bubic to the Los Angeles Dodgers for minor league relief pitcher Carlos Duran.
Bubic put up some incredible numbers for the Royals when he was healthy. He was a strong bullpen piece down the stretch and in the 2024 postseason, then he was on fire the first half of 2025 and earned an All-Star nod.
But he missed the final two months of the 2025 season and, after starting 2026 on the active roster, hasn’t pitched since May. His contract expires at the end of this season and he’ll become an unrestricted free agent.
The Dodgers are taking a chance that Bubic can return and be productive this season and in return the Royals get a 25-year-old reliever under contract through 2032.
Duran is averaging almost 13 strikeouts per 9 innings in Triple-A this season. He has a 1.43 WHIP, too, which means he’s allowing too many batters to reach base, but I don’t mind taking a chance on a reliever with serious strikeout stuff.
Now that Bubic has been dealt, it means only Daniel Lynch IV remains of the 2018 Royals draft class that saw KC draft five pitchers in the first 58 picks: Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar, Lynch, Bubic and Jonathan Bowlan.
Wacha and Lugo remain with KC
The Royals decided not to deal starting pitchers Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo ahead of Monday’s deadline.
The pair of pitchers were perhaps the most valuable pieces the Royals could float on the market. Wacha was an All-Star this season and is under team control through the 2027 season.
Lugo hasn’t been as good as Wacha this season, but still would have been a quality addition to any contending team that wants starting pitching depth. He’s also under control past this season with a club option for the 2028 season.
But that’s the exact reason the Royals didn’t feel the need to deal those two pitchers. Unlike Thomas and Bubic, Kansas City wasn’t faced with the same problem of either sell the player or watch them walk away after the season. The organization felt like they are needed in order to compete in 2027, according to Bob Nightengale.
Peruse social media and you can find plenty of Royals fans upset that the Royals weren’t interested in dealing Wacha or Lugo. I understand that sentiment. This roster hasn’t lived up to what we thought it could become after the 2024 season, so people feel like a large shakeup is needed.
But I also understand what the Royals management is saying. First, there wasn’t any need to have reports come out saying “Oh yeah, we definitely want to trade these guys” because that would just crater their value. By standing firm, it signaled to potential teams that the return needed to be substantial.
Why would Royals General Manager JJ Picollo ship away two quality arms if a worthwhile deal never crossed his desk? Especially after a season where so many of the team’s pitchers have had injury issues?
The duo can still be traded next season if things aren’t going well once again – assuming we have a 2027 season. KC likely wouldn’t get the same value since each player will be a year older and potentially not pitching as well, but there’s also a chance their value is higher or is consistent with this season.
This year’s trade market for starting pitchers hasn’t been as booming as in past years. Detroit dealt Tarik Skubal – the back-to-back American League Cy Young winner – to the Dodgers and the value the Tigers got back in return has been hotly debated.
Some feel like the Tigers did well, others feel like the Dodgers prospects are overrated and/or too old to even be considered a prospect.
Neither Wacha nor Lugo would get the same return as Skubal. We’ll likely never know what potential trades Picollo and the Royals could have made, but even if they could get something of value for the 2027 season and beyond, it still leaves them with needing to replace 40% of their starting pitching.
It’s just not a black-and-white, “they have to trade them!” situation. We’re all watching this disaster of a season and it’s easy to want to blow it up right now just to feel like something is moving in a positive direction. I wish the Royals were offered a deal they couldn’t pass up because it feels like the roster needs more help than Wacha and Lugo can offer next season, but it didn’t happen.
But making a deal just for the sake of making a deal isn’t good business.
July Royals of the Month
I could have had 1,000 guesses before the season but I never would have predicted KC’s July Royals of the month.
Pitcher: Randy Dobnak. Player: Tyler Tolbert. Of course.
It really shows how off the rails the season has gone and I mean no disrespect to either player. Dobnak has pitched really well since joining the Royals and Tolbert slashed .425/.452/.700 for a 1.152 OPS in July, including hits in 12-straight at bats.
But it’s pretty telling that the season hasn’t gone the way you want it when your players of the month smack dab in the middle of the season are a pitcher who wasn’t on the team until recently and a utility player who started the season as a pinch-running threat.
Witt, Vinnie, Cags, Salvy, Jensen, Garcia; nope. July was Tolbert Time.
No Ragans, Bubic, Wacha, Lugo. Randy “traded for cash considerations” Dobnak rocked the mound. Just as we all predicted.
Oh yeah, the games!
The Royals are still playing baseball but this weekend didn’t go super well. Let’s start with Thursday when the Royals were a single pitch away from beating the Minnesota Twins, 3-0.
They lost 4-3.
Lucas Erceg notched the first two outs of the inning but then hit a batter, allowed a single and walked the next batter to load the bases. Matt Strahm came on for Erceg, got Kody Clemens to an 0-2 count, then gave up a grand slam to lose the game.
Brutal.
The Royals lost 2-of-3 in the series to the Twins despite their starting pitchers allowing just 1 earned run in 21 innings of work.
Disheartening.
Kansas City didn’t waste great starting pitching like that in the weekend series at the Colorado Rockies, because they didn’t get starting pitching like that against the Rockies.
Colorado swept the series, outscoring the Royals 23-8.
Disgusting.
The Rockies are a lot better than they have been the past couple season, but they’re still just 45-67 on the season – and now the Royals are 46-67.
So now the Royals push forward, with Wacha and Lugo in tow, as the 2026 season continues to lurch to the end.
