The Kansas City Royals have traded for utility infielder Adam Frazier
The Kansas City Royals have traded for infielder Adam Frazier from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for minor league infielder Cam Devanney, per reports.
This is kind of a weird trade. First, the Royals are 47-50 and 12 games back of the Detroit Tigers for first place in the American League Central, as well as 4.5 games back of the third Wild Card spot, with the same record as Cleveland, and with Tampa, Texas, Minnesota and the Angels all ahead of them in the Wild Card pecking order.
In addition, Frazier isn’t really that good. He put up a .202/.282/.294 slash line in 104 games for the Royals in 2024, and while that has improved to .255/.318/.336 in 2025, he’s still not much of an asset as a utility guy, particularly given that he’s largely a second baseman at this point who can play the outfield corners. Since the start of the 2022 season, he has slashed .235/.300/.336, and at 33, he’s not someone you’d expect to get better.
Now, the price for the rental utility guy isn’t high — Devanney is a 28 year old shortstop who was a 15th round pick of the Brewers in 2019, and who was acquired by the Royals after the 2023 season. In his third full season at AAA, he’s slashing .272/.366/.565, and has a career .266/.352/.483 slash line in the International League. One can reasonably ask whether Frazier, at this stage of his career, is really a better major league option than Devanney.
Devanney is a minor league free agent after this season, and so I have to assume the Royals had already decided they were not going to roster him and were going to let him walk after the season, and so they aren’t really parting with anything.