Royals’ moves before trade deadline have fueled rise to first place in AL Central

The Royals are in a good position to make Major League Baseball history as the first team ever to win a division after losing 100 or more games in the previous season.

With their 6-1 win Tuesday over the Guardians, the Royals pulled into a first-place tie with Cleveland.

On the morning of July 29, the Royals had a 57-49 record and were 6 1/2 games behind the Guardians. Since then, the Royals have played .667 ball (18-9) and erased the deficit.

Three trades during that span helped kick-start the Royals’ surge.

On the 29th, the Royals traded for pitcher Michael Lorenzen. The next day, they acquired relief pitcher Lucas Erceg and infielder Paul DeJong. All three players have played big roles in the Royals’ surge.

DeJong is batting .304 with five home runs and 12 RBIs in 19 games since being acquired from the White Sox. Lorenzen, who came from the Rangers, is 2-0 with a 1.85 ERA.

And the Erceg trade with the Oakland A’s appears to be the best move of the bunch. He’s appeared in 11 games and has yet to allow a run over 12 1/3 innings. Erceg has allowed just five hits, walked one and piled up 15 strikeouts.

Oh, and Erceg won’t be a free agent until 2030.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote last week on X the “best trade-deadline performance this year: Kansas City.”

Former Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd said this week on the MLB Network: “There’s something magical going on with Kansas City.”

“Kansas City, what we don’t give them enough credit for, guys, is their starting pitching is like really good,” O’Dowd said. “They run out a guy every single night that has the ability to shut down the opponent or at least give you a quality start. And then their acquisition at the deadline of the young man from Oakland, he’s been lights out for them. And so I just feel really good about their organization, their team right now.”

Former Mets GM Steve Phillips noted the other trade the Royals made last month in acquiring Hunter Harvey, who has been dealing with injuries, from Washington.

“To give them credit, they did not have swing-and-miss in the bullpen, but to make the deal with the Nationals to bring in the reliever, then they go and get Erceg from Oakland, they got some power stuff out there right now, so they’re a little better at the end of the game,” Phillips said.

This is the MLB Network discussion on the good and bad with the Royals and the AL Central race.

Here is what a few others have said about Picollo and the trade-deadline moves.