Royals acquire infielder Paul DeJong, reliever Lucas Erceg
The Royals make their moves.
The Royals made two more trades before the 5 p.m. CT deadline, picking up reliever Lucas Erceg from the Athletics for outfielder Jared Dickey and pitchers Will Klein and Mason Barnett and infielder Paul DeJong from the White Sox for minor league pitcher Jarold Rosado.
Lucas Erceg was originally drafted by the Brewers as a third baseman, but has become a solid reliever for the Athletics. In just his second season in the big leagues, he has a 3.68 ERA with 41 strikeouts in 36 2⁄3 innings with 3.2 walks-per-nine innings. The 29-year-old features a 98 mph fastball, a slider that opponents are hitting just .067 against, a hard sinker, and a change up with a 33 percent whiff rate. Erceg would not be eligible for free agency until after the 2029 season.
Lucas Erceg is a great dude. Had some drinking problems in college, ended up getting clean at Menlo College with Jason Ochart, drafted by the Brewers as a third baseman, switched to relieving and now sits right next to Hunter Harvey on the stuff leaderboard & in the Royals pen. pic.twitter.com/Uu4GDmTLlI
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) July 30, 2024
DeJong played against the Royals last night and will swap clubhouses. The 30-year-old has played mostly shortstop in his career, but has moved over to third recently to make room for rookie Brooks Baldwin. He has good power for a middle infielder, but never walks and strikes out quite often. This year he is hitting .228/.275/.430 with 18 home runs and a strikeout rate over 30 percent. Presumably he would play third base in Kansas City, and the right-handed hitter has a reverse platoon split where is hitting just .195/.241/.338 against lefties. DeJong is a free agent at the end of the year.
In exchange for Erceg, the Royals gave up Mason Barnett, ranked #11 in the farm system by Baseball America in their midseason update, reliever Will Klein, who was ranked #16, and outfielder Jared Dickey, who was unranked. Barnett had a 4.91 ERA with 109 strikeouts in 91 2/3 innings for Double-A Northwest Arkansas. Klein had just been called up after posting a 3.58 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 37 2/3 innings for Triple-A Omaha, and had made five appearances with the Royals this season. Dickey was an 11th round pick by the Royals in the 2023 draft and was hitting .269/.360/.424 with 9 home runs in 81 games for High-A Quad Cities.
Jarold Rosado is a 22-year-old right-hander in Low-A ball where he has a 1.85 ERA with 45 K and 11 walks in 39 innings. The 6’3’’ 215 pound Dominican-born pitcher is not ranked on prospect lists for Baseball America or MLB Pipeline.
The Royals needed help for their bullpen, which combined has an ERA of 4.30 with the lowest strikeout rate in baseball. They acquired Hunter Harvey from the Nationals earlier this month, but had to place John Schreiber on the Injured List with a knee injury today.