[Biggp07]

Again, proving the old adage that one man's trash is another man's treasure, the Royals announced today the acquisition of 22-year old minor league LHP Jake Miller, 23-year old minor league 3B Peyton Graham, and 24-year old minor league C Eduardo Valencia from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for 32-year old RHP Luis Cessa, 24-year old minor league C Luca Tresh, and 17-year old minor league 3B Yandel Ricardo.

"Once again, this isn't the deal of the century," acknowledged the Royals, "but we think it will improve the direction of both teams."

That’s my public statement, but honestly, I would have liked to have kept Tresh in Triple-A and Yandel Ricardo in our system to see how he developed for us, but I needed to find a place for Cessa to land that would return his value instead of taking the hit to finish out his contract early. That would have nullified the $2.0 MIL I shed with the Seattle trade, and this way I get to shed another $2.0 MIL but pick up 3 players with some control in the deal.



Yeah, Picollo was pissed, but he’s not running the show, I am now. If it was a bad call, we’ll soon find out, and Sherman can fire me and put him in charge. Until then, he’ll just have to not take it personally and let me do stuff as I think needs to be done.



LHP Jake Miller stays down at our Rookie ACL to develop there with PC Pimental. Miller is a finesse pitcher, and Pimental's coaching style is power, so it’s not idea,l but I’m willing to see how it goes with those two.



3B Peyton Graham will fill a roster spot at our Carolina League A Columbia Fireflies team. Manager Willie Concepcion likes him, so he’s a great fit there for now. To make room for Peyton, we had to demote 18-year-old Jorge Hernandez, who skipped right past his ACL Rookie year and went to A ball direct from our DSL Ventura club. I don’t like that, especially at his age, although he was hitting the ball very well in the Carolina league. I think the coaches there thought his defense needed some work, so we sent him down.



C Eduardo Valencia provides a second backstop roster fill at our Midwest League A+ Quad City River Bandits minor league club. To make roster room for Valencia, we chose to promote C Myles Emmerson to Double-A and C Kale Emshoff to Triple-A, replacing Luca Tresh, whom we traded. It’s not the ideal transition, but it will have to do.



The prospect we gave up is young and undeveloped, 3B Yandel Ricardo. We only recently found him through international free agency last year, so we haven’t had a chance to even work with him yet. It’s a tradeoff of the unknown that I decided was worth the risk.