The Adam Frazier trade makes sense but you do have to squint a little

It’s not as bad as it may seem

When news broke that the Kansas City Royals had traded infielder Cam Devanney to the Pittsburgh Pirates for veteran utilityman Adam Frazier, the Royals Review writer Slack channel fell into chaos.

At first glance, this trade makes no sense. Frazier is a known quantity, and that quantity is “not very good.” Over his last three years, Frazier has accrued -0.1 Wins Above Replacement. One of those years—last year, to be specific—was here in Kansas City where he had the worst offensive season of his career. He’s bounced back this year, but with a .654 OPS in 78 games he is not exactly lighting the world on fire. The addition of Frazier is not going to help the Royals make the playoffs, which has been their stated goal all year.

Devanney, on the other hand, represented a potential bright spot for the Royals. He did very well in Triple-A Omaha and got called up prior to the All-Star break. But in most of a week, he never made it into a game. To be fair, Devanney is a 28-year-old whose career season in the minors is happening at his fourth go-round in Triple-A. He’s infinitely more likely to be John Rave than Mike Yastrzemski. That, too, does not move the needle in Kansas City’s favor.

Fan reaction to the trade has been poor, to say the least. Here at Royals Review, our article about the trade has generated more comments than any other non-gamethread article in months. Statements like “I hate this front office” and “this one might be the strangest trade I’ve ever seen” and “Adam Frazier is terrible” were everywhere. When I told a coworker of mine (a Royals fan) that the Royals re-acquired Frazier, he literally stopped walking and turned to stare daggers at me. I don’t even want to look at the Tweets.

But after being thoroughly confused myself, I think I can see why the Royals did it and how it could work out. Stay with me!

First, something that I haven’t seen anybody talk about: a procedural reason why the Royals traded Devanney. As you likely know, the 2025 MLB draft just happened, and Kansas City has a bunch of draftees they have to add into the system. But as Preston Farr pointed out a few days ago, the Royals were up against their domestic cap for total Minor League players. In other words, they had to start trading, cutting, or otherwise moving players to make room for incoming signees. Devanney counted towards that cap, and trading him to get something of value might have been the best use of one of those domestic MiLB roster spots.

Second is the state of one Michael Massey. Massey returned to Kansas City once his rehab was disrupted by a hairline fracture after getting hit by a pitch. He’s still in Kansas City and hasn’t gone out for another rehab stint. I would imagine that it will be weeks before Massey comes back; Frazier, a left-handed natural second baseman, is a natural fill for Massey’s spot on the roster in the meantime.

Finally, there’s the (sad) fact that Frazier represents an offensive upgrade over many Royals players. His wRC+ of 82 would be the seventh-highest on the team, ahead of Kyle Isbel, Nick Loftin, Mark Canha, John Rave, Michael Massey, and Jac Caglianone. And while Devanney could have maybe been better than Frazier with the bat, that would have been an unlikely scenario.

Look: this was a fair trade, albeit an objectively boring trade, that operates in the roster’s margins. It doesn’t so much as make the Royals better as make the Royals less worse. Of course, “less worse” won’t help the Royals make the playoffs. If it’s the only trade that the Royals make, that’s not good. But it likely won’t be, and we’ll see what the context is by the end of the month.

Who knows—the Royals could even trade Frazier to another team before the trade deadline. It’s happened before. It could happen again. And wouldn’t that be fun!