Jay Bruce is worth one of the Kansas City Royals top prospects for the Cincinnati Reds.
But that might not be as impressive as it sounds.
The win-now Royals might willingly deal hyped prospects Bubba Starling or Raul Mondesi to acquire Bruce, who doesn’t have the Royals listed on his limited no-trade contract clause.
Heading into the 2016 season, Baseball America had Mondesi and Starling ranked as the top and third prospects in the Royals system. MLBPipeline.com still rates Mondesi as the top Royals’ prospect and Starling seventh.
The 20-year-old Mondesi is currently serving a 50-game PED suspension. The sentence may not be a deterrent for teams to consider trading for Mondesi, but the specter of a subsequent suspension could factor into trade discussion.
The switch-hitting Mondesi has yet to advance to Triple-A. He has hit .245 in 408 at-bats with a .680 OPS in two years of Double-A. He has primarily played shortstop over his five minor league seasons (.941 fielding percentage in 2,913+ innings). He has logged 200 innings at second base over the past two seasons at Double-A.
The Royals have current starting second baseman Omar Infante still under contract for 2017 with a $10-million club option for 2018. The Royals also have a $6.5-million club option for shortstop Alcides Escobar in 2017.
Mondesi might still hold enough middle-infield promise for the Royals to prefer dealing an older prospect like Starling instead.
The 23-year-old Starling has not blossomed through the Royals’ system since drafted fifth overall in the 2011 MLB draft. Across two Double-A seasons including 2016, the right-handed hitting Starling is batting .239 in 526 at-bats with a .723 OPS.
For his part, Bruce has sustained much more success at the plate in 2016 than he had the previous two years when he hit .217 and .226 respectively. Heading into Wednesday action, Bruce was hitting .272 with what would be a career-best .872 OPS.
The Royals could use a left-handed power bat like Bruce to help offset the season-ending loss to third-baseman Mike Moustakas and the short-term loss of left-handed hitting left fielder Alex Gordon.
As a strong-armed right fielder, the 29-year-old Bruce would not replace either Gordon in left field or Moustakas at third base, but he would give the Royals some much-needed thump from the left-handed side of the plate this year with a $13-million club option to do the same next year.
Robb Hoff writes about the Cincinnati Reds for OutsidePitch MLB. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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