Just my luck for a trade to involve a chunk of people on my Scoresheet team while I'm travelling i.e. Myers, Montgomery and Niemann who might now make the Rays rotation. On the flipside, I'm glad Montgomery went to an organization with a history of developing pitchers and have high hopes they can straighten him out.

I wonder if they couldve tried for Hellickson instead of Davis..

I think when considering trades like this, you also need to consider that if the Royals are out of it by the trading deadline, Shields is going to be worth a prospect or two for a team that is in the race.

It will be interesting to see how Royals fans react to this trade. It seems very short sighted unless Davis is better than I preceive him to be. However, when you are too cheap to sign a FA, I guess this is how you operate. I would think 6 years of a low-priced Myers, would offset some of the cost of a FA pitcher.

I can't believe that Moore couldn't get a younger, more controllable pithcer for this same package. Shields is great, but you make a trade like this to push you over the top for a WS trip.

Moore made this trade for two more years of being a baseball GM. He won't get another job after this debacle of a trade. He is the Omar Minaya of the American League.

I'm with Hawktrap. The Royals are a team with a very weak record for turning their top prospects into quality players. How long did it take Gordon and Butler to get really good? What starting pitchers have they developed up to their full potential since Zack Greinke? They had more than their share of early picks and good picks according to the prospect experts. Considering they got two outstanding pitchers for (my estimates) an A-, B, former A- now C+?, and a C prospect, that's a good return.

From Tampa Bay's standpoint, it will probably work out for them in the long run, but this would have been a good year for them to go for it all. I don't see New York or Boston winning 95 games this year, probably not even 90. Is Toronto now the divisional favorite?

Personally, I do not understand why the Royals are getting so much heat for this trade. They traded players with risk that may never pan out for proven major league talent. Sure, Myers has a ton of potential, but its still potential that has yet to actualize at the major league level. The Rays look like the ones who are taking on risk here, seeing as the prospects may never pan out. Remember the Miguel Cabrera trade? None of the extremely talented prospects the Tigers traded panned out. That is not to say Myers will be a bust, but the risk is there, while the risk for the Royals is much smaller.

Adding to the description of Odorizzi... He managed to rank #20 (9th highest pitcher) on KG's midseason (August 1st, 2012) rankings and #29 on BA's midseason 50 last year. He then advanced to the majors where his 7 innings can't really be regarded as anything but a small sample size. There is a 35-40% chance he proves more valuable over the next 6 years than Myers. Additionally, there is a similar chance he'll be a better starting option than Wade Davis in the 2nd half of 2013, given a full season of MLB exposure.

Many of us are prospect junkies and love to give full credit to prospects reaching their potential, but before putting the skewer to KC for dealing young players, check out the years Moose and Hosmer had last year. Their young "can't miss" hitters may yet still pan out, of course, but right now they aren't the all-stars folks projected them to be a couple years ago when they were untouchable in a trade. Look at the growing pains Gordon has had before holding ground as a very good player.

Now check out the return TB got for Garza two years ago. Obviously Archer, Guyer, or Hak-Ju Lee could be closer to making a splash this season but as of now there has been virtually no favorable MLB impact of that trade yet for the Rays.

The Rays analytical skill set has thus far been built on 1) strong amatuer drafting enhanced by having high first-round picks for several years, 2) savvy, trades for non-stud prospect types (Zobrist, Joyce), and 3) playing the fungible market for relievers and serviceable first basemen. While the sample size is small, TB has yet to prove the ability to successfully convert medium-term valuable expiring assets like Garza and Shields (and eventually Price) into major pieces of a contending club.
They may very well turn out to do just that, but it's not a slam dunk and only time will tell.

This may be the only place on the internet at the moment that people are praising KC for the trade.

Does anyone actually think that the Royals were just Shields and Davis away from being a contender in either 2013 or 2014? That's what this comes down to. If the Royals can compete when they have Shields, then fine - give up the prospects you need to, to compete. But if you think they're further away (like I do) then it doesn't make sense to put your chips in now, so to speak.

Shields is an OK starting pitcher and will give you innings. But if you look at WARP, in his best season (2007) he was worth 3 Wins. Note that a WARP of 3.0 would have landed him in the top 20 last season, just under guys like Peavy, Darvish, and Greinke. If he were still that kind of pitcher, I could better understand this deal.

If he is only a 2 win pitcher (ironically putting him alongside another Royal based on 2012 numbers, Bruce Chen), then your marginal upgrade is so minimal that I question if it is worth it.

The problem, is that Shields was worth less than 1 WARP last season and now at age 30, I question if he will ever improve beyond that.

I love the concept of the deal for the Royals....but they got the wrong starting pitcher. The Reds gave up less in prospects last off-season (Alonso, Grandal, Boxberger, and Volquez) and they managed to land a younger, cost-controlled, starting pitcher in Mat Latos from the Pardes.

What about the removal of Shields and Davis from the crucible that is the AL East? Surely their numbers improve and thus their value? Otherwise the arguements, pro and con, from the perspectives of both teams are all extremely well made. Thanks to all.

I think both writers really summarized both positions of the deal with precision.

Whether the Royals should have made this trade is debatable, but do not confuse that argument by making Shields and Davis into punch lines. They’re better than that. —R.J. Anderson

A Shields and a Davis do not just grow on trees no matter what weenie numbers are thrown out there. Is it Kershaw and Broxton (circa Cy young)? No, but that doesn't mean they suck.

This is why depth is so vital to the overall process, because even if this trade explodes in the Royals’ faces, they still have a healthy crop of talent growing towards the major league sun. —Jason Parks

Again, if someone who works in this avenue says the Royals can afford the deal, who cares? They are dealing from a position of depth and other teams are not simple because they do not have the embarrassment of riches.

In the grand scheme, the Royals are taking on roughly $9 million for a front line starter and a solid RP who might be more than that. That increases to roughly $16 next year. In what universe is that a rip off? Any team with a decent operating revenue would take that in a second.

Finally, as a fan of the game, I would like to say that I'll take this deal, any day of the week, over the "salary dump".

But it is a salary dump.

It's just a really well-executed salary dump.

I remember an old "Up and In" podcast when KG and Jason were talking about the loaded Royals farm system and Kevin said "I don't know how they mess this up."

They may be messing it up.

I have been a KC fan all my life, and I am surprised - but excited - about this trade. I do think that the Royals overpaid for Shields, but if they are serious about trying to get to the next level, they HAD to improve their rotation. After the disappointments they had with younger players this past season (like Hosmer) and with all of the injuries to young pitchers (KC was TJ Central last year), the bottom line is that an established starter of Shields' quality is arguably more important in the team's future than Will Myers.

I know, I know. WILL MYERS. But I think that the analysis of his value here is pretty accurate. He will be good - he may be VERY good for a while. But he was not the kind of guy you hang on to at all costs, because he's going to be the savior of your franchise. If I thought that he was, I'd be screaming, too - and I suspect that is the knee-jerk reaction of a lot of Royals fans, because that's how he has been sold (or perhaps oversold). Would I have liked to have kept him? Sure. But folks are treating him like he was/is a guaranteed future Hall of Fame player. Time to dial that back a bit - or a lot.

The two questions for me that will determine the ultimate outcome of this trade are these: 1) Does Shields sign an extension at a reasonable rate to keep him in KC for another 2-3 years, and 2) is GMDM finished making moves now?

The Royals cannot afford to keep trotting Luke Hochevar out there every 5th day. He can look brilliant 3-4 times a year, and like a batting practice pitcher 10-12 times a year. So does Moore keep him, hoping yet again that he will find some consistency, does he give rotate guys he currently has in the #5 spot (including Davis), or does he go out and spend some more on a guy like Dempster? The Royals can also not afford to trot Jeff Francouer out there for 140 games if what we saw last year is the REAL Francouer. So what is Moore going to do about that now?

He can probably convince ownership to spring for one more deal - maybe. So do you sign another arm, or try to find a guy who can reliably hit and play right field (or left field, and move Gordon to RF)?

As a lifelong Royals fan, I'm feeling two emotions: Shock- they actually did the trade and Fear- because we are conditioned in KC to fear any major move as one that will ultimately hurt the team. lol

Trying to stay positive, but it's hard. I agree with the post above that Myers should have brought a pitcher as good as Shields with more time left under the Royal's control or a better pitcher with only two years left. I think the Davis/Odorizzi is too even call with both under control for a significant timeframe and the jury is out Montgomery. Plus, I too wonder about the motivation to "just do something" to try and save jobs.

As with all major trades like this, only time will tell.

As a tongue-in-cheek comment, maybe this done by Moore to save Frenchy's starting spot.

In a vacuum, trading six-plus years of Myers, six years of Odorizzi, and a shot in the dark on Montgomery for Shields and Davis is bad. But the Royals are not in a vacuum, they're in a very specific situation in which they have systematically failed to produce a good pitcher through their farm, save Greinke, in about two decades--since Cone/Appier. Their hitters are entering their prime, and their pitching stinks. Their window is closing--Butler is gone in 3 years, Gordon in 4, and all the rest in 5. If they didn't address their pitching, it's not hard to see a team in 2015-2016 that's dealing away Hosmer and/or Moustakas and/or Perez for prospect packages because they're not going anywhere and those players' trade values are at their highest.

This deal might not make them a playoff team. But bringing Myers up in 2013, getting a couple wins out of him per year until Butler is gone and Gordon is almost gone, then seeing him blossom in 2016 on a team that still has no pitching? That would not have gotten them anywhere either.

I think more scorn should be tossed on Moore for the Ervin Santana move--that $12 million is money he could have spent on a better SP on the market....or just set on fire for a better return. That move (and keeping Hochevar) causes a "payroll pinch" and backs them into a corner where they have to make a desperate move like this. But this desperate move might be the first reasonable one Moore has made in a few years.

I like how much you can tell the authors were anticipating this oncoming comment section shit storm and did their best to take the offensive. #TeamLegend

Show me how the Royals overpaid for two years of Shields and X years of Davis. Detroit traded their 2nd best prospect Jacob Turner for a 1/2 a year of Anibal Sanchez.

I think one other aspect of this trade that is being overlooked is whether this helps the Rays in the short term. The Yankees and Red Sox are clearly on the decline and breaking up a contending team right now is probably not the right thing to do. The Rays should have kept Shields and Davis simply because there is a huge window of opportunity over the next two years to contend in the AL East. Even if Myers becomes an above average player, it is going to take him a few years and by then, the two financial powerhouses will have retooled.

This is the kind of deal Andrew Friedman has to make when ownership won't ever invest in a payroll above $70 million. We're talking about an owner who is personally worth an estimated $700 million.