Report: Kansas City Royals have relievers Aaron Crow and Tim Collins on trading block

The 2013 baseball season was fairly kind to the Kansas City Royals overall, as the team posted an 86-76 mark that generally exceeded expectations. With that, they had a tremendous bullpen trio in closer Greg Holland and set-up men Aaron Crow and Tim Collins. However, it appears as if the Royals are listening to offers for at least two of their three-headed monster at the back-end.

Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star (@Royals_Report) is reporting that both Crow and Collins are available on the trade market, and it would appear that the team is trying to save money after spending $32 million to acquire starter Jason Vargas earlier in the week. In 2013, Crow and Collins were both very solid, posting ERA’s of 3.38 and 3.54 respectively, with over 8 strikeouts per 9 innings for both pitchers.

However, both pitchers (Crow is a right-hander and Collins a left-hander) are eligible for arbitration beginning this season, and any MLB fan will tell you that arb. eligibility means an immediate increase in salary. The Royals are blessed with a lock-down closer in Holland at a cheap price, and with that, it makes them a bit more flexible for their other bullpen options.

Finally, Dutton provides this quote in his piece:

"“Those are the guys they’d like to trade,” one rival club official said, “because they’re going to start to make a little bit of money. But the key thing for them is they have a lot of other guys ready to step in…guys who might be even better.”"

Count me as highly skeptical that whoever would replace Crow and/or Collins would be “even better”, but it probably isn’t a stretch to think that they could be replaced fairly easily. Bullpen arms are traditionally overvalued by some organizations, and if they could move either one for a significant haul, it would be wise to do so.