MLB Rumors: Kansas City Royals interested in Kendrys Morales?

The Kansas City Royals find themselves in that dreaded “in between” area.

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Over the course of the next two months, general manager Dayton Moore and the rest of the Kansas City front office have to do their best to assess where the team stands and project if they will find a way to be contenders in 2014 or not.

If they deem this season to be a lost cause, something they will surely defer as long as they possibly can, then they will be in position to re-load with assets in their minor league system if they deal staff ace James Shields. Before they reach that point, they will surely hope that they can win some games and realistically contend for a playoff spot.

For a team that is offensively challenged, should the Royals add a bat to assist them in that push to win games?

Jon Heyman of CBS reports that the Royals are contemplating whether or not to make a run at free agent slugger Kendrys Morales, with one catch:

"Kansas City is weighing a run at Morales, according to sources, and considering the way their offense is going — they are last in the American League in runs, OPS, home runs and slugging percentage — maybe that shouldn’t be such a surprise. But before the Royals could get serious about the free agent first baseman/DH, they’d probably have to move a big salary first in trade, possibly Billy Butler."

The need to move Butler is a significant hindrance. Furthermore, it’s just an issue of having enough at-bats available for Morales. With Eric Hosmer at first base and Butler at DH, the current roster doesn’t have room for Morales.

The Royals earned themselves a lot of hype starting last season when they made the bold, and arguably ill-advised, decision to trade top prospect Wil Myers to acquire pitching for a team that wants to win right now. Philosophically it might make sense to fire off another bold move to see things through during that “window,” even if the likelihood of success is way down at this point.

If they can find a trade partner for Butler, maybe the Royals have one more series of bold moves in them before they start rebuilding again.