The Royals are still miles away from where they want to be, but they are moving ahead, bit by bit. "Brick by brick," as general manager Dayton Moore said on Sunday. The Royals went into Detroit for three days and won two games, and if you've seen the Tigers play in the last month, you know this is no small feat.
The Royals started their season 21-38, but have won 22 of their 38 games since then, climbing into a tie with the White Sox at the bottom of the AL Central. Billy Butler has moved into the middle of their lineup and is doing what injuries prevented Mike Sweeney from doing the last few years, giving the Royals a steady run producer. The bullpen has improved dramatically, Gil Meche has earned every bit of his salary, the lineup is deepening.
So Moore has a difficult quandary on his hands this week. The Royals have several of the most marketable players available in what is a poor trade market -- closer Octavio Dotel, veteran outfielder Reggie Sanders (who is 3-for-11 since coming off the disabled list), and second baseman Mark Grudzielanek, he of the .300 batting average.
For the organization that has had one winning season since 1993, and hasn't appeared in the playoffs in more than two decades, it would mean a lot for the Royals to show progress in the standings. It would mean a lot for Kansas City to approach .500, to finish ahead of the White Sox in the standings. It would mean a lot to the players. You could make an argument that Moore should keep his team together and continue to try to win.
But it would also help the Royals, moving forward, to get better players, to improve the team for future seasons, to get good young prospects in return for Dotel, for Sanders, for Grudzielanek.
"We've got to find a balance," said Moore. "We've got to be open-minded about getting any player -- or players -- back [in trades] that we feel can help us long term.
"But we've got to learn to win, too, and we've been saying that since Day 1. ... The only way you learn how to win is by being in games late."
And as the bullpen has improved, with Joakim Soria and Zack Greinke working in middle relief and Dotel serving as the closer, Kansas City has been involved in more games decided in the late innings -- an opportunity for hitters to have at-bats with the Royals just ahead, or maybe a run behind, or with the score tied. "Those situations require a higher level of concentration," Moore said, "and the hitters are getting a chance to be in those situations."
But Moore must think big-picture. "And if we can get pieces [in a trade] that can help us win a championship, that's important," he said.
So it may be that in the next eight days, Moore will trade Dotel, who has been pitching in the lower half of the strike zone more than he did in his days as a closer with the Astros and Athletics; this has helped him improve his performance against left-handed hitters. In the past, lefties hammered the right-handed Dotel, especially for power, but this year, lefties and righties have an identical .378 slugging percentage against him.
The Red Sox are considering adding Sanders or Oakland's Bobby Kielty and dumping Wily Mo Pena, and while the Royals might not get a good prospect for Sanders, they might save some money.
Grudzielanek might make sense for a team like the Mets, in the aftermath of Jose Valentin's devastating injury, but Moore would have a difficult decision: Grudzielanek has been the leader of the Royals, a veteran who has been an immense help to Tony Pena Jr. And once Grudzielanek hits 500 plate appearances, his $4 million option for 2008 vests, a nice deal for the second baseman, a good short-term contract for a productive player on the Royals.
Kansas City may have to be overwhelmed to deal Grudzielanek, because he has been an essential part of the turnaround that has begun to take place with the Royals.
Moore was in the middle of a long-distance run as he talked, his words coming haltingly between breaths. He and the Royals have miles to go, a journey that will help define the moves he makes, or does not make, in the next eight days.
Sunday's victory was a statement win for the Royals, who took the series from the Tigers. Mark Grudzielanek has been raking.
