Dodgers: 3 midseason trade targets LAD should already be focused on

1. Josh Staumont, Kansas City Royals

As Jeff Passan’s tweets have hilariously laid bare, the Kansas City Royals have gone from posting the best record in baseball as May arrived to sitting on just about the 20th-best record in the game on May 11.

Not great, Bob.

Though the Royals did everything right this offseason, adding veterans on cheap one-year deals to a rebuilding team, creating both a strong clubhouse and a team that’ll compete daily if not win, they’re starting to look a bit more like an under-.500 team in the long run.

Veterans Wade Davis and Greg Holland, both of whom were signed to be comeback candidates (a la Ian Kennedy!) are both struggling, and won’t fetch much in trades at their current performance rates. If the Royals are going to make bank off a reliever this season, it’ll be someone controllable like Josh Staumont who — let’s face it — likely won’t be around to see the next fantastic KC team.

Whoever trades for the righty will have him through 2025, which would give the Dodgers a potential bullpen weapon far beyond the finish line of this campaign. Thus far this season, Staumont’s FIP (2.98) lines up with his ERA (2.87), and he’s still whiffed an impressive 16 men in 15.2 innings. Unfortunately, that’s nothing like the dominance he displayed last year (37 Ks in 25.2 innings), and his control remains iffy (16 walks last year, eight this year).

The 27-year-old is impressive, but already reaching the peak of his aging curve. Kansas City might want to maximize value in a trade here instead of holding on to a high-variance, 30-year-old Staumont for when their contention window arrives.

His wipeout breaker would be excellent for a Dodgers back end that’s relied on pitch-to-contact Triple-A arms to eat innings far too often this year, though.

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