Royals make trade with Diamondbacks, acquire veteran power hitter

Billy Heyen

Royals make trade with Diamondbacks, acquire veteran power hitter image

The Kansas City Royals apparently felt emboldened by their walk-off win Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday night, they made a trade for a veteran outfielder despite still being a couple games below .500.

ESPN's Jeff Passan reports that Randal Grichuk is coming to Kansas City from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Grichuk is a 33-year-old right-handed slugger, and at this point in his career, he's much better versus left-handed pitching.

He was once a first-round pick by the Angels in 2009, one selection for the Angels chose Mike Trout.

He has played in a dozen MLB seasons, appearing for the Cardinals, Blue Jays, Rockies, Angels and Diamondbacks.

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Grichuk is a career .252 hitter with 210 home runs.

This season, Grichuk has batted .243 with 15 doubles and seven homers.

He has a .742 OPS on the season, which is still pretty solid despite not walking much at all.

It's not a high-cost move for the Royals, but it's one that could give them a boost as the season heads toward the stretch run.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle