[Saul Good]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Situation 1:

Royals trade Kyle Smith, Orlando Calixte, Will Smith and Jason Adam for 0.5 seasons of Chase Utley

Pros:
Utley is very good when healthy
Utley is a winner who has experienced the highest levels of success
Utley is the best bat/defense combo available
Relatively low prospect price paid

Cons:
Utley is old
Utley is injury prone
Utley walks after this year

Situation 2:

Royals trade Yordano Ventura and Orlando Calixte for 2.5 years of Howie Kendrick at $9 million and change/year.

Pros:
Kendrick is in his prime
Kendrick is controlled for 2 more years after 2013
Kendrick is above-average with both bat and glove at 2B
Kendrick offers some RH pop, which the team sorely misses

Cons:
Salary (contract is a bit high for KC)
Likely a .290/.330/.430 player, and salary restricts budget
Complementary, not leading, player

In a vacuum, I would rather have Kendrick through 2015, but his contract probably prohibits KC from chasing rotation reinforcements in FA (even mid-level guys would probably be available for that price range) or pursuing a second-tier OF to play RF.

The combo of lower cost/more flexibility from Utley is more appealing to me.

Utley now + Ventura and a FA SP (AJ Burnett?) or FA RF (Mike Morse? Jason Kubel?) is a little more appealing to me than just Kendrick by himself.

It helps more now, IMO, and allows them to fill critical holes more capably moving forward.

Why would we need to chase rotation reinforcements in FA?