The Royals contacted the Marlins about Luis Arraez before he was traded

The Royals have raced out to a solid start this year, significantly improving their playoff odds. That has management already looking at ways to fortify the roster for a potential playoff run this summer. According to Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic, that included making a call to the Miami Marlins to inquire about first baseman Luis Arraez.

At least one other team, the Kansas City Royals, was in contact with the Marlins about Arraez last week, according to major-league sources who were granted anonymity for their candor. Those talks, however, never advanced beyond the preliminary stage. The Padres’ pursuit of Arraez dated to the offseason (the Seattle Mariners also restated their longstanding interest then). In the end, Bendix determined he could not “walk past” the San Diego offer.

Arraez was traded earlier this week to San Diego for four minor leaguers - outfielders Dillon Head, Jakob Marsee, and Nathan Martorella, and pitcher Woo-Suk Go. The three outfielders were all ranked in the top 20 of the Padres organization by MLB Pipeline, and Go signed with the Padres this off-season after seven seasons in the KBO in Korea.

Arraez is a two-time batting champ who is hitting .303/.350/.375 in 36 games and has been the toughest player in baseball to strike out the last few seasons. The 27-year-old plays first and second base and won’t be a free agent until after next year. It’s unclear exactly how he would have fit in with the Royals’ roster, but he could have split time between first base, second base, and DH.

Picollo was on Cody and Gold on 610 Sports today and confirmed he placed a call to the Marlins about Arraez.

“I would characterize the discussions as very light. Come to find out after the fact that those discussions with San Diego had gone on since the Winter Meetings or sometime over the winter.”

“We’re always going to look to improve the team. That particular player is a two-time batting champion. He represents a lot of on-base, which is something we feel like we’re going to need to find somewhere. So he was the right type of player and the call was made, but never came to a deal being made because they were so far down with San Diego.”

The Royals are currently averaging 4.56 runs-per-game, 14th-best in baseball, but their .305 team on-base percentage is 20th in baseball.

Picollo was asked whether or not the Royals would look to make a trade this summer now that the team is in contention.

“We have to make a really solid evaluation of where this club is - a realistic evaluation. Right now we feel good about where we’re at. If we feel good in a month or two months, we got some time before the trade deadline.”

Picollo also said he was “not too worried” about the depth in the farm system required to make a trade.

“I’m not going to be too worried about where the industry or where the publications think our farm system is. We know we have good players. We know we have players other teams would want. So we’re not concerned about that.”

The good news is that the Royals have good enough intel to hear that Arraez is on the market, and they did their due diligence to at least inquire about the asking price. Teams should always be looking to improve, and the Royals certainly have areas where they could upgrade the roster. The fact they asked about Arraez fits in with the attitude that Picollo suggested last off-season, that the team would not sit around and wait for young players to develop anymore, and would instead bring in players to compete.

Time will tell how much staying power this club has in a pennant race, but the front office may not be sitting still.