By MATT PIKE
The Kansas City Royals have made their first move ahead of the July 31st trade deadline, adding an outfield bat that they had interest in during the offseason.
The Royals acquiring veteran outfielder Randal Grichuk from the Arizona Diamondbacks for reliever Andrew Hoffmann. The 25-year-old Hoffmann made his Major League debut this season but was optioned to Triple-A Omaha on Tuesday.
Per MLB.com’s Anne Rogers, Grichuk is expected to be in Kansas City on Sunday for the series-deciding game, and likely in the lineup against lefty Joey Cantillo. Facing left-handed pitching is a big reason why the Royals wanted to add Grichuk, who is slashing .243/.280/.462 in 69 games with the D-backs this year but has a .750 OPS against southpaws. In his career, the 33-year-old Grichuk has an .827 OPS against lefties.
With Mark Canha on the 10-day injured list and utility man Nick Loftin on the 7-day concussion list, the Royals don’t have a right-handed hitting outfielder on their 26-man roster outside of Tyler Tolbert, who is an infielder/outfielder and is mainly used for pinch-running opportunities.
“There needs to be some semblance of a bench in the sense that you need options,” general manager J.J. Picollo said to reporters. “[Manager Matt Quatraro] needs options to be able to maneuver through games. And when you have a lot of left-handed bats and not the right-handed bats that have proven they can hit left-handed pitching really well, at times you can feel a little short-handed. So this is just trying to make our roster deeper, make us better, allow us to be more competitive.”
Grichuk was on the Royals’ radar this past offseason as a veteran bat to add to their bench, but he ended up returning to Arizona on a one-year, $5 million deal with a $5 million mutual option or $3 million buyout for 2026.
The Royals now have to decide what’s next for them with five days remaining until the 5 p.m. CT Deadline on Thursday.
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