Blue Jays acquire infielders from Royals

The Toronto Blue Jays traded for super utility man Whit Merrifield from the Kansas City Royals, a trade that gets them a useful glove and bat.

It seemed pretty obvious that the Kansas City Royals would be sellers at the MLB trade deadline and with that, the bigger question was how far they would go if they moved some of their more valuable assets. One of the biggest names in question was super utility player Whit Merrifield, who despite a poor year as a batsman seemed like he could be a hot commodity.

How hot he was in the market remains to be seen, but the Toronto Blue Jays took the bait and made a trade just before 6:00pm ET (or at least that’s what was reported) to get their man.

The Royals are trading Merrifield for the Blue Jays, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports.

Whit Merrifield trading details for Blue Jays and Royals

Here’s a look at the full details of the trade for both teams, with Merrifield heading to Toronto and some players heading to Kansas City in return.

Get Blue Jays

Whit Merrifield

received royals

Samad Taylor

Max Castillo

Perhaps the most interesting part of the trade is that Merrifield was known to be among 10 Royals players who couldn’t travel to the team’s road trip to Toronto because he wasn’t vaccinated. That could lead to quite a complication if he chooses not to get vaccinated while he’s with the Jays.

Still, Jeff Passan said on ESPN that the Blue Jays checked both immunization status and readiness to get vaccinated for possible trade targets before the deadline, so maybe they felt confident in Merrifield and that he’ll get the shot.

Still, this is a great pickup for Toronto as they get a versatility they haven’t had before and can hope for a recovery at the plate for Merrifield after what was a disappointing start by his standards.