Another LHB Possibility

I couldn’t help but agree with Joe Pawlikowski of River Ave. Blues as he wrote yesterday that a lefty bat should be the Yankees’ number one priority at the trade deadline.

He ran through the typical candidates: Adam Dunn, Adam LaRoche, etc. One that wasn’t mentioned in the article, but was mentioned in the comments and in RAB’s off topic thread was that of Royals prospect Kila Ka’aihue.

This guy is simply wasting away in the Royals minor league system. For whatever reason, the Royals won’t give him any extended shot at the Majors. Right now, he’s the PCL’s OPS leader with a ridiculous 1.047 mark and in his distinguished MiL career, he’s had a fantastic 662/675 BB/K. He clearly knows the strike zone well (.126 IsoD) and with a .192 IsoP, he’s obviously got pop.

If nothing else, I think he’d be worth an extended shot. His minor league numbers are really impressive and at age 26, he deserves a shot. The only question, as with every trade, is price. Frankly, I’ve got no idea what Ka’aihue’s price would be. His numbers say he should be worth a lot, but the fact that KC won’t play him should give us pause. Are they just being stupid or is there something we don’t know? The way I see it, the inquiring team is at an advantage.

The inquiring team can say “Clearly you don’t like him; let us take him off your hands.” The Royals could counter by asking for the sky, but the inquiring team could just as easily say “If you like him so much, why don’t you give him a shot?” Ka’aihue would likely be the biggest winner in any trade talks that involve him. If a trade goes through, he’s likely to get an extended shot at playing time. If it doesn’t, maybe it knocks some sense into the Royals and they actually give him a shot at playing.

Of course, this comes with a big caveat: the Yankees already have a guy like this in their system and his name is Juan Miranda. Because of being blocked, he hasn’t gotten much of a shot. With Nick Johnson out and Miranda now healthy and raking, he should get the first shot at being the Yankees’ DH for the rest of the year.

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