Some conclusions we can draw from the Kansas City Royals’ trade deadline position

The trade deadline is merely days away, and as of this writing, one of the most obvious sellers has been pretty quiet for the last month.

But not by choice.

The Royals are not only willing but eager to make a move or two this window. So what gives? The simple explanation is they’ve received more bites than real interest on their perceived trade targets, though they’re hopeful that changes in the final days or even final hours.

But the biggest takeaways from whatever the Royals do this July are not how much they’re able to land for a mid-inning reliever.

The three conclusions instead:

• This last-place team does not really have many assets to sell. Granted, it already traded one back-end reliever, but if we’re debating when and where a bullpen arm with a 5+ earned run average might go, what remains is thin.

• We ought to hold the Royals to their own words — that they will be more transactional under this regime than the last— but the real test isn’t now. It will arrive later.

• The Royals might call this an evaluation year, a term that should not excuse the 29-75 record, but they’ve already needed to make a conclusion on the evaluation of the core group, even if it’s subject to change. And we should pay close attention to what it is.

These three concepts are all threaded together this month, connected by the looming trade deadline Tuesday. The Royals haven’t taken anything off the table — not even Salvador Perez — but more likely is a less splashy move involving their de-facto closer, Scott Barlow. Maybe. It’s not as though the league is lining up for a reliever whose ERA is nearly 8 over his last 14 appearances.

And can we talk about that for a second? The frustrations of a season this bad prompts cries to get rid of everyone. I get it. Or I get the origin of the frustration. But even if that is the very strategy on which you land — every last player, gone — there has to be a smart approach to doing it.

When it’s an impending free agent such as Aroldis Chapman, you take the very best offer available. Barlow, on the other hand, is not a free agent, and it’s hard to imagine his value being much worse than this moment. The Royals are partially to blame for that, given his numbers were vastly better a year ago, but the trade market was not all that active in 2022 either. It’s your choice, I guess, to believe that or not. Either way, all you can do this deadline is act based on the information now.

Where is the market active? Carlos Hernandez, on whom the Royals have received calls from half the league. There is time, though, given his four years of control, and time offers leverage. The Royals have told teams they’re willing to part with Hernandez, but they must be overwhelmed.

Which prompts the second point. If these are the names we’re talking about, this is not the deadline that will provide some sort of measuring stick on the word that caught all of our attention at J.J. Picollo’s opening news conference last September as the lead man in the Royals’ baseball operations department. Because “transactional” does not mean just unloading players like Chapman whom you are on the verge of losing, or even Scott Barlow, who has 15 months left.

Being transactional encompasses the more creative decisions, and at times the more difficult decisions.

That time is coming, and it’s coming as quickly as this offseason. It’s quite clear the Royals need not only an infusion of talent but a shakeup of it, whether that derives from a positional logjam or the need for a change to the clubhouse environment. The Royals might need to make an uncomfortable trade — and after talking to those inside the organization, I’m actually inclined to believe they will make one.

The draft and international scouting alone have not driven the Royals into contention. They have not yet evidenced a willingness to spend high free-agent dollars that would accelerate the cause. Their players, in that case, are their top currency, so to speak. And they might have to trade some valuable dollars to acquire some others — even if that entails trading a player or two they once believed could be part of their core. That is the test of the buzzword. That is transactional. Not a late-July rental when you’re 45 games under .500.

Which prompts the third point.

The trade market might be slow as of yet, but the Royals would prefer to escape July with a few changes. What type of haul would they like in return? That’s where the aforementioned evaluation has to speed up. Rather, it already has.

The Royals constructed this season’s roster in a way that would provide plate appearance and innings on the mound to less experienced veterans. But they aren’t offered the entire season before reaching some conclusions on players they’ve had in their organization for half a decade.

Like this one: The Royals do not envision a complete teardown, despite this group winning 28% of its games. Which means while they consider themselves flexible, their ideal world when trading players consists of acquiring those closer to the major leagues to pair with a core group that has three-plus years of control remaining.

My take? They should just acquire the most upside, because they are more than one or two pieces away from this whole thing clicking.

But the point is that even as they say the assessment is ongoing, which it is, the current assessment dictates the potential return in trades. And let’s keep a close eye on what it tells us. How close do they really believe they are to turning this around?

There could prompt other changes in the offseason. It should prompt change in the offseason — when the stricter test will arrive. But there is some interesting noise to hold us over in the interim.