Cubs Make A Trade With The Royals

A spring training trade! The Royals announced the deal Saturday morning, as the Cubs traded right-handed pitcher Stephen Ridings to Kansas City for outfielder Donnie Dewees.

Dewees, 25, was a second round pick in 2015 by the Cubs. After playing 195 games at three different spots in A-ball with the Cubs, Dewees was traded to the Royals in 2017, for right-handed pitcher Alec Mills, who is still with the Cubs. In his first season with the Royals organization, Dewees had a decent showing at Double-A, slashing .272/.340/.407, in 126 games. However, he just hasn't development much power since he was drafted out of college and in 2018 Dewees' numbers declined. The left-handed hitter slashed .258/.310/.383, in 134 games last year. If you're looking for a bright spot, though, Dewees did improve once he got up to Triple-A in 2018. He hit .266/.315/.423, with six home runs in 64 games. The Cubs obviously feel there's still some untapped talent, so we'll see if Dewees can improve coming back to the team that drafted him. Meanwhile, the Royals get 23-year-old righty Stephen Ridings. He was taken in the eighth round of the 2016 draft by the Cubs. He's pitched in 34 minor league games, including eight starts in rookie ball in 2017. Ridings had a 4.15 ERA, with 44 strikeouts in 34.2 innings at Eugene last year. Although the Cubs may not have any elite pitching prospects, they have a bunch of quality, young arms in their minor league system, so Ridings was just a casualty of the roster crunch and now he'll get a better shot with the Royals.