Cueto to Kansas City

The Royals have acquired an ace and now look to continue dominating the American League. The slumping Reds have been among talk of teams ready to deal some of their big name players and as I stated the other day, the Royals are the team that should be talking to them. Kansas City picks up ace Johnny Cueto to take the lead role in the rotation, as the Royals now look to increase their current 7.5 game lead in AL Central. In the return the 43-53 Reds pick up minor league arms LHP Brandon Finnegan, LHP John Lamb, and LHP Cody Reed. Finnegan is the only one with Major League experience, as he appeared in the playoffs last season during the Royals run towards the World Series. The story of Cueto discovery of the trade is actually quite funny, as he was told by a fellow teammate to stop warming up Saturday due to being traded. The Reds turned out to unsatisfied with the current deal with a good amount of question in place about one of the potential players, so Cueto got his start in. Johnny ended having a great day on the mound pitching eight scoreless innings in the 5-2 win over the Rockies, only encouraging the Royals to make Cincinnati happy and get the deal done today. Cueto  is 29, coming off a 20 win season last year, currently posting a 7-6 record with a 2.62 ERA so far this year. The Reds will look for good use of the three players they received in return, look for Finnegan to be a difference maker in the upcoming seasons. The Royals may still be looking for a bat to fill in the shoes of the injured Alex Gordon, as for the Reds, pitchers Mike Leake and Arolidis Chapman are still among trade talk as the deadline approaches. I think the Cueto deal will get things underway, as the Rangers and Dodgers look to be leaders for Cole Hamels from Philly, while David Price, Jeff Samardzija, Yovani Gallardo are a few other big names out there in the rumors. Expect the Yankees, Cubs, and Dodgers to be the leading teams trying to acquire these names.