{"id":81773,"date":"2024-07-30T16:22:30","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T20:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=81773"},"modified":"2024-07-30T17:21:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T21:21:33","slug":"report-royals-acquire-erceg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/30\/report-royals-acquire-erceg\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals Acquire Breakout Reliever from Athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Kansas City Royals reportedly acquired right-handed reliever <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=erceg-000luc\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lucas Erceg<\/a> from the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday, according to ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan. He is just in his second MLB season after debuting at 28. Erceg is the third pitcher the Royals have traded for this season. Kansas City grabbed <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lorenmi01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Lorenzen<\/a> from the Texas Rangers <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/29\/michael-lorenzen-rangers-royals-trade\/\" target=\"_self\">on Monday<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/harvehu01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hunter Harvey<\/a> from the Washington Nationals <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/13\/royals-acquire-hunter-harvey-trade-nationals\/\" target=\"_self\">earlier this month<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Kansas City Royals are finalizing a deal to acquire right-handed reliever Lucas Erceg from the Oakland A\u2019s, sources tell ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/1818368803308495322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><b>Royals Acquire Lucas Erceg From Athletics<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Erceg has impressed in 2024, being one of the bright spots on a struggling A\u2019s squad. He\u2019s posted a 3.68 ERA in 38 appearances. Erceg limits baserunners decently well with a 1.20 WHIP. He\u2019s struggled in his last seven performances with a 6.35 ERA. But that\u2019s slightly misleading, with all four runs coming from one outing against the Los Angeles Angels on July 21. Erceg originally broke out in April, pitching a 0.82 ERA with 15 strikeouts. Since then, he\u2019s been somewhat shaky, struggling to have an ERA below 4.50 in the following three months.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Erceg was a late bloomer after being a second-round pick by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2016. He landed with Oakland in a trade in May of last season. Erceg\u2019s contract was selected two days later to make his MLB debut. He posted a 4.75 ERA in 50 contests last year but struggled with 36 walks and a 1.58 WHIP. He has much improved in that category, allowing just 13 walks in 2024. Erceg, in total, has pitched just 91 \u2154 innings at the major league level in his career. He won&#8217;t be a free agent until 2030.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BREAKING: The <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Royals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Royals<\/a> are close to acquiring RHP Lucas Erceg from the Oakland Athletics, per <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@JeffPassan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There is more power in the back end of the bullpen as Erceg averages 98.5mph on the the heater.<\/p>\n<p>Plenty of red on the baseball savant page.<\/p>\n<p>Isn\u2019t a free agent till 2030. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NYlGPsML9R\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/NYlGPsML9R<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jack Johnson (@JohnyJ_15) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnyJ_15\/status\/1818370743446782244?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oakland\u2019s decision to move on from Erceg marks its first trade of the season. Shortly after dealing Erceg, the Athletics reportedly dealt starter <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/blackpa01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Blackburn<\/a> to the New York Mets. The Athletics sit at the bottom of the American League West with a 44-64 record. There have been rumors regarding how much the club would sell at this year\u2019s deadline. Rookie closer <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/millema03.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mason Miller<\/a>, who has dominated in 2024, is a name thrown around along with Erceg&#8217;s.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kansas City Royals reportedly acquired right-handed reliever Lucas Erceg from the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday, according to ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan. He is just in his second MLB season after debuting at 28. Erceg is the third pitcher the Royals have traded for this season. Kansas City grabbed Michael Lorenzen from the Texas Rangers on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5152,"featured_media":81783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15],"tags":[2826,4339,28481,126],"class_list":["post-81773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royals","category-athletics","tag-hunter-harvey","tag-lucas-erceg","tag-mason-miller","tag-michael-lorenzen"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}