{"id":81785,"date":"2024-07-30T16:56:25","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T20:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=81785"},"modified":"2024-07-30T17:20:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T21:20:22","slug":"royals-acquire-paul-dejong-white-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/30\/royals-acquire-paul-dejong-white-sox\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals Add Infield Depth in Trade with White Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Kansas City Royals reportedly acquired shortstop <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/dejonpa01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul DeJong<\/a> from the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday, according to multiple reports. Both teams are playing each other in Chicago, so DeJong won\u2019t have to get on a plane to join his new organization. The Royals are the infielder\u2019s fifth team in the last two seasons. The move is Kansas City\u2019s third in the last 24 hours, with the club also acquiring pitchers <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lorenmi01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Lorenzen<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/29\/michael-lorenzen-rangers-royals-trade\/\" target=\"_self\">from the Texas Rangers<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/erceglu01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lucas Erceg<\/a> from the Oakland Athletics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Paul DeJong is switching dugouts here at Guaranteed Rate Field, traded to the Royals, per a source.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JesseRogersESPN\/status\/1818373582860296567?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 Add Infield Depth In Trade With White Sox<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DeJong joins the Royals after playing 102 games with the White Sox in 2024. He slashed .228\/.275\/.430, good for a .706 OPS. DeJong led Chicago with 18 home runs, his most since 2021. He has a 95 OPS+, lining up with some of the better-depth bats in the league. DeJong is batting .286 and slugging over .500 in the last week. His current campaign is already better than last year. DeJong struggled with a .207 average and .612 OPS in 112 games in 2023. He has appeared at shortstop and, at times, third base this season. DeJong joins superstar <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wittbo02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bobby Witt Jr, <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wittbo02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Maikel Garcia<\/a>, <\/span>and<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wittbo02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0Michael Massey<\/a>\u00a0to pad Kansas City\u2019s middle infield group.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Paul DeJong hit that one 430 feet! \ud83d\udcaa <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cmf7zWY9EW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/cmf7zWY9EW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/whitesox\/status\/1817653870513811587?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 28, 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;\">DeJong began his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, where he spent the first six and a half years of his career. He batted .233 and hit 115 homers in 698 contests in St. Louis. DeJong played for three teams in 2023, moving to the Toronto Blue Jays and then San Francisco Giants. He hasn\u2019t played more than 115 games since 2019, a mark that he is on track to break this season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The White Sox are in the midst of one of the worst campaigns in MLB history. Chicago is currently 27-82 and out of the race in the American League Central. The White Sox have already made moves, trading pitchers <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/feddeer01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Erick Fedde<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kopecmi01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Kopech<\/a>, along with outfielder <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/phamth01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tommy Pham<\/a>, in a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/29\/dodgers-three-team-trade\/\" target=\"_self\">three-team deal<\/a> with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cardinals on Monday. Starter <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/crochga01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Garrett Crochet<\/a> and star outfielder <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/roberlu01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Robert Jr.<\/a> are other rumored names that could be dealt ahead of Tuesday\u2019s deadline.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kansas City Royals reportedly acquired shortstop Paul DeJong from the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday, according to multiple reports. Both teams are playing each other in Chicago, so DeJong won\u2019t have to get on a plane to join his new organization. The Royals are the infielder\u2019s fifth team in the last two seasons. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5152,"featured_media":81796,"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":[12,10],"tags":[2583,391,3614,4339,6457,771,126,6508,2600,1087],"class_list":["post-81785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royals","category-whitesox","tag-bobby-witt-jr","tag-erick-fedde","tag-garrett-crochet","tag-lucas-erceg","tag-maikel-garcia","tag-michael-kopech","tag-michael-lorenzen","tag-michael-massey","tag-paul-dejong","tag-tommy-pham"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81785","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=81785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}