Lots of news breaking this afternoon, some of which comes from this AP story and the rest comes from this story in the KC Star.
First, the Royals made a trade for RHP Ramon Ramirez of the Rockies for a player to be named. Ramirez is 26 years old and had a solid 2006 campaign, going 4-3 with a 3.46 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, and .230 BAA. But he battled an elbow injury last season, only seeing 17.1 innings worth of work (2-2, 8.31 ERA, 1.56 WHIP, .313 BAA) at the major league level. Presumably he's healthy now. He will be on the Opening Day roster and he'll pitch at the back end of the bullpen.
Jorge De La Rosa was designated for assignment (as I hoped would be the case) to make room for Ramirez. De La Rosa has to clear waivers before he can end up on a Royals' minor league team since he is out of options. Hideo Nomo will begin the season on the DL in the minors. He injured his groin on Tuesday night. And Kyle Davies was optioned to Omaha. So, I guess the mystery is over. John Bale and Brett Tomko will be in the rotation to start the season.
Justin Huber was traded to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later, which is sure to upset Royals fans. Huber was never really given a shot to play at the big league level with the Royals--mostly because he has been stuck behind Mike Sweeney, Ross Gload, Billy Butler, Ryan Shealy, and several other first basemen. In fairness to the Royals though, when Huber did get his ABs (which wasn't often), he didn't hit. From 2005-2007 he had 98 ABs at the major league level and he managed just 20 hits, for a .204 average. It would have been nice to see what he could do if he would have been given a shot, but maybe that'll happen for him in San Diego.
The Royals also sent Roman Colon, Chin-hui-Tsao, and Ken Huckaby to minor league camp.
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