Royals fans say team should trade players who didn’t go to Toronto, as poll results show
What reception awaits the Royals when they take the field Friday night for the first time since the news that 10 players were unable to travel to Canada due to their vaccination status?
Those 10 players missed a four-game series in Toronto, which upset fans. Whit Merrifield took the brunt of the criticism, largely because of his comment that he might get vaccinated if he played for a playoff contender. Merrifield sought to explain what he meant by that, but it’s clear that fans are still not happy.
The Star’s columnists spoke out about the players who missed the trip. Vahe Gregorian said the team would benefit from getting younger, while Sam McDowell believes the team has to trade Merrifield.
Is the idea of trading some or all of those 10 players palatable to fans? We asked them to vote in our poll. While the poll is unscientific, 36% of the roughly 2,000 responses was in favor of dealing them all, as of Friday morning. Another 29% said the Royals should trade Merrifield and the veterans over the age of 30 (center fielder Michael A. Taylor, infielder/outfielder Hunter Dozier).
Another 10% were in favor of parting ways with Merrifield and left fielder Andrew Benintendi, who will be a free agent at season’s end. That is three-fourths of fans who want the Royals to make some moves, although 13% said none of the 10 should be traded.
Here is the poll.
Some fans chose to leave comments on the situation. Here are a few of those.
“As an organization, it probably isn’t in the (Royals’) best interest to trade all players that are unvaccinated,” one wrote. “It is a player’s choice. Merrifield is the union player rep. I would think that he is well within his right, as are all of the others to not elect to vaccinate.”
Another wrote: “These players are letting their team down, and while it is a personal choice to be vaccinated, playing for the Royals as a team playing is not. They put themselves above the team.”
“I was for trading Whit the past couple of years. He has always seemed to play hard,” another wrote. “Give him a chance with a play-off club that will go to Toronto so he can get vaccinated. Benitendi will be a free agent and probably won’t sign with the Royals so trade him and try to get a decent return.”
Another fan wrote: “They should seek to trade any player that is not 100% committed to winning. Yes in America we have the freedom to choose to get the shot, MLB teams also have the right to trade players that put their own self interest ahead of the team. Why is this so hard to understand people?”
