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Miami Marlins Rumors: Kansas City Royals Interested in Martin Prado

ByEhsan Kassim|

On a day that the Kansas City Royals decided to go for broke for a championship, the Miami Marlins farther cemented themselves as sellers. The Marlins dropped their 57th game of the season and fell to 17-games below .500 on Sunday afternoon.

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With the Miami Marlins already selling of former closer Steve Cishek earlier in the week, you can expect them to ship out a few more names the next few days, as the July 31st trade deadline approaches this Friday.

One of the players that the team has identified as they don’t want to trade, Martin Prado.

That does not however mean other teams are off-limits on asking about the veteran third baseman. According to Jon Morosi of CBS Sports, the Kansas City Royals have expressed interest in Prado.

It’s no surprise the Royals would be interested in Prado, as he would present the team with a major upgrade over incumbent second baseman and former Marlin, Omar Infante.

Infante in 2015 owns a .230/.243/.308 slash line with a 47 wRC+ coming into play Sunday. He has hit no home runs and owns a -0.5 fWAR in 342 plate appearances.

Prado, on the other hand, owns a .277/.316/.374 slash line with a 91 wRC+. Prado has hit four home runs and owns a 1.2 fWAR on the season in 308 plate appearances. He missed time last month with a shoulder injury.

This is what ZiPS projects for the two players the rest of the season:

"Infante: .256/.284/.349 slash line with a 73 wRC+ and a 0.2 fWARPrado: .279.324/.389 slash line with a 97 wRC+ and a 0.9 fWAR."

While ZiPS only projects Prado to be worth less than a win than Infante, Infante’s current line does not inspire belief he can reach the ZiPS level projection for the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, ZiPS has Prado improving over the rest of the season from his current numbers, and reaching league average production for the season. He could also gain some of his power back, not playing half his games at the spacious Marlins Park.

But, the Miami Marlins have been reluctant to move Prado for much of the season and likely still don’t have the desire. He’s under contract next season for a reasonable $8 million (Yanks pay $3M) and has been a good clubhouse influence, according to various people around the team.

Plus, as Morosi notes, with the Royals adding Jonny Cueto earlier today, the Royals might need the Miami Marlins to kick in some cash to cover a bit of Prado’s salary. That’s something the team is unlikely to do, as we have seen with the Cishek trade and even the Blue Jays blockbuster from 2012.

I highly doubt Prado is in anything but a Marlins uniform when at game time Friday night. The team has no real motivation to move the 31-year old and are also unlikely to eat any cash on anyone’s contract they trade. But that does not mean other teams cannot ask about him.

Follow Marlin Maniac on Twitter @MarlinManiac for all your Miami Marlins news, opinion and analysis!

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