With trade deadline approaching, Royals deal Phillips to Tampa Bay for infielder
The Royals on Thursday traded outfielder Brett Phillips to Tampa Bay for 23-year-old infielder Lucius Fox.
Fox will join the Royals’ 40-man roster and be assigned to the club’s alternate training site at T-Bones Stadium in Kansas City, Kan.
Fox, 23, has been working at the Rays’ alternate site since July 18. The switchhitter is a native of Nassau, Bahamas. He signed with the San Francisco Giants in 2015 and was traded to Tampa Bay in 2016. Baseball America ranked Fox the 23rd-best prospect in the Rays’ farm system prior to this season.
Fox stole a Southern League-leading 37 bases for Double-A affiliate Montgomery last season, posting a .340 on-base percentage and .230 batting average in the Rays’ farm system.
Royals assistant general manager Scott Sharp described Fox as “a really interesting athlete.”
The Royals talked to the Rays about Fox during the offseason and those discussions heated up over the past week, with Tampa Bay eyeing Phillips.
“He’s a switch-hitter. He just turned 23. He plays shortstop,” Sharp said of Fox. “We feel like he can play second. Some people have talked about the potential that, if he needed to at some point, because of his speed element, he could go to the outfield. He’s just a dynamic player that gets to move around the field a lot and has played at the upper level at a pretty young age.”
Fox has three minorleague options, though he is using one this year. That’s important because he comes with the flexibility of being able to be called up to the majors and sent down to the minors without being exposed to waivers, where another team could claim him.
The Royals organization had a high level of familiarity with Fox.
Assistant GM/major league and international operations Rene Francisco saw saw Fox play as both a high school amateur and as an international free agent.
Fox works out in the offseason with Royals catching prospect M.J. Melendez, and Fox also started hitting this winter with Royals special assignment hitting coach Mike Tosar. Fox also played in the Arizona Fall League with Royals minor-league outfielders Khalil Lee and Nick Heath in 2018.
Phillips, 26, was hitting .226 (7-for-31) in 18 games for the Royals this season. He was in his third season with Kansas City after having been acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers along with Jorge Lopez in the Mike Moustakas trade.
Phillips and outfielder Bubba Starling are each out of minor-league options, so neither could be sent down to the minors without being exposed to waivers. The Royals lost Lopez to the Baltimore Orioles earlier this season when they designated him for assignment.
Starling has been manager Mike Matheny’s preferred option as a late-game defensive replacement in center field.
“I think when you get into a position where you have two outfielders that are sort of servicing the same role and they’re both out of options, the ability to make your roster a little bit more flexible is pretty vital,” Sharp said.
Matheny had also expressed interest in seeing what speedster Heath could do at the major-league level before a hamstring injury put him on the injured list.
The departure of Phillips gives the Royals an open spot on their active roster. They do not play Thursday, and they’ll begin a weekend series against the Chicago White Sox on Friday night in Chicago.