Royals land outfielder Olivares from Padres

Edward Olivares made the most of his opportunities in the San Diego system after coming over in a 2018 trade with the Blue Jays. Now he’ll get the chance to do the same after being dealt again.

The Padres on Saturday traded the 24-year-old outfielder to the Royals, along with a player to be named, for right-handed reliever Trevor Rosenthal.

The move is a win-now decision for San Diego, which added one of the top relievers on the market. For Kansas City, it’s the club’s second trade this week that brought in a young contributor. The Royals acquired No. 25 prospect Lucius Fox, a versatile and speedy infielder, from the Rays on Thursday.

Olivares enters the Royals system as its No. 22 prospect. His departure from San Diego made room for 22-year-old right-hander Anderson Espinoza to claim the final spot in the Padres' Top 30 Prospects list.

"With where we are right now, it just made more sense to capitalize on an opportunity to get a talented player back who's athletic, can play defense, steal bases and has got some power, developing power in his right-handed bat," Royals general manager Dayton Moore told reporters on Saturday.

Before the deal, Olivares was the Padres’ No. 20 prospect. He made his Major League debut on July 25 and hit .176/.222/.294 with a homer, a double and three RBIs in 13 games. The Venezuela native was better than that small sample size in his first two years in the organization. After coming over in the January 2018 deal that sent Yangervis Solarte to Toronto, Olivares spent that season at Class A Advanced Lake Elsinore and batted .277/.321/.429 with 12 homers and 21 stolen bases in 129 games.

Olivares bumped up all of those numbers during a 2019 Texas League championship campaign with Double-A Amarillo. He started 104 games in right field and 17 in center while putting up a .283/.349/.453 slash line in 488 at-bats. He recorded multiple hits in four of the five Texas League Finals games, batting .500 in the series.

Olivares posted career highs with 18 homers and 35 steals, both third among qualified hitters on the circuit. The only Texas Leaguers to steal more bases were Northwest Arkansas’ Khalil Lee and Nick Heath. Now all three are teammates in the Royals organization.

"We were looking for someone who fit our style of play," Moore said. "When we look at the projection of our outfield in the future, we felt we needed a right-handed bat, if we could possibly execute something like that. We were able to get a player that we'd seen a lot of. He was a Texas League All-Star last year. [First base coach] Rusty Kuntz had seen him multiple times. Actually, when San Diego initially inquired about Trevor ... Rusty said, 'If you can get this guy, Olivares, that would be great.'"