Season 41 for the Royals.Season 41 for the Royals.The Royals obtained utility man Ryan Freel from the Cubs today for a player to be named later. I would suspect that the PTBNL is going to be a low-level prospect. Freel, 33, was designated for assignment by the Cubs last week and will be playing for his third team this season. What, if anything, does this trade do for the Royals?

Ironically enough, the Cubs acquired Freel from the Orioles earlier this season in exchange for former Royal Joey Gathright. Gathright, in turn, was acquired by the Royals a couple of years ago for J.P. Howell, who has emerged as the de facto closer for the Tampa Bay Rays, and a pretty good one. But I digress ...

Freel is a scrappy, overachieving type that is disciplined at the plate, has little power, and is willing to sacrifice his body for the good of the team. Much of his value comes from his legs, as he stole 110 bases from 2004 to 2006 and sported a solid .370 on-base percentage during that time built primarily on walks and singles. His balls-out style may have caught up to him.

Unfortunately, Freel's legs have betrayed him this season. He spent time on the Cubs' disabled list because of hamstring problems and has just six singles and one stolen base in 52 plate appearances for the campaign. The patience is still there, though, with seven walks. A player like Freel can fade away fast once he loses his wheels and it remains to be seen whether this is the case. If healthy, he is certainly a better utility option than Luis Hernandez or Tony Pena Jr., except that Freel can't play shortstop. As an outfielder, Freel never has had enough power to hold down a corner position and if he can't run, he can't play center field.

In the bigger picture, one has to ask what business a player like Ryan Freel has on a team that isn't going anywhere. That the Royals couldn't come up with a better internal option to fill a temporary roster gap is certainly an indictment of the upper levels of the organization. Is there no one that needs to be evaluated at the big-league level? Sadly, the answer to that is probably no.