What happens to Joakim Soria?

Now that Zack Greinke is on the Millwaukee Brewers, whose the next Kansas City Royal player to leave town? The Royals have already traded outfielder David Dejesus to the Oakland Athletics and, obviously, Greinke to the Brewers, so it's only fair to think that the dominant closer Joakim Soria will be moved next. And if so, then where?

Recent posts on Twitter and mlbtraderumors.com say that that Royals are not going to move Soria which might suggest that they might change him to a starter, which I HIGHLY doubt that they would do. But now, in my personal power rankings, based on specific statistics, the Royals have moved down from a sub-par 23rd to an even more sub-par 28th, only on top of the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Pittsburgh Pirates all because they moved Greinke and outfielder David Dejesus along with Mark Teahan last off season.

So after telling you this, you might think "what point do the Royals have in keeping Soria if they're so bad?" Well consider this, he's 26 years old and 27 in May. He has shown a great deal of consistency through his first four years in the big leagues and unbelievable stats. In fact his stats are better so far then Mariano Rivera's were in his first four seasons. So with so much talent in his arm and still at a young age, the Royals don't need to trade him since they just got three top flight prospects who should be in the majors in about 2 or 3 years, and add hitting machine Billy Butler, believe it or not, the Royals look to be in OK shape for the future. And who knows, maybe Wilson Betemit's surprise year was no fluke.

Look, I'm gonna go ahead and agree with what all these sources are saying, Soria is not going to be traded. I do not think that the Royals would want to trade such young talent who could seem to be the next Mariano. Unless a team can come up with an offer that includes an outfielder, starting pitchers and relief pitcher and possibly a third baseman prospects, (and good prospects too), Soria isn't getting traded.

BUT in the very small chance that he does get moved, I think it would be to the Oakland Athletics, Arizona Diamondbacks, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, if any of those teams have the prospects that the Royals would be asking for.

If you want to take a look at Joakim Soria's stats so far, click here

And if you would like to look at Mariano Rivera's stats to compare them to Soria's, click here

RECENT ADDITIONAL FREE-AGENT SIGNINGS INCLUDE: Guillermo Mota to the San Fransisco Giants on a minor league deal with spring training invite, money and years have not been released to the public yet; The New York Yankees have signed Luis Vizcaino to a minor league deal worth about 750k; Atlanta Braves have signed Yohan Flande to a minor league deal with spring training invite; Cleavland Indians have inked Austin Kearns to a one-year deal with $1.3 million plus incentives, Indians also signed Travis Buck to a minor league deal; Chicago White Sox have signed Jesse Crain to a three-year, $13 million deal; Lastly, the Pirates have signed 28 year old Josh Fields to a minor league deal.