The Kansas City Royals announced this evening that they have signed former Philly/White Sox utility man Cody Asche to a minor league contract.

Cody Asche has struggled at the big league level for most of his career, owning a career slash line of .234/.293/.376/.668 with 32 HR and 5 SB over 1,238 career AB. He has however performed more than adequately at the minor league level, with a career slash line of .287/.354/.457/.811 with 55 HR and 28 SB 1,671 AB.

There is clearly some stuff to like about Cody Asche. He has shown plenty of promise in the minor leagues he just hasn’t found a way to make it work in the big leagues yet. The Royals, needing some help on the offensive side of things, may hope that they can turn things around for Asche at the big league level.

I have a conspiracy theory when it comes to Cody Asche. Cody can play many positions well, including 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, and RF. The Royals currently have another guy on the team who plays all of those positions well, and he’s currently been mentioned in trade rumors.  I may be looking way, way too far into this, but don’t be surprised if a Whit Merrifield trade is announced sometime soon. The writing is by no means on the wall, but it may be down the hall and around the corner.

Photo Credits: Yong Kim—Philly.com