Royals add minor-league pitcher Jacob Wallace from Red Sox, who then DFA Eric Hosmer

The Kansas City Royals executed a trade to bolster their minor-league pitching depth on Friday. Incidentally, that trade may have also marked the beginning of the end of former Royals star and World Series champion Eric Hosmer’s time with the Boston Red Sox.

The Royals acquired right-handed pitcher Jacob Wallace from the Red Sox in exchange for right-handed relief pitcher Wyatt Mills, whom the Royals designated for assignment on Tuesday.

The Red Sox made room on their roster for Mills by designating Hosmer for assignment. The Red Sox have seven days to either trade Hosmer or placed him on irrevocable outright waivers. Another team could claim Hosmer off waivers and add him to their roster, or he could go unclaimed at which point he’d likely reject an assignment to the minors and become a free agent.

The Royals will assign Wallace, 24, to Double-A Northwest Arkansas. He will not be added to the Royals 40-man roster.

The Colorado Rockies drafted Wallace in the third round of the 2019 MLB Draft. The Rockies traded Wallace to the Red Sox in September 2020.

Wallace went 8-2 with a 3.81 ERA and 76 strikeouts (12.1 strikeouts per 9 innings) in 47 appearances for Double-A Portland in 2022. For his career in the minors, he has posted a strikeout rate of 12.9 K/9.

The Royals acquired Mills along with right-handed pitcher William Fleming in the trade that sent first baseman Carlos Santana to the Seattle Mariners this summer.

In 19 relief appearances and 20 2/3 innings with the Royals, Mills registered four holds and posted a 4.79 ERA with a 1.50 WHIP and a .266 batting average against.

The Royals designated Mills for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for free-agent addition Ryan Yarbrough.

Hosmer, whom the Royals selected with the third overall pick in the 2008 MLB Draft, won four Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger and made an All-Star appearance for the Royals. He was a core member of their back-to-back World Series championship runs in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, the Royals lost the World Series to the Giants. In 2015, the Royals beat the Mets for the championship.

Hosmer remained with the Royals through the 2017 season.

Prior to the 2018 season, Hosmer signed an eight-year $144 million deal with the San Diego Padres.

The Padres dealt him to the Red Sox at MLB’s August trade deadline, and his first appearance in the Red Sox uniform came against the Royals in Kauffman Stadium.