KANSAS CITY, MO (August 27, 2020) – The Kansas City Royals today acquired infielder Lucius Fox from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for outfielder Brett Phillips. Fox will join the 40-man roster but be assigned to the Royals alternate site.
Fox, 23, has been working at the Rays alternate site since July 18. The switch-hitter is a native of Nassau, Bahamas, but played his high school baseball at American Heritage in Delray Beach, FL, before returning to his native Nassau where he was an International free agent signee by the San Francisco Giants on July 2, 2015. He was traded to Tampa Bay on August 1, 2016 with infielder Matt Duffy and right-handed pitcher Michael Santos in exchange for left-handed pitcher Matt Moore.
Fox, 6-1, 185 lbs., spent the majority of 2019 with Montgomery (AA) in the Rays chain, though he did play in 15 games for Durham (AAA) during the middle part of the season. While with Montgomery, the speedster swiped a Southern League leading 37 bases, and posted a .340 on-base pct., while hitting .230 in 104 games. He has accumulated 123 thefts during his four-year minor league career.
Phillips, 26, was hitting .226 (7-for-31) in 18 games for the Royals this season. He was in his third season with Kansas City after being acquired at the trade deadline in 2018 from Milwaukee with Jorge Lopez in exchange for Mike Moustakas.
