Losing Herrera in trade with Nats brought Royals' Yost to tears

It was a sad moment in the clubhouse of the Kansas City Royals on Monday when the team learned longtime reliever Kelvin Herrera had been traded to the Washington Nationals, but no one took the news as hard as manager Ned Yost.

Upon learning of the Herrera trade, Yost was emotional in delivering the news to his team before it took on the Texas Rangers.

"We were all getting ready for the game, and Ned walked in crying into the training room," outfielder Alex Gordon said, according to MLB.com's Jeffrey Flanagan. "That should just explain how much (Herrera) kind of meant to us. Ned told us the news, and we rushed in here as soon as we could, and said our good-byes. Luckily, at least we got to say our good-byes, and tell him how much he meant to all of us, and just what a great teammate he was, and player and person for this city."

Herrera was traded to the Nationals in exchange for a trio of minor leaguers.

The hard-throwing right-hander was part of a dominating tandem at the back end of the Royals' bullpen - which also included Wade Davis and Greg Holland - which aided Kansas City during its consecutive World Series runs in 2014 and '15. In recent years, he switched from a set-up man to a closer, and before Monday's trade owned a 1.05 ERA and 14 saves.

"We were pretty lucky to see that every day," Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas said of the Herrera, Davis and Holland trio nicknamed HDH. "The fans were lucky to see that. Just having them going out there every day and picking our offense up.

"We knew once we got in the fifth or sixth or seventh inning, if we could find a way to get up by one run, we were going to win that game. I mean, having three closers pitching in the seventh, eighth, and ninth was obviously unbelievable. And something I will remember (forever)."