Years later, reflecting on his tenure with the Royals, Affeldt said, "I was pretty frustrated. I wanted to quit. I didn't want to go to the ballpark. I was just failing a lot. I was getting hurt. I didn't understand my role. I bounced around and I just didn't enjoy the game." At the trade deadline on July 31, Affeldt was traded along with Denny Bautista to the Colorado Rockies for Ryan Shealy and Scott Dohmann. Affeldt recalled, "When General Manager Dayton Moore traded me, he said, 'I feel like I need to give you a fresh start. You can learn to enjoy the game again.' I have a lot of respect for him now because he saw that. It was a move that had to be made for me to be able to continue playing baseball. I'm very thankful for it."