For all things Royals in 2022. #3 minor league system according to Baseball America. The Bobby Witt era should begin this year. Will Salvy still be the homerun king? How does the glut of infield players work out? Will the young pitchers take the next step?
Free Agents/Trades Acquisitions
Zack Greinke, P
Amir Garrett, P
Taylor Clarke, P
Top 10 Prospects from Baseball America
1. Bobby Witt, SS
2. Asa Lacy, P
3. MJ Melendez, C
4. Nick Pratto, 1B
5. Jackson Kowar, P
6. Kyle Isabel, OF
7. Frank Mozzicato, P
8. Ben Kudrna, P
9. Jonathan Bowlan, P
10. Vinnie Pasquantino, 1B
Duncan's Top Royals Prospects
Spoiler!
1. Bobby Witt, Jr., SS. MLB.
This status lasts about another 4 weeks, but let’s take a moment to appreciate having the top guy in the minor league prospects lists for at least a little while longer. Witt has prodigious ability and the question is really just IF he can meet it. They have not had a prospect like this in my lifetime, and really probably ever. Combine insane raw physical skills (right there with Adalberto Mondesi and Willie Wilson in the ranks right behind Bo Jackson) with unbelievable work ethic, a humble-but-confident nature, and already having shown he can struggle and overcome to achieve big success, and you have the tools for a show-stopping centerpiece. Oh, and throw in the former-player’s kid aspect on it on top of things, and there is every reason to believe he’s going to succeed and succeed big.
2. M.J. Melendez, C, AAA Omaha.
I was early on putting him in this slot last year, and I don’t regret it. The power, the ability to be a good defender behind the dish as well as having the athletic ability to play 3B or LF, too, and you have a really valuable overall piece and FANTASTIC understudy for Salvador Perez.
3. Asa Lacy, LHP. AA Northwest Arkansas
Whoa, let’s get crazy again. Lacy has outstanding stuff. Top of the system. He got hurt and lost his command during COVID times, but appears to be back on track so far this spring. If his command sticks, this is a guy who can move quickly. And his ceiling is really second to nobody in the minor league pitching ranks.
4. Vinnie Pasquantino, 1B. AA Northwest Arkansas
Vinnie starts the season back at AA due to the guy who follows him on the list here. He just hits, folks. I love his combination of contact, loud contact, plate discipline, and lack of strikeouts. The Billy Butler comparisons are annoying (in that I will NEVER refer to this man as Italian Breakfast except in the instance that just occurred), but the Billy Butler comparisons are also fairly apt… if you made Butler a lefthanded hitter, AND improved his body/athleticism from a 20 to a 40, AND if you added that little extra touch of power we all wished Butler could consistently find.
5. Nick Pratto, 1B, AAA Omaha.
Hey, let’s stay at 1B. Pratto has flashy power and I love his batting eye AND his hand-eye coordination. The hair he’s been rocking this spring is also pretty sweet. I slot him just behind Pasquantino simply because I think his bat profile is more volatile. The glove and arm are sweet/plus for 1B, though.
6. Jonathan Bowlan, RHP, AAA Omaha
Bowlan is coming back from Tommy John surgery, and this ranking is assuming that recovering is successful. If it his, you’re talking about a big, consistent SP who throws hard enough and has enough of a repertoire to really make things happen. If the recovery goes well, he may be shuttling to the majors in July to reinforce the rotation.
7. Nick Loftin, CF, AA Omaha.
Loftin is a guy who has really grown on me. I saw him as a quasi super-utility guy when the Royals drafted him, The full-time shift to CF (which means they think he has the speed and the overall defensive ability to handle CF in Kansas City) adds a lot of value here. The ultimate positive offensive upside is similar to peak Whit Merrifield, maybe with a touch more early power.
8. Michael Massey, 2B, AA Northwest Arkansas.
Massey was an absolute revelation last year, hitting for power and average and keeping his K rate down while playing a really strong 2B. He has a very sweet, short lefthanded stroke. This is another aggressive rating, but Massey has proven himself through a tough minor league assignment already, and the arrow is pointed up.
9. Ben Kudrna, RHP, Rookie Ball
Kudrna is a big, physical specimen with a lot of upside and potential. The fastball and slider are already nearly MLB-level in terms of velocity and movement (command needs work). Kudrna is a guy who, with luck, and health, and good development, could ascend to the top of a rotation.
10. Frank Mozzicato, LHP, Rookie Ball.
Mozzicato has a curveball that suggests he has a feel for spin. If you want to dream, you hope that the next 2-3 years turn the 175 he weighed when drafted into a rock-solid 220/225 and carries with it an increase in fastball velocity from 90-91, sitting 87-88, to 96-97, sitting 93-94. You pair his ability to spin the ball (which also suggests he should be able to easily master a sweeper slider) with that type of fastball velo and a changeup he already has a feel for, and it’s an exciting profile.
He has a little more to go in terms of growing into that projectability than Kudrna, which is why he slots right behind him.
11. Alec Marsh, RHP, AA Northwest Arkansas
Marsh missed a lot of 2021 to injury, but the hard-throwing righthander is another guy who could move quickly once the minor league season starts. He’s undeniably got the stuff of a quality major-league pitcher. The question is if he can master enough command to cash it in. This guy is a great example of TINSTAAPP.
12. Angel Zerpa, LHP, AAA Omaha
Zerpa might quickly outperform this slot. His stuff ticked up in 21 and he ended the season making a start in the majors. He’s nice depth to have, and honestly, I’m a big fan of just throwing numbers at pitching. Zerpa definitely helps create the depth you need to generate a top-notch and reliable home-grown rotation.
13. Maikel Garcia, SS, AA Northwest Arkansas
Garcia is a really intriguing hitter, a righthanded hitter who has a nice combination of contact skills and control of the strike zone (this cousin of Alcides Escobar is less savvy with the glove and more savvy at the plate). The Royals protected him for a reason (he’s on the 40-man).
14. Carter Jensen, C, A ??
Jensen is a local product whose bat will probably push him off C (as well as the Royals depth at that spot throughout the organization). This is a future 1B profile, and a nice one. He makes a lot of loud contact and shows an ability to lift the ball. Should be fun to watch this year.
15. Ben Hernandez, RHP, A+ Quad Rivers
Hernandez missed a good part of 2021 but still has that butterfly changeup and a classic pitcher’s profile. He’ll need to find a reliable swing-and-miss secondary to make it in the bigs, but if not, the fastball velocity and changeup should make him a quality high-leverage reliver.
16. Dylan Coleman, RHP, AAA Omaha
Speaking of relievers, Coleman is a hard-throwing righthander who probably spends most of 22 in the Royals’ pen. ½ of the compensation for the Rosenthal trade a few years back, Coleman has a big fastball and nasty breaking ball.
17. Will Klein, RHP, AA Northwest Arkansas
Speaking of relivers, everything I just said about Coleman? Yeah, you can say it about Klein, too. Klein regularly toyed with hitters at high A last year, striking out 121 hitters in just 70 1/3 innings pitched. For those counting at home, that’s a 15.5 K/9 rate. Yep. That’ll play.
18. Anthony Veneziano, LHP, AA Northwest Arkansas
Here’s another big, power arm. Veneziano hasn’t been relegated to bullpen only yet, though. His fastball bumped into the high 90s last year on a starter’s workload. He’s still looking for a changeup, but if he doesn’t find it, you’re looking at a really promising future bullpen fireballer.
19. Erick Pena, OF, A ?
Pena did… not have a strong 2021 full season debut. His struggles look a lot like those of Pratto and Melendez in 2019. Pena has the same type of raw toolkit to work from as those two, with great hands and natural power. He needs to fix a hitch in his swing and calm it down, but so did Melendez. Of this second ten grouping, Pena has the highest upside and could jump right into the top 5 of the org ranks.
20. Darryl Collins, OF, A+
Collins is an international signing out of Europe. I like the hitting package here – good eye and contact skills. He needs to make more loud contact, but if he can, really a nice guy.
Overall takeaways:
This is a system with a lot of depth. We could go another 10-12 deep and still be talking about guys with a good shot to make the majors. The changes to the organization’s approach are bearing fruit, as even less-heralded draftees are stepping forward.
The combination of upside (Witt, Melendez, Lacy), depth, and guys you can dream on is fun. It may not produce quite as much as the 2011 group did, but it does offer a more sustainable system, less reliant on a few big-ticket guys.
Jayson Stark:
Everything you need to know about the many MLB schedule changes in 2022 and 2023
Originally Posted by :
Maybe you’re one of those people who had a ticket for Opening Day — back in simpler times, when it was still scheduled for March 31.
Maybe you live in a National League city, and you’ve always wanted to see that dude they call Ohtani.
Maybe you just heard a certain commissioner of baseball say last week that it was now impossible for the sport to still play a 162-game season — and then learned this week that it was magically possible after all.
Well, if you’re somebody like that, this is the story for you. We’re here to answer every darned question you have about the schedule — even the questions you didn’t know you’d need to ask. And by that, we mean all the schedules:
• The rearranged 2022 schedule.
• And the brand new 2022 spring training schedule.
• And the all-new, expanded 2022 postseason schedule.
• And then there’s 2023, when the format for all baseball scheduling will change dramatically.
Ready for the rundown? Here we go.
How can baseball still play all 162 games?
From the way it was described to us, this took a spectacular exhibition of heavy lifting from baseball’s scheduling gurus, led by MLB’s chief operations and strategy officer, Chris Marinak. The challenge: Not just taking “canceled” games and un-canceling them, but fitting them into a puzzle that included an expanded postseason — yet without changing the dates of the World Series.
What? How even? All right, here’s how even. This is how the regular season will get spun through the blender:
UN-CANCELED GAMES 1.0: The games that originally were supposed to serve as the opening series of the year will now become the final series of the year. Got that? In other words, instead of being played March 31-April 3, they’ll be played Oct. 3-5. So the season now ends Oct. 5 instead of Oct. 2.
All but four of those series were division matchups, so that part was relatively uncomplicated. The four exceptions: Diamondbacks at Milwaukee, Yankees at Texas, Tigers at Seattle, and the interleague entry, Phillies at Houston. Not so easy.
Just to make this even more convoluted, the series in Texas and Seattle were originally four-game series. So that means those teams — Yankees/Rangers, Tigers/Mariners — have to play a scheduled doubleheader in the final week of the season. New rules: No complaining allowed!
UN-CANCELED GAMES 2.0: But moving that first set of series to the end of the season turned out to be the simple part of this equation. The hard part was what to do about rescheduling every team’s second “canceled” series. Fitting in those games made working on a 1,500-piece jigsaw puzzle look as neat and clean as solving today’s Wordle.
Again, fortunately, 11 of those 15 series involved teams playing within their own division. So those games were more easily rescheduled as doubleheaders or on mutual off days.
But then there were the remaining four series. These four required a second dose of Tylenol: Giants at Milwaukee, Yankees at Houston, Tigers at Oakland, and the interleague nightmare of Rangers at Miami.
Rearranging those games is going to involve some difficult gyrations that are still being sorted out. But you can expect weirdness that could include the Brewers playing a “home” game in San Francisco, doubleheaders in which each team bats last, and teams jetting across the country just to fit in an emergency doubleheader on what used to be an off day.
So it won’t all be a joyride. But hey, it beats the alternative — of tumbling the whole sport over the cliff and not playing those games at all.
A ROUND OF APPLAUSE: We should appreciate what baseball did here by recognizing what it didn’t do.
What it didn’t do was go down the rocky scheduling path that followed the 1995 strike. That year, every team played the same number of games (144). But in ’95, MLB gave up on having all teams in a division play the same schedule and just dropped in random games so at least every team wound up playing 144 total games.
Amazingly, that mess won’t be repeated this time. There will be ugly road trips and unfortunate doubleheaders. But in the end, every team will play exactly the same opponents — and each of them the same number of times — as in the original schedule. Can we ask this again: How even?
How will the postseason schedule change?
Rescheduling all of those games above would have seemed impossible enough if they didn’t come with these two thorny little issues on the other end:
1. The wild-card round was now going to expand from one game to best of three.
2. And ohbytheway, Fox was telling MLB it couldn’t budge from the original World Series dates. So here is how MLB was able to pull that off:
Luckily, the tentative postseason schedule had already built in the likelihood of expanding the playoffs. So instead of starting the World Series on the traditional Tuesday, MLB had the option of starting it on a Thursday or Friday. That built in an extra two-day or three-day buffer that made this doable.
So the wild-card series will be scheduled to begin — with no travel days — on Friday, Oct. 7. And by squeezing an extra off day out of at least one of the other rounds, the World Series will still be able to begin on Friday, Oct. 28, and end on Friday, Nov. 4. An Oct. 27-Nov. 3 World Series might also be an option, but MLB is still studying whether that’s possible. Either way, the weather in Chicago, Detroit or Minnesota is always lovely in November. Just sayin’.
What about the spring training schedule?
Because nothing is easy when camps open three weeks late, even the spring training schedule had to be imploded. Here is how that will now work:
SPRING GAMES BEGIN … in less than a week! Thursday, March 17 features two games — Twins-Red Sox and Diamondbacks-Rockies. Then everyone else gets going the next day. Spring games run through April 5, except for a Phillies-Rays exhibition at the Trop on April 6. That leads right into Opening Day on April 7.
FLORIDA: The schedules for the 15 Florida teams were the most dramatically rejiggered. Because there’s usually so many hours spent driving on the highways and byways of Florida in a normal spring, the original schedule didn’t work. So the new schedule closely resembles last year’s regional pandemic schedule.
The teams on the East Coast of Florida — the Astros, Nationals, Cardinals, Marlins and Mets — will form one regional pod. The teams on the West Coast of Florida will mostly divide into two groups. There is a Tampa pod: the Yankees, Tigers, Phillies and Blue Jays. And there is a Fort Myers pod: the Red Sox, Twins, Rays and Braves. And the two teams in between — the Orioles and Pirates — will play teams in each West Coast pod.
What teams sacrifice in less attractive spring matchups, they gain in hours not spent on the road behind a grapefruit truck. That’s a trade they’re all delighted to make.
ARIZONA: In recent years, baseball has tried to craft a Cactus League schedule that has all 15 Arizona-based teams playing home-and-home exhibitions against every other team. With a maximum of 18 games this spring, that won’t be possible. So the schedule is all new but as convenient as ever, all because it turns out that the drive from Phoenix to Scottsdale remains slightly more time-efficient than the drive from Tampa to pretty much anywhere in Florida.
How will everything change in the 2023 schedule?
You might have missed this in the announcement of labor-deal details if you were focused on stuff like tax thresholds. But this is a development that will make an impact on literally every team in baseball in 2023:
Unbalanced schedules: Out!
Playing every team in baseball every single season: In!
Yes, the 2023 schedule will cut back on rivalry games. And in their place, teams will play an NBA-like schedule that involves facing all 29 other clubs, including every one of the 15 in the other league. Here’s a breakdown:
DIVISION GAMES (56): Clubs play all four teams in their division 14 times. (Current total: 19) So that means one three-game series and one four-game series each, both home and road.
OTHER 10 LEAGUE OPPONENTS (60): Those non-division teams within your league? You’ll play them six times apiece — three at home, three on the road. (Current total: six or seven apiece)
INTERLEAGUE SCHEDULE (46): Here’s how this works: Every team plays its interleague “rival” (Mets-Yankees, Cubs-White Sox, you know the deal) four times — two at home, two on the road. (Current total: four or six games, depending on the season)
As for the other 14 teams in the opposite league, you’ll play three games against every one of them. Half are at home. Half are on the road. Then that will flip the following year. So if you miss Mike Trout in your NL city one year, he visits the next year. Get the picture? (Current total: three or four games each versus either four or five nonrival interleague opponents)
What’s this all about? Well, entertainment and marketing for one thing. It’s an attempt, in an increasingly regionalized sport, to allow fans in every city to see their team play against every team and every star in the other league at least once a year. Also, with new wild-card teams added to the mix, it makes the schedule more comparable for teams fighting for those spots.
So there you go. Schedules are always complex, fascinating and often confusing works of art. But never more than at times like this — when labor disaster turns to labor kumbaya literally overnight, and the schedule gurus have to get to work, crafting their magic me-versus-you, you-versus-them acts.
And when that sort of wackiness erupts, we know you have questions. Then we provide answers. It’s what we do. It’s what you ask us to do. Now back to our regularly scheduled baseball programming.
Alec Lewis:
Royals hitting coordinator Drew Saylor talks prospects Michael Massey, Nick Loftin and others
Originally Posted by :
The numbers tell the story.
In 2019, the Royals’ minor-league system posted a .693 OPS and a 2.53 strikeout-to-walk ratio. In 2021, the Royals’ minor-league system posted a .750 OPS with a 2.21 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
What changed? In short, Royals president of baseball operations Dayton Moore envisioned revamping the club’s hitting development department. General manager J.J. Picollo, charged with carrying out that task, shifted longtime Royals staffer Alec Zumwalt into a role as the director of hitting performance. From there, the club hired Drew Saylor as hitting coordinator, Keoni DeRenne as assistant hitting coordinator and Mike Tosar as its special assignment hitting coach.
Their collective knowledge began to flow throughout the club’s hitting coaches and also to the players. The results confirmed their approach.
Saylor had been a minor-league manager in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ system before becoming an assistant hitting coordinator with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2018. Recently, he talked with The Athletic about the Royals’ strides since he joined the club’s hitting development department in 2019. He also touched on some prospects who have impressed in minor-league camp.
Note: This interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity.
Michael Massey, a fourth-round pick in 2019, had an incredible season in 2021: An .882 OPS with 21 home runs and 87 RBIs at High-A Quad Cities. What stands out to you about what he’s been able to accomplish since he entered the Royals’ system?
I think the first thing is he’s put in a ton of effort and work. Similar to what we talked about with Erick Peña, he had to go through a bit of repatterning process with how he moves. (For us), it was about putting him in an optimal position to allow his pelvis and hips to be able to work more consistently.
He has a lower back injury history, so he has to be really specific with how his movements are. We have tried to be prudent with work volume and to be understanding that this guy’s body is in a position where we don’t want to piss off his back. He’s done a tremendous job with the strength-and-conditioning team, being able to strengthen the muscles around and the back. It starts there. Similar to Erick, Massey had a hip slide, and he’s done a great job making sure he’s moving from the center out. That’s the first thing.
I think there are other parts, too. He’s very curious. He’s a guy who really understands how to game plan opposing pitchers. He understands how we like to train in a similar vein of Bobby Witt Jr., MJ Melendez, Nick Pratto, Kyle Isbel. He champions what we do, and he very much is like Vinnie Pasquantino and Jake Means. They’re the leaders, the ones driving the process and initiative of what we want out of our hitting space. What’s been cool is seeing him make a physical change but also take ownership of our process and be one of the cornerstones to help educate and onboard all of our young players. There’s a laundry list of other guys who fall into that category, but he’s one of those guys that stands out as one of those natural leaders.
In that answer, you mentioned the pelvis and repatterning from a movement perspective. How old is that type of thought for you as it relates to hitting?
It’s not as far back as you’d think. A lot of the way I’ve learned about hitting was more just passed down — sage wisdom. In 2018, I was kind of having some of the sage wisdom that I thought was gospel being chipped away. That was the year I just started brand new with my hitting philosophy. I’ll never forget it. I had a running document with things and ideas, and I started a brand new document. From 2018 forward, we were going to operate under the laws of motion and constraints and build outwards. That’s what started to form. Understanding the planes of motion. How energy is transferred kinetically. And more importantly, being able to disassociate the cues we offer to hitters versus the actual movements of the human body under the constant constraint of gravity. That was my seminal moment in understanding that.
And by cues, you’re mentioning the specific comments you offer to the hitter, right?
Mike Trout thinks he swings down. J.D. Martinez thinks he swings up. They’re both completely contrasting cues, but both allow them to be in the right field of motion to be very productive players. That’s how I reconcile those two areas. Any cue on any given day can unlock somebody’s potential. But how their body moves, that is constant. There are laws they cannot violate to be able to do that.
What seems wild is how complex this process is, how deep it goes.
We can talk about human movement, but then you have to learn skill acquisition. You have to know how to teach human beings to execute that task. And we know from how our brain operates that if we externally cue, meaning if I’m telling you that I want your back elbow to feel like it connects to your torso before you turn, if I give you two of those while you’re trying to hit, it’s like opening 17 windows on your computer. The processing speed of the brain can’t execute that in the time that is allotted to us to hit in the game.
So it’s very much, like, we want the human movements to be this way. But can we design a player plan for them to be able to execute that move without us talking their ear off about what they should be doing or shouldn’t be doing?
We want to take into account every variable of our people to make sure we’re helping them have the best opportunity to have success. What’s tough about hitting? Well, there’s a million different solutions to what we do. And with every single person, that path is completely different. That’s really difficult to do, but that’s the way. If you want to reach your players, you have to pay that on the front side of teaching.
Let’s move to another player: Nick Loftin. The Royals selected him with the No. 32 pick in the 2020 MLB Draft. Some people were surprised by it. But last season, playing for High-A Quad Cities, he posted a .836 OPS and impressed defensively. What have your observations of his performance been?
Nick is incredible. Has a curious mind. Loves to try to put together the puzzle pieces. We talk a lot about intellectual curiosity. That’s one of the foundational pieces to us here. But he has it in buckets.
He, for me, is one of those glue guys, leadership guys, who champions our process. One of the things that helps out Nick, and I’m biased, but I think Nick was one of the best bats in his draft class, regardless of it being a COVID-19 draft. I thought he was one of the best bats anywhere.
The numbers seem to back that up, but when you say that, what comes to mind?
He has all the right ingredients. He rotates well. He gets onto plane with his path. He has a lot of room for success with his swing, and he does it very naturally.
Some guys try to artificially manufacture that ability. Or, they’ve been cued so much that their body is inefficient in how they’re moving. He’s just naturally had that from Day 1.
He’s a guy who, for me, came in with a lot of really cool ingredients. There’s more pop in that tank as he continues to get stronger, and that’s not to say he’s not strong now. But as he continues to evolve as a human being, I think there’s more pop in the tank. He’ll do anything for the team. He’s a tremendous leader. An A+ person. And you add in all the baseball stuff, it allows you to go ‘Damn, that’s a great, great pickup by us.'”
A guy I haven’t written about much is Jake Means, who is the brother of Baltimore Orioles pitcher John, and who is an Olathe, Kan., native. Jake was a 22nd-round pick in 2019. Last year, he moved from Low-A Columbia to High-A Quad Cities, then played in the Arizona Fall League, and had varying levels of success and struggle as he faced more intense competition. How would you assess his 2021 season?
I thought Jake had a really good year, him being able to bump up a level, go from Low A to High A and get with a club that was performing well. He assimilated into that clubhouse and was one of the centerpieces of that championship-winning club, so he did a tremendous job for us.
I think the tale of two seasons for him centers around expectations that he puts on himself. He’s a high performer. A guy who wants to do well. And he’s never one of those guys that you have to say, ‘Hey, we need you to work harder.’ We’re always trying to pull back on the reins to make sure he’s efficient with what he does.
I thought he did a really good job being able to learn through some of those growth moments. That jump from Low A to High A is pretty darn big. You might see similar fastball velocities, but then you’re seeing the movement profile be a little different in High-A, and you’re seeing the spin profiles be a little sharper, and the separation between those two is greater. So there’s a little learning curve for him, making that jump up there. But really, the thing I loved about that and we loved is, he’s a grinder. People overuse that term. But from what you want in an intangible standpoint, Jake has that tenfold.
Who else has caught your eyes in minor-league camp?
There’s a handful of guys. Luca Tresh, a 17th-round pick in 2021, has done a really good job coming up here in camp so far — lots of really hard contact, even off of some of our lives. Parker Bates is a guy who is standing out. Guillermo Quintana, a 20-year-old from Colombia, has done a really good job. I’ve liked the way he’s shown up and taken swings. Wilmin Candelario, a 20-year-old switch-hitting shortstop, made some small modifications. He doesn’t have a tap anymore; it’s more of a function-forward ease to the swing. He’s making some really solid contact.
Carter Jensen, a Kansas City native and 18-year-old whom the Royals selected last year in the third round, has done a great job. Ryan Cepero, a 19-year-old shortstop from Puerto Rico who was an eighth-rounder last year, has put on some really good size and strength, and the ball is starting to take off a little bit more off the bat. Brennon McNair, an 11th-round pick from last year, and Low-A hitting coach Jesus Azuaje made a little adjustment to his routine, where Brennon is able to get into his hip a little better. He’s making some really good contact.
And Diego Hernandez, a 21-year-old left-handed-hitting outfielder. Oh, my gosh. He made a small path adjustment, and he’s lighting balls up all over the field. The power is starting to come out. It’s a pretty fun guy to watch in batting practice. It’s going to sound succinct, but he runs well, so we talked to him: ‘Let’s work on hitting more line drives.’ That small adjustment allowed him to be able to get the ball off the ground and get more hard contact in the middle of the field. It’s been fun to see. I’m oversimplifying it, but it was, ‘Let’s get the ball on a line more consistently.’ All the sudden, he’s hitting balls on field No. 3, he’s making people on the road be concerned about the safety of their windshields. He’s done a really good job.
Kansas City Royals: When will the prospects be ready?
Some serious talent is coming to Kansas City in Bobby Witt Jr., Nick Pratto and MJ Melendez, but the question is when will the trio be ready and how will the small-market Royals surround that group to best succeed? 2022 may be another year of development-first strategy, but there’s a lot of hope on the horizon.
Alec Lewis:
What the end of the lockout means for the Royals
Originally Posted by :
In late February, a Royals executive loitered around the bullpen in Surprise, Ariz. His slumped posture hinted at his boredom, at his readiness for a new collective bargaining agreement.
He also did acknowledge: When that breakthrough arrives, he will be quite busy working the phone lines with players’ agents.
Well, that time has come. The owners and players agreed Thursday on a new CBA, and now a whirlwind of baseball activity will commence.
Where do the Royals stand? What must they accomplish? Who makes sense as a potential acquisition?
Here’s a breakdown:
How did the Royals get here?
First, let’s define here, beginning with how last season ended.
The Royals finished 74-88, missed the playoffs for the sixth straight year and entered the offseason with numerous important questions. Could their young pitchers utilize their experience to develop ahead of 2022? Could Adalberto Mondesi refine his training throughout the offseason to ensure better durability in 2022? Could the Royals retain the hitting development staffers who helped revamp and improve the team’s player development?
To answer the first question, relating to the young starters, the Royals’ research and development staff collaborated with pitching coaches on individual plans for each player. As for Mondesi, Royals general manager J.J. Picollo outlined a regimented offseason program, focused on the complexity of his muscle fiber makeup. In supporting the club’s hitting development staffers, the Royals promoted Keoni DeRenne, formerly the assistant hitting coordinator, to assistant big-league hitting coach.
In November, Royals president of baseball operations Dayton Moore and Picollo met with media members at Kauffman Stadium, where these plans and alterations. The front office also detailed an acquisition strategy focused on enhancing their bullpen for two reasons: 1.) It would serve as emergency assistance for many of the club’s young starters. 2. It would lessen the workload on the up-and-coming relief prospects.
“What I think we should do is continue to be very disciplined with our young players and work to build a really, really strong and powerful and elite championship-caliber bullpen,” Moore said about a month before the owners locked out the players.
The Royals did not, however, make many moves in the ensuing month. The only arm they signed was right-hander Taylor Clarke, who had been designated for assignment by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
They also added a few minor-league free agents throughout the lockout: right-handed reliever Arodys Vizcaino; right-hander Brad Peacock; right-hander Daniel Mengden; infielder Robbie Glendinning; center fielder JaCoby Jones; and infielder Ivan Castillo.
Maybe the inactivity was a byproduct of players not being ready to sign. Or maybe the Royals believed numerous players would be looking for deals shortly after a new collective bargaining agreement was reached.
Regardless, here the Royals are, prepared to operate within a fluid market with mostly the same roster as 2021. Once again, there are important questions to answer: Have the young starters stuck to their offseason plans? Has Mondesi? Which potential bullpen arms fit best? Is there a trade market for first baseman Carlos Santana?
And there are so many more.
What is the Royals’ urgency level?
It depends on the topic.
Let’s start with arguably the most important element of the Royals’ hopes in 2022: The young starters. Brady Singer and Kris Bubic now have two big-league seasons (one, albeit, was quite short) under their belts. Carlos Hernández, Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar, Jonathan Heasley and Angel Zerpa have all debuted. What type of shape are they in now? What have they altered with their pitch repertoire? Are their arms all healthy? The Royals’ urgency in answering these questions is obvious.
Then there are the free-agent and trade markets. Many teams are going to be active, and many players are going to be champing at the bit to find jobs. The Royals will assuredly be operating urgently, conversing with agents on player preferences, bouncing financial details off of chairman and CEO John Sherman, etc. Within these processes the Royals will continue surveying the trade market. The Royals could trade Santana ahead of the season to recoup part of the $10.5 million he’s owned in 2022 and open a spot for a prospect such as Nick Pratto or MJ Melendez. To do so, Royals executives such as Scott Sharp and Jin Wong must move quickly.
As far as relationships with the big-league staff go, the Royals are fortunate in that there is a great deal of familiarity. Pitching coach Cal Eldred and bullpen coach Larry Carter have spent time around most of the club’s arms. Hitting coach Terry Bradshaw has worked daily with hitters such as Hunter Dozier. If there’s any urgency in this area, it’ll be DeRenne, the new assistant hitting coach, continuing to develop relationships with big-league players.
Overall, while the club will certainly speak of wanting to compete in 2022 the same way it has in the past few years, there remain realities to the Royals’ situation. They know they will be transitioning numerous hitting prospects (Bobby Witt Jr., Nick Pratto and MJ Melendez) to the big leagues. They’re aware that many of the young starters have yet to build full regular-season workloads.
So, while the club will definitely display urgency in many areas, they are not the San Diego Padres, per se. They have not yet pushed the chips toward the middle of the table. Instead, they are sitting back, studying their opponents’ tendencies and waiting for the right time to strike.
Which players fit as potential remaining targets?
Because we’ve mentioned the Royals’ hopes at enhancing their bullpen, let’s start there. Previous options such as Hector Neris, Yimi Garcia, Aaron Loup and others are already off of the table. But plenty of possibilities remain.
Jake Diekman, a former Royals left-hander, is available. He hails from Nebraska. He attended Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kan. And he enjoyed his time with the Royals in 2019. Though Diekman is 35 years old, he’s a veteran lefty with a sweeping slider. He would provide a different look for a bullpen that could benefit from it.
Some other high-end options include: Trevor Rosenthal, who revived his career with the Royals in 2020 and has great relationships with multiple Royals staffers and players; Joe Kelly, who possesses a filthy curveball and has had a successful last couple of years with the Los Angeles Dodgers; and Yusmeiro Petit, a deceptive right-hander who has pitched at least 78 innings in four consecutive 162-game seasons. If the Royals wade through the market and choose the cost-effective route, they could end up with Sean Doolittle, Brad Boxberger, Ervin Santana or others.
Besides bullpen help, the Royals could also seek a versatile utility player to serve as depth on the corners in the infield and outfield. A backup center fielder for Michael A. Taylor could also make sense. Matt Duffy or Matt Carpenter could be options for the former. Jarrod Dyson could be an option for the latter.
And then, if the market plays into the Royals’ hands, and numerous starters are available, the Royals could profit from a veteran pitcher who could not only eat up innings but also serve as a mentor for the Royals’ young staff. There are loads of candidates in this area — Zach Davies, Danny Duffy, etc. — but again, the chances that this is an option likely rely on what the market looks like.
The Royals know many of their young arms will enter arbitration in the coming years, meaning they will be primed for trades that allow the Royals to multiply the talent at the big-league level or the farm system. They know relievers such as Dylan Coleman, Will Klein, Nathan Webb and Collin Snider will soon need to establish themselves. They also know that, behind Witt, Pratto and Melendez, they have potential big-league bats such as Vinnie Pasquantino, Nick Loftin and Michael Massey.
Seeing how the season plays out, and how many of these prospects perform, will more than any stopgap signing, provide the Royals a compass for the direction they have to head.
BREAKING: The New York Yankees are finalizing a deal to acquire third baseman Josh Donaldson and shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa from Minnesota, sources tell ESPN.
