Kansas City Royals Summer Check Up

Kansas City Royals

22-46 (5^th in AL Central)

Eye Popping Number

2

That’s the number of prospects they received for losing Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain in the offseason rather than trading them at the trade deadline last season. Granted, those two prospects were compensation picks at the end of last week’s MLB draft, and one pick, Jackson Kowar, was projected to be a top 15 pick. (They’re #17 overall pick, Brady Singer, was discussed as a possible #1 pick all spring long, they got a steal at both 17 and 33 with the two Florida pitchers). If they would have traded those two players last year, they might not have gotten the quality of the pitchers they got as comp picks, but they could have gotten multiple prospects for each player.

Biggest Surprise

Jakob Junis is a second year player that came out of nowhere to give the starting rotation some innings while Danny Duffy and Ian Kennedy struggle, and he’s given them quality innings too. Junis has adopted the breaking ball revolution, throwing his slider almost 40% of the time, and it’s been effective. He had a rough start last week that pushed his ERA over 4, but before that start he was sitting at 3.62 on the season, and had 3.34 ERA in the month of April. He’s striking hitters out 22% of the time, on pace for over 150 for the season, and limiting his walks, which is impressive considering how often he throws his slider.

Player to Watch

Last year’s big surprise for the Royals was do-everything, Whit Merrifield. Merrifield has been limited to only 4 positions this season instead of his usual 5 that he played in his first two seasons, but started playing more centerfield to take advantage of his speed instead of left field. He isn’t hitting as many home runs as he did last season, but he’s hitting a lot more doubles and walking more than twice as often. This has lead to a higher batting average and higher on base percentage. Giving the Royal’s offense somewhat of a pulse. It’s also fun when Merrifield gets on base, because he’s one of the few players that’s still into steals.

What to Watch for at the Deadline

I don’t think the Royals’ front office is going to make the same mistake (which may or may not have actually been a mistake, only time will tell), that they did last year and try to deal their future free agents. In fact, they started early by dealing Jon Jay to the Arizona Diamondbacks last week. Mike Moustakas was the odd man out of the Hosmer, Cain, Moustakas trio and wasn’t able to cash in last offseason, but could fit in on a contender looking for a DH or third baseman with pop. Kelvin Herrera is almost a lock to be playing on a new team come August, as he’s been one of the best relievers in baseball this season. Junis could also be traded to a team looking for pitching depth. Merrifield would likely bring back the biggest coup of prospects due to his long team control, and he’s about to pass the wrong side of 30, so he isn’t exactly the kind of building block the team is looking for so they may look to move him.

*All stats as of 6/14 via fangraphs.com and baseball-reference.com