The Royals have designated first baseman Frank Schwindel for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for infield prospect Nicky Lopez, whose previously announced promotion to the Major Leagues is now official (Twitter link via Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star).
Schwindel, 26, opened the 2019 season on the active roster with the Royal but appeared in only six games before returning to the minors. He’s had a rough go of it so far in Triple-A Omaha, hitting just .186/.237/.286 with a homer and four doubles through 76 trips to the plate. That said, Schwindel enjoyed a much more productive 2018 run in Omaha when he hit .286/.336/.506 with 24 homers and 38 doubles, and he’s generally been a productive bat since arriving on the scene in Triple-A back in 2017.
The move to designate Schwindel buys struggling veteran Chris Owings some additional time on the active roster. Kansas City signed the former D-backs utilityman to a one-year deal worth $3MM this past offseason, but Owings has mustered only a .143/.209/.244 output in 129 trips to the plate so far. For now, he’ll continue to try to sort things out at the MLB level, but Lopez’s arrival will further cut into his already dwindling playing time.
Odd they kept Lucas Duda, but Schwindel is nothing more than a AAAA player at best who can only play a questionable first base.
Not a huge loss, although Royals Twitter would have you think they just cut Whit Merrifield.
its not like he ever really got a shot, or they didnt have other options to cut. Owings and Duda are essentially wasted roster spots.
The fact that they chose to DFA a struggling young player instead of an aging horrid veteran just doesn’t make since to me.
I’m not a Royals fan, but from the outside a 27 year old right-handed hitting first baseman with limited major league opportunities would probably seem like a AAAA type, which are pretty much a dime a dozen.
That said, I also agree with you that it makes no sense to keep Duda over him. Duda is barely any better than a AAAA guy himself, so at that point you might as well keep the younger one who hasn’t gotten much of a chance.
I understand to an outsider the outrage would seem irrational. To fans who watch every game, the idea that we are releasing a player of unknown quality (even one that I agree probably isn’t that big of a loss) while we are keeping Chris Owings in the lineup almost every night is outrageous. We know that we don’t have anything in Owings. He has struck out 45 times in 129 plate appearances. If he comes to the plate with 2 outs, I get up and start the commercial break early because the inning is over. We just want to see the team advancing towards relevance, and that isn’t what we see in Owings.
If it’s any consolation, Owings will see far less opportunities now with Lopez up. At least I hope.
You understand we didn’t “release” him, right? Injured 1B/DH players hitting under .200 in AAA are not exactly in high demand, so the chances he gets claimed are low. Remember he was unprotected in the Rule 5 and went unselected, and his value hasn’t gone up since then.
Whatever potential Schwindel might have, he’s blocked at both 1B and DH by several more proven and higher ceiling players. Owings has been atrocious this year, but he still has value as a bench piece with positional versatility. I have no explanation for why we chose Schwindel over Duda, but it’s insignificant enough that I choose not to care.
I’ll never understand the fascination our fan base has with these AAAA 1B that mash in the minors. Calvin Pickering, Kila Ka’iahue, Clint Robinson and now Frank Schwindel.
I thought schwindell was already in minors
You can designate a player who is in the minors. The move removes him from the 40-man roster. The Royals already announced yesterday that Jake Newberry was being optioned to make room on the 25-man roster for Lopez.
The dude was given 15 at bats lol. He killed AAA the last two years. Someone will give him a shot. Miami could use a first basemen…
yeah, he kinda fell appart after he went back down. To be fair though, he was never selected in the Rule 5, so i doubt he gets claimed here. I imagine he gets reselected again later in the season.
Who?
This is why the royals are going to take another 30 years to get back to contention. You shouldn’t be a rebuilding club keeping washed up veterans with negative WAR’s on the roster rather than young players who have proven theirselves in the minors but hasn’t got much chance yet.
Yes their way doesn’t work. Look at 2014 and the 2015 WS Banner. The washed up veterans allow them to play the futures in the minors without ruining their confidence. The ones I. The minor leaguers worthy of playing are up. I can wait another 3-4 years to win again. Sorry we all can’t be Detroit, Cleveland, Dodgers. Oops I forgot those haven’t won in decades either.
Yup, which is why they’re letting go of Frank Schwindel and keeping Chris Owings, right? Get rid of these younger guys and let -0.4 WAR 1 year cheap deal veterans take up the roster spots.
Dude Owings is going to get like 100 AB. He’s a bench piece. Take a look at the lineup. 1B (you know, the position Schwindel plays) we have Ryan O’Hearn and Hunter Dozier who are both team-controller players, 2B Nicky Lopez who’s 24, SS Adalberto Mondesi who is 23, 3B Dozier and Kelvin Gutierrez who is 23. RF Whit who’s older but team controlled. The rotation we have Brad Keller, Jorge Lopez, Jakob Junis. The bullpen is almost entirely young players under team control. But you’re right, loaded with veterans *eyeroll*
Seems to me that Frank got Schwindeled out of a 40-man roster spot.
Heads need to roll. Duda Gore Owen’s and Hamilton never should of been signed. I was a Dayton and Yost supporter but with this move heads need to roll.
hard to really complain about the team signing buy-low candidates and fillers ahead of prospect debuts. they probably designated Schwindel because they could keep him and not lose one of the vets as well. Schwindel didnt get picked in the rule 5 last year, and hasn’t moved the needle towards proving himself at all this year.
Gore and Hamilton don’t bother me in the least. Gore has been with the org forever and Hamilton plays a great CF (can’t hit a lick tho) the Duda and Owings are more puzzling. The fact that Lopez is up and Owings is gonna be out of his job soon because Whit is the utilities and Kelvin Guitierrez is the backup INF. Duda must be great in the clubhouse because that one really makes no sense. At least Owings can play 7 positions competently. Also, why are we lamenting the offensee. That isn’t what’s holding this team back.
Heads need to roll, because they removed a AAAA first baseman from the 40 man?
I really hope this is sarcastic. Win a World Series and then should be fired four years later for taking Frank Schwindel off the 40-man?
When I read this my mind thought Greg Swindell.