The Royals announced Wednesday that shortstop Adalberto Mondesi has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain. The move is retroactive to March 30. Fellow infielder Nicky Lopez is up from the team’s alternate site to take Mondesi’s spot on the Opening Day roster.
It’s something of an out-of-the-blue placement, as Mondesi played as recently as Monday and hasn’t been known to be battling any soreness in his oblique. The 25-year-old speedster turned in a .303/.343/.606 slash with two homers, a triple, two doubles and two stolen bases through 36 plate appearances this spring. He was limited early in camp after being hit by a pitch on his foot but had put that minor injury behind him.
It’s a sour note on which to start the season for Mondesi, who played in 59 of the Royals’ 60 games last season while slashing a combined .256/.294/.416 with a league-leading 24 steals. He’s battled shoulder and groin injuries in seasons prior, however, and will now be out at least a week early in the season — perhaps a good bit more. The Royals have yet to announce a timeline on Mondesi or the grade of the strain, but it’s common for oblique strains to sideline players for upwards of a month. The Royals will surely have more information on his status later today when skipper Mike Matheny meets with reporters.
With Mondesi sidelined for the time being, it’ll likely fall to the light-hitting Lopez to handle everyday work at shortstop. The 26-year-old is known as a strong defender but has managed just a .228/.279/.307 slash in 594 big league plate appearances.
For much of the offseason, Lopez was expected to be the Royals’ primary second baseman in 2021 — or at least to have a strong chance at winning the job in camp. However, his .118/.231/.147 batting line through 39 Cactus League appearances left him as an odd man out at the end of camp. Kansas City optioned him on Monday, deciding instead to move Whit Merrifield back to the infield to cover second base and leaving outfielders Michael A. Taylor, Kyle Isbel, Ryan McBroom and Jarrod Dyson in the mix for playing time in center and right alongside left fielder Andrew Benintendi .
NO call up WITT
They want the extra year of control!
Witt has 40 ABs in pro baseball. It’s not about an extra year of control whatsoever. This isn’t the NFL where a rookie can just slot into the starting lineup after college.
40 games* not ABs.
Uh, yeah, it is. 40 ABs don’t trigger the loss of the extra year of control.
Broski, his 37 games are in Rookie Ball, which is below single A. Service time only starts in the majors.
Witt isn’t ready. May not see the roster at all this year. If he crushes the minors he might be a Sept call up.
The service time manipulation witch hunt, while occasionally warranted, has definitely been blown out of proportion this off-season thanks to the comments on Kelenic. I hope the idiocracy dies down so the real manipulation can be highlighted and rightfully ostracized.
SoxRewl spot on.
Really. He hasn’t even had 200 professional playe appearances yet. The man hasn’t even reached A-Ball and isn’t old enough to drink, yet some are calling service time manipulation. Just because Juan Soto was able to skip most of AA and all of AAA doesn’t mean every player is going to be able to and then hit in the major leagues.
It’d be incredibly short sighted to call up a guy like Witt as a fill-in for 2 weeks and play at a position he’s not going to play in MLB.
Lopez is inevitable
Not that I think they would, but hopefully they give him plenty of time to rehab instead of rushing him back.
Since the Mondesi injury wasn’t obvious, maybe it’s mild in nature. On a positive note, I’d like to get a good look at Hanser Alberto, I liked that signing.