The Royals have added infielder Hanser Alberto to their 40-man roster, Alec Lewis of The Athletic was among those to report. Their 40-man is now full.
Alberto, previously with the Rangers and Orioles, signed a minor league contract with the Royals over the winter. He’ll now earn a $1.65MM salary, potentially with another $350K in bonuses, off the Royals’ bench. As someone with quite a bit of experience at both second and third base, the 28-year-old will provide Kansas City some insurance behind Whit Merrifield and Hunter Dozier. He’ll also give the team a stopgap until it’s ready to promote top infield prospect Bobby Witt Jr., whom it reassigned to the minors earlier this month.
Alberto had rough seasons in Texas from 2015-18 (he didn’t appear in the bigs in ’17), but he did hit for good averages in Baltimore in the past two seasons. He ended his Orioles tenure as a .299/.322/.413 batter with a meager 10.2 percent strikeout rate (albeit with a minuscule walk percentage of 2.7) over 781 plate appearances. Most of the 28-year-old right-hander’s damage came against lefty pitchers, whom he victimized for a .394/.411/.532 line in 280 trips to the plate as an Oriole.
Well the Royals got Alberto, the Orioles got Franco
We will see how got the better deal
Now the Os have go and get Odor or keep what they have and roll with it
I think that’s what the phrase “comparing apples to oranges” was made up for.
I think it is more apples to apples more than you think
Franco projects to play everyday. Who knows how much Alberto will play. But will see who turns in the better season
Yes
Orioles play in a ballpark with short fences so thier power numbers ought to be higher there. Royals play with a huge field thus not as many home runs. so Franco will have bigger numbers and he’s starting. You can’t compare the two.
This was a foregone conclusion from the day he signed. Big fan of this addition.
Wish the Os kept him. I thought for sure Tampa was gonna pick him up because of his splits. Lefty’s beware