The Royals have signed outfielder Roman Quinn to a minor league deal, according to a tweet from the Omaha Storm Chasers, the club’s Triple-A affiliate.
Quinn has spent the vast majority of his career with the Phillies so far, as they drafted him back in 2011. Although he was considered a very noteworthy prospect, even taking the final spot on Baseball America’s Top 100 list in 2013, he’s been slowed by injuries at the big league level. Despite appearing in six MLB seasons to this point, he’s gotten into just 201 total games in that time, never getting into more than 50 in any individual season. He’s never been able to get into much of a groove at the plate in his stop-and-start career, with an MLB batting line of .223/.300/.343, wRC+ of 74. Despite that tepid production at the plate, he’s still provided value with his speed, as Statcast estimates his glovework to have been worth 7 Outs Above Average in his career. Quinn also has 43 stolen bases in his limited MLB action so far.
The Phillies designated him for assignment at the end of last year, with Quinn eventually electing free agency. He signed a minors deal with the Marlins but returned to the open market after not making the club’s Opening Day roster. A few days later, he went back to the Phillies’ organization on a minor league deal, getting selected back to the big league team in late April. He’s stayed healthy so far this year but still hasn’t found much success at the plate. His batting line in 40 plate appearances this year is currently .162/.225/.189, wRC+ of just 20. He’s also struck out in 37.5% of his plate appearances. He was designated for assignment last week, clearing waivers and electing to return to free agency.
Quinn won’t have a clear path back to the big leagues with the Royals immediately, though it’s possible that could change in the coming months. The Royals are currently 18-37, which is the worst record in all of baseball. Although there’s still over six weeks until the trade deadline, they will need an incredible turnaround in that time to avoid the fate of being deadline sellers. The club’s primary outfield consists of Whit Merrifield, Michael A. Taylor and Andrew Benintendi, none of whom have extensive windows of club control. Merrifield is controlled through 2023 with a mutual option for 2024, though he’s unlikely to be moved. He’s been the subject of trade rumors for years but the organization has continued to hold onto him. Given that he’s having the worst season of his career, it’s doubtful the club would suddenly change course and sell while his value is at a low ebb. Benintendi, however, is headed towards free agency at season’s end, while Taylor is controlled through 2023. If the Royals end up pulling the trigger on a trade, they’ll have Quinn on hand as an option to spend some time on the grass in the post-deadline portion of the season.
Certainly the place for him. This team craves speed and Roman provides it.
Nor do they require their players to actually be able to hit.
He’s not an impact bat?
He’ll be able to showcase that speed with his lusty .225 OBP 🙂
His specialty is making the last out in a tied game in the 9th inning. That way he can lead off the 10th on 2nd base.
He needs to go to Juan Pierre University. Get it on the ground…
What a huge disappointment the Royals have been this year. I was thinking they were at worst a .500 ball club with the ceiling of the last wild card spot…instead they are AL Cellar Dwellers. At this point, they might as well blow it up and start over (again). They need to move/release Santana and bring up the kids. At least Witt is getting MLB experience this year; they need to do more of this with their promising prospects.
The Royals position players are loaded. Nothing wrong there. And they have so many kids up they can’t get them all playing time.
The Royals record is bad because their pitching is abysmal. It’s not that many of their young pitchers don’t have talent. Pitchers do take longer to adjust to the majors than position players. However, watching those guys pitch and seeing the results after the manager and coaches have worked with other pitchers on their ML roster the past 3-4 years, expecting multiple pitchers to become dominant in the future is probably not in the cards.
Two other things…..
1. A team does not have their record because their primary 1B is having a bad year (they have 3 other guys on the ML roster that play 1B).
2. The pitching results are especially concerning because they play in a pitchers park with a quality defense – no matter who they put in the line-up each day (the main reason Zack Greinke gave for signing there). There isn’t one below average defender on their ML roster…..and almost all are above average defenders.
Might want to look at an article in the East Bay Times as to how the Giants pitching coaches revamped Jakob Junis’ approach to pitching revolving around his slider when they signed him.
Royals worked with him for 5 years. While it’s a small sample size, I don’t recall him having the sort of success he’s had so far in 2022. The general pitching statistics show that.
Point being: The SF Giants have one of the best pitchers coaching staffs in MLB. The Royals staff just seem to flail away trying different things with their pitchers.
Good coaching is very underrated in this sport. What these small market teams should be doing is investing in good coaches and just pick up the cheapest players possible and they could end up having good teams.
Super small sample size, and yet another injury, but Andrew Heaney from Angels to Dodgers is another remarkable transformation. Again, very small sample size.
The pitching woes can be traced to one root cause. Walks. This staff gives out more free passes than a timeshare convention.
What General Sherm needs to do is fire Dayton Moore. Then Mike Matheney. Then Cal Eldred. Then JJ Picollo. Then Lonnie Goldberg. Then Gene Watson. And do it yesterday. Moore and his regime are a disgrace to Major League Baseball, the city of Kansas City, and the fine folks whom still choose to root for their team, despite the ?leadership? in place. Sixteen seasons guiding the Royals and only three of them above .500. Sprinkle three 100 loss seasons in there as well. Royals fans are pissed. I’m one of them. Go to Royals Review to read Moore*.
Exactly. I’ve been wanting this to happen for years, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen. I hope more Royals fans do the same as I’ve been doing and get more into football (or a different sport) and not pay attention to the Royals so that Sherman loses money and finally realizes that having a good team is important.
Get Roman
Roman is an interesting player. Has never played more than 92 games in his 11 year career. Yet has as played in the majors in 6 of them.
Roman Quinn is a slightly slower, more injury-prone version of Billy Hamilton. The speed tempts you so much. You desperately want it to work. In the end, though, he just doesn’t get on enough to make the speed usable.
Plus, Roman Quinn is one of the most talented players I’ve ever seen at getting injured. Why no more than 92 games in a season? He’s good for a minimum of 2 IL stints each season. It’s a guaranteed that he’ll be injured. The question is when, for how long, and what did he do to himself this time.