The Royals announced Thursday that they’ve recalled top first base prospect Nick Pratto from Triple-A Omaha as one of eight players joining the Major League roster. Also coming to the Majors are catcher Sebastian Rivero, infielder Maikel Garcia and lefty Angel Zerpa, who’ve been recalled from Double-A Arkansas. Additionally, the Royals selected the contracts of infielder/outfielder Nate Eaton, catcher Freddy Fermin, outfielder Brewer Hicklen and infielder Michael Massey from Omaha.
The deluge of additions comes in conjunction with the previously announced slate of ten current Royals heading to the restricted list in advance of the team’s road series against the Blue Jays, where travel restrictions prevent unvaccinated athletes from entering Canada. Andrew Benintendi, Dylan Coleman, Hunter Dozier, Cam Gallagher, Kyle Isbel, Brad Keller, MJ Melendez, Whit Merrifield, Brady Singer and Michael A. Taylor are all now formally on the restricted list.
As MLB.com’s Anne Rogers tweets, the roster spots of starting pitchers placed on the restricted list (i.e. Singer, Keller) cannot be filled until four days after they last pitched, per MLB rules, which explains the discrepancy between eight players being added versus the ten who went on the restricted list.
The Royals indicated in today’s announcement that they expect to add “up to two more players” to the big league roster over the course of the series. They’ll make another addition tomorrow and another on Sunday. Any players whose contracts were selected to the 40-man roster for this series can be returned to Triple-A without first needing to clear waivers, due to their status as Covid-19-related replacements.
Pratto’s promotion is the most notable of the bunch. The 14th overall pick in the 2017 draft, the California high school product slowly progressed up the minor league ladder. He had an awful 2019 showing in High-A, and the cancelation of the following minor league season dealt his prospect stock a hit heading into 2021. The lefty hitter rebounded in a huge way last year, blasting 36 home runs in a season split between the minors top two levels. That came with some alarming strikeout numbers, but Pratto’s combination of power and huge walk totals was enough to put him firmly in top prospect consideration. He entered the season as Baseball America’s #43 overall farmhand.
Assigned to Omaha to open this year, Pratto has essentially picked up where he left off. He’s hit 17 more longballs and drawn walks at a massive 15.1% clip, but he’s fanned in over 30% of his trips to the plate. The end result — a .240/.374/.484 line through 337 plate appearances — is still excellent. The Royals nevertheless brought up fellow top prospect Vinnie Pasquantino ahead of Pratto, seemingly preferring he get a long leash to iron out the strikeout concerns in the upper minors. It’s very possible he’ll head back to Omaha after the Jays’ series, but Kansas City fans will at least get their first glimpse at a player they hope eventually develops into a middle-of-the-order bat.
It’ll almost certainly be a brief stint for the group of players temporarily added to the 40-man roster. Hicklen was called up briefly as a COVID replacement earlier in the season. Fermin, Massey and Eaton all have opportunities to make their big league debuts in the coming days. Fermin, a former international signee out of Venezuela, is hitting .242/.357/.422 with Omaha this season.
Massey, a fourth-round pick out of Illinois in 2019, was recently named the #8 prospect in the Kansas City system by Baseball America. He owns a .348/.408/.630 line with six homers in 24 games since being bumped up to Omaha last month, and he’ll almost certainly land a permanent 40-man roster spot by next offseason (when Kansas City would need to add him to keep him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft). Eaton is a former 21st-round pick out of VMI. BA recently slotted him 29th in the farm system in recognition of his .329/.388/.591 showing with the Storm Chasers.
Their tinfoil hats made it through customs I believe.
good for FermĂn to finally get a shot
A shot at the big leagues or the vax?
That was lol funny c-daddy
A double edged sword. Quicker path to the bigs but spend too much time in the clubhouse and maybe you accidentally kill grandma.
I like pratto I thi k he will be a decent big leaguer
And make a all star game once or twice. Big arm, nice power, great wheels for a 1b and enough to play OF corners. If he threw R hes prob a 3b
Nick Pratto is gonna be a really good player in the MLB! Tough way to get your 1st chance in the MLB but glad he was smart enough to get vaccinated to get this chance. Take advantage of it Nick!!!
You don’t have to be smart to take the vaccine, but…
Joke of a franchise
More 162 game championships than the Yankees and Dodgers combined the last 10 years
As many championships as the dodgers the past ten years tho.
I don’t consider 60 game championships the same 1988 since they won a real won
I’m curious why? It’s honestly dumb that people don’t see it as a championship even though every team went through the same issues, ran through the same postseason, and it was all recognized by the league.
Because 60 games isn’t even half a season, in a game which is designed to earn it over the long haul of the daily grind. 2020 was a sprint compared to the marathon of most every other season. It counts cuz it has to but to say that 2020 was the same as winning it any other year, isn’t the same thing or even close imo.
Not really not every team gets a half billion local tv money to blow every year..the Dodgers and Yankees get more than everyone else and still fall short waaaaaaay too much
Plus there is the fact that they did not have to play on the road or in front of fans. That can be a huge deciding factor in playoff games.. Those cardboard cutouts were kind of cute, but in reality that postseason was NOTHING like a real postseason.
More teams should go with the Royals strategy. Be bad for 20 years and at some point enough high draft picks will work out. Sign me up as a GM!
Should be interesting to see how the Omaha Royals perform this weekend!
Bunch of double A guys too
Watch the Jays blow it
Read headline without glasses. Thought it said Nick Punto.
Don’t rule it out when you need this many replacement players
You can both dislike Canada’s rules and acknowledge that it’s within their right to make them. Not rocket science people.
I think acknowledging the fact that the US has the same rules is also important.
Jays would be at a bigger disadvantage had any of their players been unvaxxed.
I agree, though I do think a lot of people don’t know this. I didn’t know either until I heard about the situation with Novak Djokovic and the US Open. Some woln’t care, but I do believe some people simply aren’t knowledgeable of this.
I am disgusted…that KC didn’t call me up as a fill-in. That’s it, I’ve had it, I hereby announce my retirement effective immediately.
Hmmmppphhh!!
Based on their performance since 2000 – you were probably an upgrade. 🙂
As the great Tommy Lasorda once said.. “you couldn’t hit water if you fell out if a boat”.
This as a not a pro- or anti-vax comment, but more of an observation about how certain organizations approach vaccinations. Teams like the Astros, Yankees, Dodgers and others have very high vaccination rates, and I’m sure they had very good education programs to brief and to answer questions from their players. Ten players on the Royals not being vaccinated this late indicates an organizational approach/issue to me.
It certainly speaks volumes about the mentality within the Royals’ clubhouse.
The players on teams like the Yankees, Astros, and Dodgers are willing to give 100% (in the Astros case – willing to epically cheat) to make sure they win every game.
There’s a reason that the Royals – despite 2 World Series appearances – rank 30th in MLB in wins since 2000.
Freddy Fermin and Freddie Freeman are mortal enemies.
I’m curious what the vax rate on the Royals would have been had they been in the same contending situation as the Dodgers, Astros, and Yankees. Merrifield even alluded to this. Basically. Why until you’re forced by whatever risk analysis a player wants to make.
Whole Royals team got Wally Pipped tonight lmao.
wally pipp means that a player came in and took his spot and excelled I seriously doubt that will happen
Well, they did win with the Replacements. I think that was Darkside’s point. Just a joke . . . maybe.
The Blue Jays should be embarrassed that they lost, at home, with their big money ace on the mound to a lineup that’s two most experienced hitters were Nicky Lopez and Ryan O’Hearn
be hilarious if they swept Toronto.