The latest move in a busy Royals offseason brought veteran second baseman/left fielder Adam Frazier to Kansas City on a one-year deal. Though Frazier has a long track record as an everyday player, Kansas City general manager J.J. Picollo suggested following the signing that Michael Massey will still be the regular second baseman, with Frazier operating in more of a utility role (link via Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star).
“[Massey] needs to be a big part of our team, and we shared that with [Frazier] last week,” Picollo stated. The second-year K.C. GM stressed the importance of being up-front with a veteran like Frazier about the role he’d likely be stepping into. That, it seems, won’t be an everyday one. Picollo noted that with his defensive versatility, Frazier “can protect us, so to speak, in a lot of ways.”
Massey, who’ll turn 26 in March, has logged significant big league time in each of the past two seasons but has yet to solidify himself as a productive big league hitter. Selected by the Royals in the fourth round of the 2019 draft, Massey breezed through the minors. He’s a .293/.355/.503 hitter in the minors overall, and he slashed an impressive .312/.371/.532 between Double-A and Triple-A in 2022 before getting his first call to the big leagues.
Unfortunately for both Massey and the Royals, that level of output hasn’t carried over to the big leagues. The lefty-swinging second baseman has appeared in 181 games over the past two seasons and turned in a middling .233/.284/.379 slash. Massey didn’t walk at prolific rates in the minors, but his 5.2% walk rate in 655 MLB plate appearances is clearly lacking. He’s popped 19 home runs and struck out at a slightly lower-than-average 21.5% clip, but his 88.8 mph exit velocity and 38.7% hard-hit rate are both a bit shy of league average.
To his credit, Massey improved down the stretch in 2023. His second-half batting line of .237/.271/.434 still sits well below average, but he cut his strikeout rate from a glaring 28.2% in 200 first-half plate appearances to 15.4% in 228 second-half trips to the plate. Massey reduced his chase rate on pitches off the plate, greatly improved his contact rate on pitches within the zone and generally swung through fewer pitches. The overall quality of his contact didn’t improve much, but the frequency of it did. Were it not for a .238 average on balls in play in that stretch of 228 plate appearances, the second half of his season would likely look a whole lot better.
The 2024 season will be an important one for Massey. He’s still relatively young, heading into his age-26 season, but with another year of comparable production to what he’s already displayed at the MLB level, it’ll be far more difficult for the Royals to continue with him in a prominent role. To that end, that’s one of the areas in which Frazier affords the team some of the “protection” mentioned by Picollo. Frazier’s own production has dropped off since his Pirates days, but last year’s .240/.300/.396 is better across the board than Massey’s was.
Frazier also offers some protection against an uncertain outfield group. MJ Melendez is another once-promising Royals farmhand who’s yet to hit in the big leagues. Free agent signee Hunter Renfroe hits lefties far better than righties. The hope is surely for him to patrol right field on an everyday basis, but if Renfroe struggles, Frazier does have nearly 400 career innings in right field. He also provides the Royals with injury depth for each of Massey, Melendez and Renfroe.
It’s hard to see how this leaves any role, or even a spot on the opening day roster for Nick Loftin.
Right? He showed a lot of promise and performed and this is how they reward him? By blocking him with a part-time vet and a guy who has struggled for two years.
If I’m a Royals fan, I don’t really care how hard the homers are hit or how fast they get out of the stadium — I care that 19 DO get out. If his velocities are slightly slower than average, so what, really? Or am I missing something? Serious question, not snark.
Larry
“Or am I missing something? Serious question, not snark.”
This is about trying to predict the future.
If a guy hit a lot of home runs in one season, and hits the ball hard. It’s more likely he’ll hit lots of home runs in future seasons than if he hit a lot of home runs, but didn’t hit the ball very hard.
And vice versa.
Makes sense.
Exit velocity equals power. Even if it’s a line drive or grounder, if you scorch one, you have a better chance at a base hit, and potentially not hitting into an easy double play.
This explanation makes no sense. So, the Royals are paying Frazier 4.5M to sit on the bench and watch Massey play second base? This is Kansas City where they squeeze every dollar till George Washington squeals.
He’s a nice utility piece that will more than likely end up getting a lot of playing time when inevitably one of our young position players struggle. As a Royals fan, it’s not flashy but it raises the floor enough for me to not be upset with this type of move. At least piccollo seems to be trying to put together a group that resembles a major league team.
Frazier and Massey were so similar in production, it doesn’t raise the floor at all. It just makes the floor sturdier, and unlikely to drop.
It was a dumb signing but I think they’re going to move on from Massey sooner rather than later. If the right deal materialized I think they’d trade him now, but I think they’re prepared to bench him if he starts cold. I would give Loftin a shot or at least platoon Frazier/Loftin at some point this season
Still seems like precursor to a trade to me. One or more of Massey, Melendez, Velazquez or even Garcia for pitching.
Fewer things grind my gears than this..lol
When most advanced stats clearly state a player is consistently making weak contact, but then someone alludes to their low BABIP as them being “unlucky.”
They weren’t unlucky, their quality of the contact they were making was very poor; therefore, it was NOT unlucky that they hit into a bunch of easy outs and driving down their BABIP.
That’s like saying a batter with a high batting average, a high line drive percentage, and a high hard hit percentage is lucky because he carries a pretty high BABIP…Ummm no, when that batter does make contact, he’s clearly just knocking the crap out of the ball. It isn’t rocket science…lol
It’s just a misuse of statistics based off of someone making assumptions being lazy and ignorant.
Now, when a batter has any combination of the following: high line drive percentage, high hard hit percentage, high barrel rate, or a high average exit velocity, but he then has a low BABIP, then THAT does mean he’s likely getting a bit unlucky..
There’s obviously several individual cases where it isn’t so black and white, but this whole so and so is either lucky or unlucky using their BABIP is waaaay overused and typically not even analyzed properly…
For the record, I’m not necessarily talking about the passage above, it just reminded me of it.
Thank you for anyone who took the time to read this, but it was more or less just to get it off my chest…lol
I will now hear Chris Sabat’s voice as the GM of the Kansas City Royals.