The Royals’ Opening Day roster has begun to come into focus, as the Royals recently optioned first baseman Nick Pratto, outfielder Drew Waters, and catcher Austin Nola to the minor leagues. Those positional cuts from camp helped to clarify the club’s bench mix, as manager Matt Quatraro told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anne Rogers) yesterday that infielder Nick Loftin and outfielder Dairon Blanco have both made the club’s Opening Day roster. Blanco will slot into a reserve outfielder role behind MJ Melendez, Kyle Isbel, Hunter Renfroe, and Nelson Velazquez. Meanwhile, Loftin will step into a bench role previously ticketed for veteran Adam Frazier, who is set to become the club’s Opening Day second baseman with Michael Massey expected to begin the season on the injured list due to lower back tightness.
It’s an unfortunate development for Massey, who celebrated his 26th birthday earlier this week. The infielder was the club’s everyday option at the keystone last year and performed well on defense but struggled with the bat throughout the season. The youngster showed signs of life in the second half, however, slashing a respectable .250/.285/.458 with 11 home runs in 229 trips to the plate over his final 60 games in 2023. That display left him in line to receive the lion’s share of playing time at second once again this year even after the Royals added Frazier and Garrett Hampson in free agency. Now that Massey is set to begin the season on the shelf, however, Frazier will have the opportunity to play his way into a larger role early in the season. The 32-year-old veteran has been a roughly league average bat consistently throughout his career, with a .269/.331/.393 slash across eight seasons in the big leagues, including a .240/.300/.396 showing with the Orioles last year.
As for the trio of recent cuts, none of them are especially surprising. Pratto appeared unlikely to have a role with the big league club to open the season thanks to first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino’s return from labrum surgery and Nelson Velazquez’s emergence as a credible slugger at DH. Waters, similarly, is the odd man out in the club’s crowded outfield mix. Both former top prospects will open the season at Triple-A, providing them an opportunity to receive regular reps they couldn’t get with the big league Royals. Nola starting the season in the minors is hardly a surprise, either, as he joined the club on a split contract that was seemingly designed to allow him to be a backup to Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin at the Triple-A level.
More from around the AL Central…
- The White Sox recently dealt right-hander Dylan Cease after months of rumors and speculation, shipping him to the Padres in exchange for a prospect package headlined by Drew Thorpe. Club GM Chris Getz recently spoke to Scott Merkin of MLB.com about the trade and noted that San Diego was one of two clubs who made “significant offers,” with Merkin reporting that the Rangers were the second place finisher for Cease’s services. Getz also made clear that the sides did not engage in extension negotiations amid the winter’s trade rumors, adding that while the club would have “loved” to keep Cease in the fold long term, he felt such an arrangement “wasn’t realistic.” That’s somewhat understandable, as Chicago suffered a 101-loss season last year and appears to have a long way to go before contending again, even in a relatively weak AL Central division. Given that reality, it would’ve been surprising to see the club commit to the sort of significant outlay that would have been required to retain the runner-up for the 2022 AL Cy Young award.
- Tigers youngster Sawyer Gipson-Long once appeared likely to compete with other youngsters such as Casey Mize, Reese Olson, and Matt Manning for a role in the club’s starting rotation alongside Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, and Kenta Maeda. Unfortunately for Gipson-Long, he’s been nursing a left groin strain throughout camp that, as noted by Evan Woodbery of the Detroit Free Press, will lead to him opening the season on the injured list. Gipson-Long, who the club acquired at the 2022 trade deadline in exchange for right-hander Michael Fulmer, made his big league debut late in the season last year and impressed during four starts in the majors. In 20 innings of work, the right-hander posted a 2.70 ERA with a 3.16 FIP while striking out an excellent 31.7% of batters faced. With Mize and Olson now set to start the season in the rotation, Gipson-Long figures to head to Triple-A Toledo once healthy, where he’ll provide Detroit with quality rotation depth alongside Matt Manning and wait for an opportunity in the big leagues.
An eventual rotation of deGrom, Scherzer, Cease, Eovaldi and Gray would have been insane.
And having Mahle, Heaney, Dunning and Bradford as your #5-9 starters. That would have been a pretty epic rotation, for sure.
From a Tigers fan’s perspective, Toledo’s rotation might be fun: Manning better sees to improve his stuff (and his SO%), Gipson-Long already had a good stint after being called up plus Madden, Montero and Hurter are good to solid prospects each. At some point during the season, Jobe might join them – we will see how much hype will surround him then.
Gruß,
BSHH
… and while I was writing this, I forgot about Wilmer Flores (the pitcher). He will claim another AAA rotation spot for sure.
Gruß,
BSHH
Faedo will probably be there too since Wentz is out of options.
Flores will probably be in Toledo too.
Tigers appear to have 5 solid starters down in Toledo who can step in at any time. spot start, 27th man for double headers….not to mention injuries.
Corporal Klinger supports this message!
If I recall I believe Gibson-Long was acquired in the 2022 trade with Milwaukee for Daniel Norris not from the Twins for Michael Fullmer
You’d recall incorrectly. He was a Twins draftee traded for Fulmer.
Reese Olson came from the brewer
Its amazing how Avila was able to acquire pitching in minor trades; Lange, Gibson-Long, Olsen, Wentz were all no names when acquired. They just shouldn’t have let him sign free agents. Surprising that no team has tabbed him to lead their minor league system or head their scouting.
You are absolutely right. AA’s weakness was evaluating major league talent. He was also suppose to be good at Latin American free agent signings….which has yet to show any results.
Wentz and Lange were both first round picks. So far from no names. Avila was terrible at trading his stars for talent. Look at what he gave up and only getting one MLB regular in return in Jake Rogers. He traded away JD, JV, Kinsler, and Upton.
Your idiocy continues STYMEEDONE! Al Avila shouldn’t be let near anyone’s front office. I can say that being friends with Avila’s nephew. He agrees. I’m sure with your wishy washy hatred of Scott Harris, you’d love the Tigers to fire him and rehire Avila as their president.
Plus, Mr. Genius STYMEEDONE, It’s Olson, not Olsen!
Hi Al (stymeedone). Still trolling these comments looking for a job because no one will hire you?
@misunderestimated – good one, you nailed STYMEEDONE but good! My kind of commenter!
Target Harris to the Mets. Rehire Al.
In addition to your “Olsen” gaffe, throw in Gipson-Long, not Gibson-Long, STYMEEDONE! You call yourself a knowledgeable Tiger fan? You can’t even spell their names! Your reputation is mud. Get off this forum, low IQ Avila lover, Harris hater!
Personally, I believe if fans weren’t so passive the team would have made more of an accelerated effort to put forth a winner.
For the past 10 years…..
Not signing guys to trade, that takes money…..
A constant parade of accolades for prospects…..
No taking on of bad contract for prospects….
No hot dog specials…..
We haven’t had free beer since 1875 when all the greedy rich people took over…..
Fans shouldn’t have to tolerate the abuse….
Whipping boys like Harris come and go, fandom is forever!
Does Toledo have a better rotation than…Oakland?
Certainly better than the White Sox or the Mets.
In exchange for 2+ months of Daniel Norris, the Tigers obtained Reese Olson!
Then got Norris back later anyway. What a kick in the teeth for Milwaukee!
Where’s Matt Boyd these days speaking of Norris….they came together in the Price trade to Toronto.
Good question…he is out for the year I would assume, since he had TJ surgery late last year. He may have to wait until next year and be a minor league signing as a reclamation project.
Probably pitching with Daniel Norris still
Savannah Bananas always need some arms
Cease will be just avg in SD, He can’t make it out of 5th inning. This should be fun with better defense though.
You guys do this all the time.
You get so overwhelmed with hope and exagerate. 160lbs and 3.99 Era. Ice in viens, whoopdeedoo.
Baddoo hit 2 hrs in a week. He was Mickey Mantle.
The media %100 pushed the narrative. Here again, distract the gullible from the reality.
I hope they both do well. But geez. I wish you guys weren’t so passive and put more pressure on the FO to go for it.
The team has great potential. I believe they could have just slam dunked, put it away.
Good for Reece. I hope he aces it this year.
*Reese
Deeds is incompetent. There should never be a comma before “either.” Plus, this is terrible syntax and incorrect punctuation:
“Waters, similarly, is the odd man out in the club’s crowded outfield mix.“
“Similarly” has to START the sentence.
I would like to see him cite to some evidence when he makes statements like Frazier is set to be the Royals opening day second baseman. Did the manager say that or is Deeds guessing? It seems like the Royals might want to keep Frazier in the role he was hired to fill and give Loftin (their number 2 prospect) the shot at starting while Massey is out.
Why should MLBTR hire editors when they have people like you who work for free?
So sloppy writing gets corrected before it’s posted.
Because they don’t actually correct the articles. You the editors shouldn’t be paid?