The Royals signed Kevin Padlo to a minor league contract. The deal was announced by Kansas City’s Double-A team in Northwest Arkansas, where the infielder will report in his new organization.
It’s a bit of a step down for Padlo, who had been in Triple-A after signing an offseason minor league deal with the Dodgers. Los Angeles released him last week following a middling .216/.340/.380 start to the season. The 27-year-old has had better Triple-A numbers in prior years. He went into 2024 with a career .251/.348/.461 line at the level.
Padlo has played in the majors for five different teams over parts of three seasons. His high in games played for any individual team is nine; he has appeared in 26 contests overall. He’s a .111/.158/.167 hitter in an exceedingly small sample of 57 MLB plate appearances. Padlo has shown a patient approach and decent raw power in the minors, though that’s always come with a fair number of strikeouts. He has fanned in 26.6% of his more than 1500 Triple-A plate appearances.
This guy and Yu Chang will be popping up on this site for another decade.
He is the kind of player who should tell his agent to find him a deal in Japan or Korea, get some time away from the US to make some money and, if he has a good season or two there, get his reputation as a AAA only player reset.
Dude is a banger