The Royals released Nelson Velázquez this afternoon. The news was announced by their Triple-A affiliate in Omaha. The club also announced that they’ve activated Cavan Biggio, suggesting the veteran infielder has agreed to accept the minor league assignment after being optioned over the weekend. Velázquez had already been outrighted off Kansas City’s 40-man roster during Spring Training, so this does not impact the MLB roster count.
Velázquez landed with Kansas City in an under-the-radar deadline trade in 2023. The Royals took a flier on the power-hitting outfielder while dealing reliever José Cuas to the Cubs in a one-for-one swap. Both players had some success early on with their new organizations, but it proved fleeting in each case.
The 26-year-old Velázquez drilled 14 home runs in his first 40 games as a Royal. He hit .233 with a .299 on-base percentage, though the power jolt was enough for him to open the ’24 season as Matt Quatraro’s primary designated hitter. Velázquez was unable to maintain anything close to the pace of his previous year. He managed eight longballs in a career-high 230 plate appearances. His already middling batting average and on-base marks each went in the wrong direction. He finished the season with a .200/.274/.366 batting line while striking out nearly 27% of the time.
Velázquez has been unable to turn things around early this year. He hit .208 in 12 Spring Training games and was batting .202/.298/.377 across 131 plate appearances in Omaha. Velázquez is averaging a robust 92.5 MPH on his batted balls in the minors, but he’s striking out in over a quarter of his trips while hitting a lot of infield pop-ups. He doesn’t have much to fall back on beyond the power, as he’s a poor defensive outfielder who has spent more time as a DH this year. He’ll presumably look for another minor league opportunity elsewhere.
I have no idea what happened to Velasquez as I thought he was going to be good once. I heard he ate himself out of the league after he left the Cubs. Anybody else see that or hear that?
He was good once. I remember when he hit a grand slam against the Mariners to give the Cubs the lead in a game they were losing by seven at one point.
Pretty sure the pitcher was Chris Flexen.
That was his once.
Steelers6X- If he hit 14 HR’s in his first 40 games he might have been good more than once. The bulk up thing sounds like it might be real. Probably they tried to change him by making him swing up more. IDK either way but I just thought he had a chance to be more than average.
April 11th, 2023
3-1 count btm of the 3rd
Chris Flexen on the mount. The grand slam made it 8-7
He kind of did what ketel marte did by bulking up but bulking up made him strikeout more and that’s what ended him
I liked him too. I wonder if he started overswinging for homers in that big park.
I’m so glad I held off on getting a custom jersey that had Morelquez on the back for Morel and Luis Vasquez. It could’ve worked for Velasquez too.
Say… whatever happened to all of the Felipe Vazquez jerseys? Or the Omar Visquel jerseys?
He’s probably gonna sad eat when he reads this comment, but instead of that I hope he finds the release an inspiration and finds his groove and makes it back to the bigs. With someone else,perhaps, the Rockies and White Sox, as they are down on their luck recently.
Padres could give him a look!
The Royals have a hitting coach Alec Zumwalt and 2 assistant hitting coaches… “Too many cooks in the kitchen” as one might say.
I wonder if Pratto might be next