The Royals announced they’ve designated outfielder Dairon Blanco for assignment. That’s the necessary 40-man roster move to finalize their one-year deal with Starling Marte, which is official.
Blanco has been a depth outfielder in Kansas City for the past four seasons. He played in nearly half the team’s games between 2023-24 but wasn’t much of a factor last year. Blanco got into nine contests and only took eight plate appearances at the major league level. He went 1-6 with a double while stealing three bases in five attempts.
The 32-year-old (33 in April) missed the first six weeks of the season battling Achilles tendinopathy in his right foot. He returned to health in mid-May and spent the majority of the year on optional assignment. The Cuba native batted .253/.332/.405 with eight homers across 294 plate appearances in Triple-A. He stole 32 bags while getting cut down just three times over 77 games.
A right-handed hitter, Blanco has league average numbers (.257/.312/.416) over 285 MLB plate appearances. The Royals have seemingly been skeptical that’d remain the case over a larger sample. Kansas City outfielders had an MLB-worst .225/.285/.348 batting line last season. Although the outfield has been an issue for the better part of a decade, the Royals never gave Blanco much of a starting opportunity.
They had kept him on the big league roster for the second half of 2023 and all of ’24 as a bench piece. Blanco’s top-of-the-scale wheels made him an asset as a pinch runner. He went 55-67 in stolen base tries over that season and a half. Blanco entered 48 games as a pinch runner. No one else in MLB reached even 20 pinch-running appearances over those two full seasons.
Kansas City has five days to trade Blanco or place him on waivers. He still has a pair of minor league options remaining. He’s on the older side for a player whose game is built so much around his legs, as he didn’t depart his home country until he was 23 and made his MLB debut at 29.
I really like Blanco, but Marte will be a much better player for the Royals this year. Maybe they can sign Blanco to a minor league deal again down the road. He could be a good player in time.
I thought they’d DFA Drew Waters instead of Blanco.
Used up, and thrown to the side like roadkill. Sherman has changed. His focus is now on the stadium development and no longer making the Royals a family friendly, player friendly organization.
Or, hear me out, maybe he wants players that can get on base and not a soon to be 33 year old pinch runner.
It’s a baseball team, not a cub scout pack.
What am I missing here?
Used very little, only 287 PAs over four seasons, but has been a league average hitter….99 wRC+.
He has hammered lefties…137 wRC+…and did so in the minors.
81% success rate on stolen base attempts.
Can play all three outfield positions.
All while playing for an org with a traditionally poor outfield.
I’m not questioning dropping him now. But why on earth was he never used consistently as a short side platoon bat in KC?
Lefties make up only 28% of starting pitching. His playing time in ’23 & ’24 begins to approach that. And he’s not just weaker against RHers, he’s horrid. Teams don’t have a lot of sue for players like that.
In 2023 KC outfielders combined for a 79 wRC+ vs LHP…28th out of 30 teams.
In 2024 a combined 68 wRC+…29th.
Last year a combined 67…tied for dead last.
Blanco was hurt last year, but in the two previous years, he had only 111 combined PAs vs LHP…even though he crushed them.
This sure looks like misused assets.
Maybe some teams would have had no use for a player like Blanco, but KC? How could they not have used him?
KC, there’s an OF to add to your lack of offense production. Wait… opps
Blanco had one huge game in 2024 against the Reds where he hit two dingers and had three or four hits overall, but other than that game, he didn’t have too many highlights outside of stolen bases for the Royals. He’s a pretty bad defender, so he wasn’t used as a defensive replacement.
As a Royals fan, I like Blanco and think he’s a great story. But between him and Waters getting DFA’d, I’m not sure it makes much of a difference. Waters is likely to go sometime before ST is finished.
Strange that he had 2 option years left. Guess they really didn’t want to cut anyone else from the 40 man. Feel like a contender gonna claim and stash in AAA til playoffs.
So basically KC is having a white sale.
Yankees will pick him up. Righty outfield with great splits against lefties with plus speed.