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AL Notes: Bubic, Greene, Brnovich

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The Royals announced yesterday that they optioned left-hander Kris Bubic to Triple-A Omaha, with righty Jonathan Heasley taking his spot on the active roster.

Over the past couple of years, Bubic seemed to be establishing himself as a solid, if unspectacular, part of the club’s rotation. Over 2020 and 2021, he made 30 starts and nine appearances out of the bullpen, throwing 180 innings with a 4.40 ERA. His 21% strikeout rate, 10.4% walk rate and 46.8% ground ball rate were all within a few points of league average. However, just about everything has gone in the wrong direction this year, as his ERA is currently at 12.83, with his strikeout rate dropping to 14.7%, his walk rate jumping to 16.2% and his grounder rate sinking to 38.3%. He’ll now head to Omaha and try to get the train back on the tracks. Despite having over two years of MLB service time now, he’s still just 24 years old and has plenty of time to recover.

The team is off to a disappointing 10-19 start. Although Bubic and Carlos Hernandez have struggled in the rotation, the club’s biggest weakness so far has been the bats. The team-wide slash line of .216/.282/.308 amounts to a wRC+ of 76, dead last in the majors.

Some other notes from the American League…

  • During Spring Training, it seemed like the Tigers were poised to have their top two prospects crack the Opening Day roster. In the end, first baseman Spencer Torkelson followed through, but outfielder Riley Greene couldn’t make it after fracturing his foot just a few days before the opener. It seems he could be nearing a return to the field, with Jason Beck of MLB.com relaying word from manager A.J. Hinch that Greene is about to resume baseball activities. The club is out to a miserable 9-23 start, a worse record than every team except for the Cincinnati Reds. The primary culprit has been the offense, with Austin Meadows the only Tiger having a wRC+ higher than 101 in more than 50 plate appearances. There’s no guarantee a young player will hit the ground running in his first taste of MLB action, as evidenced by Torkelson’s .146/.276/.258 line, but it’s possible that Greene could provide a boost based on his .308/.400/.553 line in Triple-A last year. Since the demotion of Akil Baddoo, the outfield mix consists of Meadows, Willi Castro, Derek Hill and Robbie Grossman. With Grossman approaching free agency at season’s end, he’s a likely trade candidate, unless the Tigers can vault themselves back into contention over the next few months.
  • The Orioles announced that pitching prospect Kyle Brnovich underwent Tommy John surgery this week, as relayed by Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Brnovich was drafted by the Angels and traded to the Orioles as part of the Dylan Bundy deal before pitching for his original organization. Last year, he logged 95 innings across High-A and Double-A with a 3.32 ERA, 31.5% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate. Based on that strong season, he’s now considered the #30 prospect in the organization by Baseball America and #17 by FanGraphs. He started the year in Triple-A but was only able to throw eight innings before being shut down. He’ll now miss the remainder of this season, but could be pushing for a rotation spot in the second half of next year, given the usual 12-18 month recovery time from the procedure. Even with this setback, the club’s future rotation picture is starting to look better. Bruce Zimmermann, Tyler Wells and Kyle Bradish are showing signs of promise in the early going, to varying degrees, with prospects Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall pitching well in Triple-A and surely nearing their MLB debuts.

Royals Place Carlos Santana On 10-Day Injured List

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First baseman Carlos Santana has been placed on the Royals’ 10-day injured list due to right ankle bursitis.  Emmanuel Rivera was called up from Triple-A to take Santana’s spot on the active roster.

Kansas City manager Mike Matheny told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anne Rogers) that Santana suffered the injury while running the bases in Monday’s game, and continued soreness caused Santana to be a late scratch from Tuesday’s lineup.  No specific timeline was suggested for Santana’s return, but he might not be out of action too far beyond the 10-day minimum.

While it seems as though Santana has escaped a serious injury, the absence is still unlucky, as Rogers notes that Santana has finally started to produce at the plate.  The veteran slugger’s four-game hitting streak is pretty modest, yet it still stands out as a positive sign after Santana hit only .104/.307/.188 over his first 62 plate appearances.  After signing a two-year, $17.5MM free agent deal with the Royals in the 2020-21 offseason, Santana has still yet to get on track in a K.C. uniform, as he struggled through an injury-hampered 2021 campaign.

Hunter Dozier or Ryan O’Hearn are probably the likeliest candidates to fill in at first base during Santana’s absence.  Top prospect Nick Pratto is hitting pretty well at Triple-A, though the Royals might not call Pratto up and start his MLB service clock if Santana is only going to miss a couple of weeks.

Royals Promote MJ Melendez

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The Royals recalled catching prospect MJ Melendez, according to a team announcement.  The move was prompted by an injury to backup catcher Cam Gallagher, who went on the IL with a hamstring strain.

Prior to the season, Baseball America ranked Melendez as the 42nd best prospect in all of baseball.  In a breakout 2021 season, Melendez led all of the minors with 41 home runs.  The problem, of course, is that Melendez is blocked by Salvador Perez, the longtime Royals backstop who crushed a career-best 48 Major League home runs in that same season.  Perez is signed through 2025, with a club option for 2026.

Melendez was off to a slow start in 2022, with a .160/.284/.280 line in 88 Triple-A plate appearances.  He had no such issues at that level last year, hitting .293/.413/.620 in 45 games.  Now, Melendez will get a shot to serve as Perez’s apprentice at the game’s highest level, on the merits of that ’21 season.  Defensively, Melendez draws praise for his plus-plus arm, while Baseball America suggests he “still has work to do with his receiving and blocking behind the plate.”

Perez, who ranked fourth in MLB last year with 1002 2/3 innings caught at age 31, could cede the occasional start to Melendez while the 23-year-old rookie is around.  There’s also the DH spot, which could feature both Melendez and Perez as part of a rotation.  To date, Perez has taken 27% of the club’s DH plate appearances, with only Hunter Dozier having received more.  This year at Triple-A, Melendez has spent a few games at DH and in right field when he hasn’t been catching.  Last year he picked up nine games at third base, and got a look there in spring training this year as well.

Melendez will mark the 13th Baseball America top 100 prospect to make his Major League debut this year, following Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Witt Jr., Spencer Torkelson, C.J. Abrams, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Seiya Suzuki, Matt Brash, Bryson Stott, Jeremy Peña, Heliot Ramos, and MacKenzie Gore.

Royals Place Jake Brentz On 10-Day Injured List

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Prior to tonight’s game, the Royals placed left-hander Jake Brentz on the 10-day injured list due to a left flexor strain.  Righty Matt Peacock was called up from Triple-A Omaha to take Brentz’s spot on the active roster.

The injury adds to what has been a thoroughly disastrous start to Brentz’s 2022 season.  The southpaw has allowed multiple runs in four of his eight outings, and he has been charged with a whopping 10 runs over his last 1 1/3 innings.  Brentz’s most recent appearance on Friday saw him pitch to six Yankees batters without recording an out, leaving the game after allowing five runs (four earned).  For the year, Brentz has a ghastly 23.63 ERA in 5 1/3 total frames.

As per MLB.com, Brentz underwent an MRI Friday that didn’t reveal any structural damage.  Royals manager Mike Matheny told reporters that Brentz had been dealing with the sore arm for some time, which would explain Brentz’s lack of success.

Pitching in his second Major League season, Brentz was looking to build on a successful rookie year that saw him post a 3.66 ERA, 49% grounder rate, and 27.3% strikeout rate in 64 innings out of the Kansas City bullpen.  This was despite some middling hard-contact numbers, and a 13.3% walk rate that ranked among the worst in the league.  Brentz was ticketed for a setup role or possibly even some save opportunities heading into the season, but he’ll likely now be put into low-leverage situations once he returns from the IL and re-establishes his effectiveness.

Peacock joins the Royals just six days after being acquired in a trade from the Diamondbacks, who designated the right-hander last week.  Peacock is also in his second MLB season, debuting with a 4.90 ERA over 86 1/3 innings (starting eight of 35 games) in 2021.  This year, Peacock had only a 6.75 ERA in 2 2/3 frames of work out of Arizona’s relief corps.  As a low-strikeout grounder specialist, Peacock represents an interesting contrast to Brentz’s hard-throwing repertoire, and his past starting experience could allow Kansas City to use him in something of a swingman role.

A’s Claim Domingo Tapia From Royals, Designate Mickey McDonald For Assignment

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The A’s have claimed right-hander Domingo Tapia off of waivers from the Royals and optioned him to Triple-A Las Vegas, the team announced. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Athletics designated Mickey McDonald for assignment.

Tapia, 30, has not appeared with the Royals this season. He appeared with the Royals, Mariners, and Red Sox over the past two seasons, however. Tapia owns a career 2.61 ERA over 38 innings between the three teams, notching most of that experience with the Royals last season.

McDonald, 27, has walked twice but failed to notch a base hit in his first six plate appearances. The switch-hitter doesn’t hit for power, but he did put together a .305/.402/.390 line in 430 plate appearances with Double-A and Triple-A last season. He’s likely to pass through waivers and return to the A’s Triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas.

Adalberto Mondesi Diagnosed With Torn ACL; Brady Singer Optioned To Triple-A

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11:19am: Royals general manager Dayton Moore announced that Mondesi has been diagnosed with a torn ACL (Twitter link via Lewis). That’ll quite likely end his season and, depending on his recovery, perhaps even his tenure with the team. Mondesi will be arbitration-eligible for the final time this winter. He’d likely command a salary similar to this year’s affordable $3MM rate, but coming off a major knee injury, it’s not a lock that he’ll be tendered a contract. The Royals will have the entire season to evaluate him and monitor his recovery before making that call. If he’s progressing well, it’s an eminently reasonable price, but only time will tell how the rehab process goes.

As for Singer, he will indeed be built back up as a starting pitcher in Omaha, Moore added. That could point to a quick turnaround and return to the Majors, assuming all goes well. Singer last pitched on April 26 and threw two innings. It’s feasible that he could make a start in the next few days.

11:15am: The Royals announced a series of roster moves Thursday, most notably optioning right-hander Brady Singer to Triple-A Omaha and placing shortstop Adalberto Mondesi on the 10-day injured list. Outfielder Kyle Isbel and infielder Emmanuel Rivera are up from Omaha in  pair of corresponding moves. Mondesi is dealing with a knee injury, and tests last night revealed some structural damage, per Alec Lewis of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Outside of a brief rehab assignment in 2021, it’ll be the first minor league stint for Singer since 2019, when he was only a year removed from being the No. 18 overall selection in the 2018 draft. Singer made the Royals’ Opening Day roster in 2020 and has been on the big league roster (or injured list) since that time. He looked like a potential fixture in the rotation after a solid rookie showing in 2020, when he pitched to a 4.06 ERA with league-average strikeout and walk rates plus an excellent 53.1% grounder rate in 64 1/3 innings.

The 2021 season didn’t go as smoothly, however. Singer had an up-and-down first half but was generally serviceable prior to the All-Star break, logging a 4.52 ERA in 85 2/3 innings. He was averaging under five innings per appearance, however, and by mid-July his velocity had dipped a bit from its early-season average. Singer was clobbered by the Orioles for seven runs in just two innings on July 17, and the Royals put him on the injured list with shoulder fatigue a couple days later. Singer returned in just under a month, but he didn’t make it through the remainder of the season, as he went back on the injured list in late September with a biceps strain.

Kansas City somewhat surprisingly moved Singer from the rotation to the bullpen this year — a new role for a pitcher who’d started all 39 of his prior big league appearances. The results so far haven’t been great; Singer yielded four runs on seven hits and a walk with six strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. Manager Mike Matheny said at the time the Royals set their Opening Day rotation that the organization still viewed Singer as a starting pitcher in the long term. It’s possible, then, that Singer will get the opportunity to stretch back out and return to the Majors as a starting pitcher. Kansas City has gotten poor results from both Kris Bubic and Carlos Hernandez, which could open the door for Singer or some of the organization’s other young arms to seize a starting job.

Optioning Singer carries implications beyond the right-hander’s immediate role or even beyond the team’s current rotation mix, however. Because Singer broke camp with the Royals in 2020 and was on the roster all last season, he entered the year with exactly two years of MLB service time. He’d need to spend 172 days on the roster in 2022 to reach three years of service and remain on track for free agency following the 2025 season. If Singer spends more than two weeks in the minors, it’ll push that free-agent eligibility back to the 2026-27 offseason. He’d likely still qualify for arbitration as a Super Two player — barring a particularly lengthy stint in Omaha — but the amount of time he spends in the minors will nonetheless be worth monitoring closely.

As for Mondesi, the knee injury is the latest in a long line of ailments that have kept the talented but increasingly fragile infielder out of the lineup. Mondesi has missed time over the past few seasons with oblique, hamstring, groin and, most notably, shoulder injuries. The shoulder issue proved to be particularly costly, as Mondesi twice suffered a subluxation before undergoing surgery that came with a six-month recovery timeline.

Mondesi played in 59 of the Royals’ 60 games in 2020, but overall from 2019-21, he appeared in just 196 of 384 possible games (51%). There’s no clear timetable for just when Mondesi might rejoin the Royals, but the very mention of structural damage portends a potentially significant time away from the lineup.

In the interim, the Royals are deep in middle-infield options. Bobby Witt Jr. has been playing third base with Nicky Lopez at second base, but both are experienced and more than capable shortstops. Whit Merrifield has been lining up in the outfield more often than not this season but could certainly shift back to second base, with Lopez sliding over to shortstop. That setup could open the door for Isbel — an accomplished minor league hitter who’s yet to solidify himself in the big leagues — to get a larger look in the outfield.

Jon Jay Announces Retirement

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Veteran outfielder Jon Jay took to Twitter earlier today to announce his retirement after over a decade in the big leagues.

“As a kid I remember watching SportsCenter highlights and imitating my favorite MLB players,” Jay wrote. “It is still surreal to me that I played Major League Baseball. As I officially retire from the game that changed my life, I want to thank everyone who has played a role in getting me here.”

Jon JayJay, 37, was a second round pick of the Cardinals in 2006 and then made his MLB debut in 2010. He immediately hit the ground running with the contact-oriented approach that would be a trademark of his career. He hit .300/.359/.422, walking in 7.4% of his plate appearances and striking out just 15.5% of the time. That production amounted to a 116 wRC+, or 16% above league average. The next year, he put up a similar line of .297/.344/.424, 115 wRC+, helping the Cardinals qualify for the postseason and eventually win the 2011 World Series.

Jay stuck with the Cardinals for the next four seasons, with the team making the postseason in each of them. His production stayed largely consistent until wrist issues started hampering him in 2015. He underwent surgery prior to that season and then struggled at the plate, hitting .210/.306/.257. After that campaign, he was traded to the Padres for Jedd Gyorko.

He was able to bounce back somewhat in 2016, hitting .291/.339/.389 as a Padre, good enough for a wRC+ of 99. He signed with the Cubs for the 2017 season and had another solid season, hitting .296/.374/.375, 101 wRC+. He went into journeyman mode for the next few years, spending time with the Royals, Diamondbacks, White Sox, D-Backs again, and then the Angels last year, with none of those stints lasting more than 84 games.

In all, Jay played in 1201 games in 12 MLB seasons from 2010 to 2021. He will head into retirement with a lifetime .283/.348/.373 batting line, 37 home runs, 185 doubles, 25 triples, 1,087 total hits, 532 runs scored, 341 runs batted in and 55 stolen bases. He was a solid contributor to an excellent run of Cardinals baseball, earning a World Series ring in the process. MLBTR congratulates him on a fine career and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors.

Royals Acquire Matt Peacock, Designate Domingo Tapia

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The Royals announced that right-hander Matt Peacock has been acquired from the Diamondbacks in exchange for cash considerations.  To make roster space for Peacock, Kansas City has designated righty Domingo Tapia for assignment.

Arizona designated Peacock for assignment earlier this week, and he’ll now head to the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate after spending his entire pro career in the Diamondbacks organization.  A 23rd-round pick in the 2017 draft, Peacock made his Major League debut last season and posted a 4.90 ERA over 86 1/3 innings, starting eight of his 35 appearances.  In 2022, Peacock made two appearances out of Arizona’s bullpen before getting DFA’ed.

Peacock is a grounder specialist who regularly topped the 60% groundball-rate threshold during his time in the minors, and he also has respectable walk totals, though he doesn’t record many strikeouts.  The D’Backs regularly used Peacock as a starter prior to the canceled 2020 minor league season, and he hasn’t recorded a minor league start since (albeit in limited action at Triple-A), so it will be interesting to see how the Royals will opt to deploy the righty.  Conceivably, the Royals might use Peacock in a flexible swingman role depending on their needs, and his grounder-heavy arsenal could be particularly effective on a solid defensive team like K.C.

Tapia’s resume is pretty similar to Peacock, as both are right-handed groundball specialists who pitched in their first big league game in 2020.  Tapia took a longer path than Peacock, as Tapia was an international signing for the Mets back in December 2009.  After long stints in the New York and Cincinnati farm systems, Tapia finally broke into the Show with the Red Sox in 2020, then posted a 2.67 ERA over 33 2/3 combined innings with the Mariners and Royals in 2021.

Over 718 1/3 career innings in the minors, Tapia has a 4.12 ERA and 17.68% strikeout rate.  Tapia has been more or less a full-time reliever since 2018, and his efforts to win a job in the K.C. bullpen this spring were hampered by a lack of control (six walks in 5 1/3 Cactus League innings).

Offseason In Review: Kansas City Royals

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The Royals reunited with one of the best homegrown pitchers in franchise history on the tail end of his Hall of Fame career but were otherwise quiet, as they’re banking on an increasingly MLB-ready set of prospects to drive a return to contention in the AL Central.

Major League Signings

Trades and Claims

Extensions

  • Signed CF Michael A. Taylor to a two-year, $9MM extension (technically just before the end of the regular season; Taylor would have been a free agent)

Notable Minor League Signings

Notable Losses

The Royals got their first couple orders of offseason business done before the regular season had even ended. Longtime general manager Dayton Moore was promoted to president of baseball operations, while longtime assistant GM J.J. Picollo was elevated to the title of general manager. It’s still Moore atop the baseball ops hierarchy, but the pair of promotions made it all the more difficult for other teams to lure the Royals’ top executives away. Kansas City also signed all-world defensive center fielder Michael A. Taylor to an affordable two-year, $9MM extension on Sept. 29 — keeping him from the market and ensuring a continuance of the excellent defense that has been a hallmark of Moore’s best Royals teams.

Though the Royals finished the 2021 season with a 74-88 record, they’d made it clear even dating back to the 2020-21 offseason that the team was intent on moving out of a brief rebuilding phase and shifting to a win-now mindset. Moore had plainly stated as much, and the 2020-21 offseason signings of Mike Minor and Carlos Santana were clear bets on formerly productive veterans that they could return to form and help to mentor an otherwise extremely young Royals roster.

Unfortunately, neither deal paid dividends. Minor posted a second straight ERA north of 5.00, while Santana hit just .214/.319/.342 through 659 plate appearances. Both former All-Stars may have had some sage advice for the Royals’ up-and-coming prospects, but they each quickly went from rebound candidates to struggling veterans now multiple years removed from productivity.

For a Royals club with a deep collection of young starting pitchers and several MLB-ready top prospects on the position-player side of the depth chart, the presence of Minor and Santana quickly became a roadblock. That’s not to say there wasn’t room for a veteran anchor to the rotation, but the Royals clearly felt Minor wasn’t up to the task of shepherding the group in 2022, as they traded him to the Reds in a straight-up swap that brought hard-throwing lefty reliever Amir Garrett to Kansas City.

The trade gave the Royals two years of control over Garrett, a clearly talented but highly inconsistent lefty who, if he can right the ship at Kauffman Stadium, will give manager Mike Matheny a viable high-leverage arm. Command issues have plagued Garrett in the past, but from 2019-20 he pitched to a combined 3.03 ERA while striking out one of every three batters he faced. Home runs were an issue in 2021, but the move from Great American Ball Park to Kauffman ought to help him in that regard.

As importantly — if not more importantly — the Minor/Garrett swap trimmed more than $7MM from the Royals’ payroll. Kansas City agreed to pay the $1MM buyout on Minor’s 2023 option and also chipped in $500K to help cover salary. The Reds otherwise surprisingly took on $7.3MM in additional salary for a 34-year-old lefty with a 5.18 ERA over the past two seasons and a shoulder issue that Cincinnati knew would have him behind schedule in camp. (Minor opened the season on the injured list but was sent on a rehab assignment yesterday.)

That bit of extra payroll space proved vital. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported not long before the trade that the Royals had been hoping to shed payroll in order to bring in some rotation help. They both saved money and created a rotation vacancy in one swoop, setting the stage for a reunion with Zack Greinke, who won a Cy Young Award with the Royals back in 2009. Greinke, the No. 6 overall pick in 2002, returned to Kansas City, spurning similar offers from the Twins, Tigers and others in deference to a full-circle homecoming.

Swapping out Greinke for Minor should be an upgrade but it wasn’t the only starting pitching avenue the team explored. Even after signing Greinke, the Royals continued to pursue Oakland’s Frankie Montas, but the reportedly exorbitant asking price on the 29-year-old righty was too much for Kansas City — or any club, for that matter — to meet. Montas remains in Oakland, and Greinke is now charged with serving as the veteran leader of a rotation that enters 2022 with the same questions it did in 2021.

Kansas City has an impressive collection of young arms, including Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic, Jackson Kowar, Jonathan Heasley and Carlos Hernandez, but to this point that sextet has only had scattershot success. Every member of the group has shown flashes of mid-rotation potential (if not more), but consistency hasn’t been there. That makes a rebound from 26-year-old Brad Keller, who pitched to a career-worst 5.39 ERA in 133 2/3 frames last year, all the more important. Greinke is no longer an ace, but if he and Keller can provide serviceable bulk innings and even one or two of the organization’s touted young arms can take the next step, it’s easy enough to see a quality starting staff coming together.

It’s also possible that any of those six young hurlers could eventually wind up in the bullpen on a full-time basis. Singer is there right now in a long relief capacity, though he has the most big league experience of Kansas City’s young arms and could get a look back in the rotation sooner than later. There’s a fair bit of uncertainty beyond Scott Barlow, Josh Staumont and the previously mentioned Garrett, however. Lefty Jake Brentz had a nice year in 2021 but needs to improve his command, and righty Dylan Coleman has impressed thus far but in a very limited set of innings.

It’s surprising, then, that Kansas City’s only bullpen addition was righty Taylor Clarke, whom the D-backs non-tendered on the heels of a generally nondescript run in 2020-21 (86 2/3 innings, 4.67 ERA, 21% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate). Perhaps owner John Sherman simply wasn’t comfortable pushing payroll past the current $97MM Opening Day mark, but if that’s the case, the decision to restructure Whit Merrifield’s contract to pay him more in 2022 is unusual. Some teams are hesitant to add players late in the offseason when their 40-man roster is full and they fear losing a decent player, but it’s hard to argue that the Royals’ 40-man roster doesn’t have a player or two who could justifiably be jettisoned for some proven bullpen innings.

Nearly 20 relievers signed one-year deals worth under $4MM, and there are even still a few unsigned names who’d have seemingly made some sense for Kansas City (e.g. Yusmeiro Petit, Tony Watson). As with the rotation, though, it seems the Royals will hope in-house options like Coleman, Collin Snider, Gabe Speier and others can step up and fill in the gaps. To their credit, Barlow and Staumont are a pair of developmental success stories.

Turning the focus to the lineup, the Royals are running out the same group of hitters they did late in the 2021 season — with one notable exception. Top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. obliterated Cactus League pitching, just as he did Double-A and Triple-A arms in 2021, and forced his way onto the Opening Day roster. The 21-year-old, second-generation talent was the No. 2 overall pick in 2019 and is viewed as a star in the making. He’s slotting in at third base early in the season, though he’s played primarily shortstop in the minors. The Royals plugged Adalberto Mondesi back in at short, however, and moved Nicky Lopez from shortstop to second base. As was the case in 2021, the Royals should be a tremendous defensive club.

Still, it’s fairly surprising the Royals didn’t find a means to move on from Santana on the heels of such a poor showing. If the first-base cupboard beyond Santana were bare, it’d be more understandable, but that’s not the case at all. Rather, Kansas City has a pair of top-50 prospects who burst onto the scene with mammoth 2021 seasons between Double-A and Triple-A. First baseman Nick Pratto slashed .265/.385/.602 with 38 home runs between those two levels, while catcher MJ Melendez led the minors with 41 homers and posted an even better .288/.386/.625 line. Pratto is the heir-apparent at first base, and it’s a bit puzzling to see Santana getting playing time over him. Melendez isn’t going to unseat Salvador Perez behind the plate anytime soon, but he could mix in at designated hitter and the infield corners — the Royals tried him at third base a bit last year — were more at-bats available.

Santana, fellow first baseman Ryan O’Hearn and utilityman Hunter Dozier combined for a .217/.297/.368 batting line in 1456 plate appearances last year. All three are on the Major League roster right now, while Pratto and Melendez are in the minors. Dozier is signed through 2024 with a 2025 option, so it’s understandable if the Royals are committed to getting him right at the plate. But he’s also played all four corner positions and could be dropped to a utility role because of that versatility. O’Hearn and Santana, meanwhile, seem more like pure roadblocks to the Royals’ more promising prospects. Perhaps they’re both on short leashes, but it’s a bit odd that Witt’s huge Spring Training landed him an Opening Day roster spot while Pratto and Melendez were optioned relatively early despite outstanding performances themselves.

If that seems like a lot of focus on the Royals’ incumbent options rather than their new additions, that’s because there simply weren’t any new additions on the position-player side of things, aside from the promotion of Witt. The Royals firmly believe the core of their next contending club is already in the organization, but that only makes it more curious that two of their three best prospects were sent out after huge spring showings. Again, in Kansas City’s defense, both Melendez and Pratto have struggled through a handful of Triple-A games so far, so perhaps this is the right tactic for their development. If Santana continues struggling as he has early in 2022, however, it’ll be increasingly difficult not to dip into the farm.

Ultimately, it was a quiet offseason for the Royals, setting them up to live or die by the developmental strides of young players like Lynch, Singer, Bubic, Kowar, Hernandez, Heasley, Pratto, Melendez and, of course, Witt. That group should get as many reps as possible this year once the organization deems them ready, and while they won’t all pan out, a full year of evaluation should give Moore and his staff the chance to determine where they need to supplement next winter. The Royals are a long shot to contend, but if enough of the kids step up, there’s at least some Wild Card potential with this group.

Royals Release Daniel Tillo

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TODAY: Tillo is now officially a free agent after clearing waivers, the Royals announced.

APRIL 13: The Royals announced this morning they’ve requested unconditional release waivers on left-hander Daniel Tillo. Kansas City had designated the 6’5″ southpaw for assignment last week when setting the Opening Day roster.

Tillo has never appeared in a major league game, although he did accrue 99 days of MLB service last season while on the injured list. Kansas City selected the Iowa native onto the 40-man roster over the 2020-21 offseason. He was still rehabbing from a Tommy John surgery he’d undergone the prior season, and he spent much of last year recovering.

Upon being reinstated from the IL in August, Tillo was optioned to Double-A Northwest Arkansas. He pitched 23 1/3 innings there, working to a 4.63 ERA with a 21.6% strikeout percentage and an elevated 14.7% walk rate. Assuming he clears release waivers, Tillo will be a free agent and could look for a minor league deal with any of the league’s 30 teams.

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