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Yonathan Daza To Undergo Season-Ending Shoulder Surgery

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Rockies minor league outfielder Yonathan Daza will undergo season-ending surgery on his left shoulder next week, the team confirmed. Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase first reported the news (on Twitter).

Thomas Harding of MLB.com tweets that Daza’s procedure is similar to the one which second baseman Brendan Rodgers underwent in Spring Training. As Harding points out, the outfielder has been bothered by shoulder issues on a few occasions. He missed a few weeks late last season after dislocating the same shoulder when diving for a ball in the outfield.

Daza was Colorado’s Opening Day center fielder this year. The speedster was coming off a .301/.349/.384 showing in a career-high 113 contests. He only got into 24 big league games this season, posting a .270/.304/.351 line through 80 trips to the plate. In early May, Colorado designated him for assignment and ran him through outright waivers. He went on to appear in 39 games for their top affiliate in Albuquerque, hitting .305/.350/.415 in an extremely hitter-friendly setting before landing on the minor league injured list yesterday.

Today’s news could unofficially end Daza’s time in the organization. He’ll qualify for minor league free agency at season’s end unless the Rockies add him back to the 40-man roster. That almost certainly won’t happen with his second half wiped out. The Rox could try to retain him on a minor league deal, but the 29-year-old will presumably get a chance to explore non-roster opportunities around the league next winter.

Royals Expected To Recall Alec Marsh For MLB Debut

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The Royals plan to promote right-hander Alec Marsh to start tomorrow’s series opener against the Dodgers, tweets Anne Rogers of MLB.com. He draws in for Jordan Lyles, who is under the weather.

It’s the first MLB call for Marsh. Kansas City selected the 6’2″ hurler 70th overall in the 2019 draft out of Arizona State. Marsh has ranked around the middle tier of a generally thin K.C. farm system. Baseball America recently slotted him 11th among organizational prospects, while Keith Law of the Athletic placed him 20th coming into the year.

Marsh was coming off a brutal 2022 showing in Double-A, when huge home run issues led to a 7.32 ERA over 25 starts. Prospect evaluators still credited him with swing-and-miss potential on a low-mid 90s fastball and an above-average to plus slider. The Royals added him to the 40-man roster last offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft despite the poor numbers.

The 25-year-old has found a little better results this time around. Over 11 starts with Double-A Northwest Arkansas, he posted a 5.32 ERA. Marsh got the homers in check and struck out a solid 26.4% of opponents but walked more than 11% of batters faced. He has similar strikeout and walk marks in three starts since being bumped up to Triple-A Omaha, where he’s allowed just four runs in 15 innings.

It’s possible this is just a spot start necessitated by Lyles’ illness. Kansas City hasn’t gotten much production out of its rotation overall, though, so there should be other opportunities for Marsh to work his way back in the relatively near future if he shows well in Omaha.

The Orioles May Have Found The Lefty Bat They Wanted

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The Orioles made it pretty clear they wanted to get a cheap left-handed bat this winter to play either first base, a corner outfield spot or designated hitter. They signed players like Nomar Mazara and Franchy Cordero to minor league deals. They claimed Jake Cave and Ryan O’Hearn off waivers and twice claimed Lewin Díaz.

It’s fairly understandable why they would covet that type of player, given their in-house options for those bat-first roles. Ryan Mountcastle has been the club’s primary first baseman for a while and hits right-handed. He doesn’t have drastic platoon splits but has hit .265/.315/.495 against lefties in his career for a 118 wRC+, compared to a .251/.303/.434 line and 102 wRC+ against righties. Outfielder/designated hitter Anthony Santander is a switch hitter but is also better against lefties: .264/.325/.471 and 117 wRC+ against southpaws but .242/.295/.454 and 102 wRC+ against northpaws. Austin Hays and Ryan McKenna also hit from the right side and have modest splits for their careers.

Adding a solid lefty bat into the mix would have been a way to add some flexibility and occasionally shield those guys from tough matchups. But since it wasn’t a desperate situation, it made sense the O’s stuck to modest moves as opposed to a big signing. Most of those small transactions haven’t worked out, however. Cave was later lost to the Phillies when the O’s tried to pass him through waivers. Both Cordero and Mazara opted out of their deals when they didn’t make the Opening Day roster and are now with other clubs. Díaz was passed through waivers and is hitting at a league average rate in Triple-A this year.

The one player from that bunch who is on the roster is O’Hearn. He had previously spent his entire career with the Royals, having been drafted by them back in 2014. He made it to the big leagues in 2018 and showed his potential that year, hitting .262/.353/.597 in his first 44 games for a 153 wRC+. But he struggled badly in subsequent campaigns, hitting just .211/.282/.351 in 901 plate appearances from 2019 to 2022.

Despite four consecutive rough seasons, the Royals tendered O’Hearn a contract for 2023, avoiding arbitration by agreeing to a $1.4MM salary with $250K in bonuses. But in December, they designated him for assignment, perhaps hoping his rough track record and a salary roughly twice the league minimum would tamp down any interest from other clubs. But the O’s weren’t swayed and sent cash considerations to the Royals in order to facilitate a deal, though they themselves passed him through waivers in January.

O’Hearn technically could have rejected the outright assignment and elected free agency due to having more than three years of service time, but he was shy of the five-year mark and would have had to forfeit that money in order to do so. He made the obvious decision to hang onto that cash and stick with the O’s, fighting for his roster spot.

He was eventually selected to the roster a couple of weeks into the season, on April 13. He received sporadic playing time over the next few weeks, getting 22 plate appearances over nine games, hitting just .263/.318/.316 in those for a 77 wRC+. He was optioned to the minors on May 5 but quickly recalled on May 9, able to return after less than the minimum 10 days because Ramón Urías was placed on the injured list.

Since that recall, he has been on an absolute tear. He’s hit six home runs in 93 plate appearances across 27 games. His .318/.355/.591 slash line in that time amounts to a 161 wRC+. This is still a small sample size but it’s a very encouraging development after years of looking lost at the plate. The O’s have shielded him from left-handed pitchers, as he has just six plate appearances against them this year compared to 109 against righties. But when a righty is on the mound, he’s impressed enough to get the cleanup spot in their lineup.

It’s dangerous to draw too many broad conclusions from such a small bit of data, but there’s also reason to suspect a meaningful change has taken place. O’Hearn recently spoke to Nathan Ruiz of The Baltimore Sun about some changes in his mechanics suggested by hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte, who focused on his hip rotation and hand placement. When asked if it was strange that no one pointed out these issues with his mechanics before, he replied “You could say that.” Perhaps the shift to a different organizational philosophy and approach was just what he needed to tap into his potential.

There are encouraging numbers beyond the traditional stat line. Statcast pegs his average exit velocity at 93.4 mph this year, which would be a career high. The same goes for his 14.6% barrel rate and 56.1% hard hit rate. Among players with at least 50 batted ball events this year, that average exit velocity places him 15th in the league, matching Yordan Alvarez and just ahead of guys like Juan Soto and Randy Arozarena. That hard hit rate places him in eighth place among that same group.

We’re still talking about a limited sample here and essentially a strict platoon deployment, but for a guy who’s making a small salary and was designated for assignment twice this winter, getting any kind of production is a great find. If it continues for the next few months, the O’s can keep him for an extra season as well, as he’s currently on pace to finish 2023 with just over five years of MLB service time. That means he’ll be eligible for one more arbitration season in 2024 before qualifying for free agency.*

(*Sidenote: O’Hearn seems likely to benefit from a feature in the CBA that awards service time for brief optional assignments. “If a Player is optionally assigned for a total of less than 20 days in one championship season, the Player shall be credited with Major League service during the period of such optional assignment(s).” O’Hearn therefore won’t be dinged for that brief option in May, getting service time from his April 13 selection to the end of the year. This year’s season is 186 days long but a player needs 172 days to get a full year. O’Hearn missed the first 14 days of the season and will get exactly that 172 figure. Since he began this year with his service time clock at 4.002, he should finish 2023 at 5.002. Future optional assignments could change that trajectory, but he would have to fall off at the plate in order for the O’s to consider that. Full CBA text courtesy of the MLBPA.)

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports

Nationals’ Buy-Low Addition Should Pay Off At Trade Deadline

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Every offseason, rebuilding clubs take one-year fliers on formerly productive veterans coming off bad seasons. They’re generally minimal financial commitments that afford the player a fresh start with a path to regular playing time. In most instances, the team is hoping the player puts together a strong first half that turns them into a reasonably valuable trade candidate come deadline season.

The hit rate on deals of this nature isn’t particularly high. Most players don’t rebound as hoped. Wil Myers was designated for assignment by the Reds. Pierce Johnson hasn’t panned out for the Rockies. Ditto for Trevor May in Oakland and Corey Dickerson and Dominic Smith in Washington. The Nationals will happily live with a couple misses in exchange for one notable hit, and they found it in third baseman Jeimer Candelario.

Candelario looked like a potential building block for the Tigers a few seasons ago. He led MLB in doubles two seasons back and combined to hit .278/.356/.458 in over 800 plate appearances between 2020-21. Even with generally middling defensive marks, he was a productive regular based on his well-rounded profile at the plate.

Things cratered for him last season. Candelario managed only a .217/.273/.361 slash over 467 trips to the dish. His walks fell to a career-worst level as he chased more pitches outside the strike zone. The contact quality similarly regressed sharply. It was essentially a replacement-level season overall. The entire Tigers lineup was a disaster, leading to a front office change in August. New baseball operations leader Scott Harris and his staff moved on from Candelario, declining to tender him an arbitration contract projected in the $7MM range.

That sent him to free agency for the first time. Washington stepped in with a one-year, $5MM guarantee that contained $1MM in additional incentives ($200K for reaching 200 plate appearances and $100K thereafter for each 100 trips to the plate, maxing out at 600). Carter Kieboom opening the season on the injured list ensured Candelario would get regular run at the hot corner in the early going.

He has seized the opportunity with a performance essentially in line with his 2020-21 production. Candelario has a .263/.338/.471 line with 10 home runs over 325 plate appearances. He’s tied for second in MLB with 26 doubles. Candelario has dialed the approach back in, cut down slightly on the swing-and-miss, and pushed his exit velocities back up a couple ticks.

Candelario has paired that with better than expected defensive grades. Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast have pegged him between three and five runs better than average over 662 1/3 innings of third base work. It’s the first time since 2020 in which he has rated as an above-average defender. Single-season defensive metrics can be variable, but Candelario looks to be a capable gloveman at the hot corner, even if he’s unlikely to win a Gold Glove.

Nothing in his offensive production is dramatically out of line with his best years in Detroit. In a broad sense, he just seems to have put last year’s awful season behind him. There is one notable change from Candelario’s early-career production, though: the platoon splits.

For his career, he’d generally been better from the right side of the dish. Candelario entered this season with an overall .270/.329/.438 batting line against southpaws compared to a .230/.320/.388 showing versus right-handed pitching. The script has flipped this year. Candelario has a .279/.350/.537 line against righties and is hitting only .227/.313/.318 off left-handers.

That probably won’t change front offices’ opinions on him too much. This year’s platoon splits are very small samples; he has only 99 plate appearances against southpaws. He’s probably not going to keep teeing off on right-handers at quite this level and he’ll presumably see his production against lefties pick back up. He’s not the cleanest fit for a team seeking a strict platoon bat, but he’s shown enough from both sides of the plate throughout his career he’d be a fine plug-and-play regular at the hot corner.

It seems very likely he’ll be donning a new uniform five weeks from now. He surpasses the six-year service threshold this season and is headed back to the open market next winter. Candelario has played well enough the Nats could at least consider a qualifying offer if they held onto him. There’d be a strong chance he accepts, though, which would keep him in Washington for another season at a salary around four times greater than this year’s figure.

It’s hard to envision Candelario having more trade value for Washington than he does right now. Not only is he affordable and productive, this year’s market for offense could be very thin. The upcoming free agent class is extremely light on position players, reducing the number of productive rental bats available. That’s especially true on the infield. The Blue Jays almost certainly won’t trade Matt Chapman, positioning Candelario as the top impending free agent infielder who’s likely to be on the trade market.

Teams like the Marlins, Phillies, Cubs (where Candelario began his career) and Diamondbacks haven’t gotten much production out of third base. The Astros have Alex Bregman at the hot corner but are looking for another bat, preferably one who can hit from the left side. Candelario could factor in at first base or designated hitter in that scenario. The Brewers have some uncertainty at both corner infield spots.

If Candelario finishes the season strong, he should be able to leverage that infield scarcity into a solid multi-year free agent deal. A trade would kill any possibility of him being saddled with draft pick compensation — players moved midseason cannot receive a qualifying offer — and he’ll hit the market at age 30. A three or maybe even four-year deal with annual salaries north of $10MM doesn’t seem out of the question.

Candelario’s stint in Washington will probably be brief, but it’s shaping up exactly as intended for both parties. The Nats look positioned to add a couple mid-level prospects to their farm system, while Candelario is parlaying his opportunity into a much more lucrative free agency trip.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

MLB Announces 2023 All-Star Starters

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Major League Baseball announced the starting lineups for the 2023 All-Star Game this evening. This year’s All-Star Game will take place at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park on July 11. The starting pitchers and reserves will be announced at a later date.

American League

National League

* Currently on injured list with sprained toe

Pirates Sign Beau Sulser To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates have signed right-hander Beau Sulser to a minor league deal, per John Dreker of Pirates Prospects. The righty has been assigned to Double-A Altoona.

It’s a return to the Pirates’ organization for Sulser, who was drafted by the Bucs in 2017. He was able to make his major league debut with Pittsburgh last year, though he was designated for assignment after four appearances. He was claimed off waivers by the Orioles and spent the rest of 2022 serving as an up-and-down arm for them. He made six more appearances on the year around frequent optional assignments. He finished 2022 with a 3.63 ERA in 22 1/3 big league innings between the two clubs and a 4.13 ERA in 56 2/3 Triple-A innings.

The O’s designated him for assignment in October of last year, at which point the Pirates brought him back aboard via another waiver claim. But he was outrighted in November and signed with the KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization. The move to Korea didn’t work out for him as he posted a 5.62 ERA through 49 2/3 innings in nine starts.

The Wiz released Sulser earlier this month and he has now reunited with the Pirates yet again. He’ll head to Altoona and look to get himself into a groove and back to the big leagues. If he succeeds, he still has a couple of options and won’t be able to get to a full year of service time here in 2023.

Giants Release Jacob Nottingham

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The Giants released catcher Jacob Nottingham from their Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento, per the league transaction log. Nottingham’s departure from the organization dovetails with the Giants’ recent signing of fellow catcher Jakson Reetz to a minor league deal.

Nottingham, 28, posted a .262/.360/.415 batting line in 75 plate appearances for Sacramento. He’d opened the year with the Mariners organization but struggled to a .200/.294/.450 slash in 68 plate appearances with their top affiliate. Overall, the well-traveled backstop/first baseman is batting .232/.329/.432 in 143 Triple-A plate appearances this season. Those numbers are nearly identical to his career line in 1025 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.

Nottingham hasn’t seen big league action since 2021, when he was hot-potato’ed between the Brewers and Mariners several times throughout the season’s first couple months. The right-handed-hitting slugger has displayed promising power in the Majors, clubbing eight homers and connecting on three doubles in just 130 plate appearances, but he’s also fanned in 38.5% of his plate appearances at the big league level. Overall, he’s a .184/.277/.421 hitter in the Majors.

Defensively, Nottingham has a 31% caught-stealing rate in the minors, although he’s just 4-for-30 so far  in 2023 (13%). He’s long drawn positive scouting grades for his big arm behind the dish, though the other aspects of his defense (blocking, receiving, framing) were typically considered to be a work in progress. In Baseball America’s 2019 scouting report on Nottingham, they noted that he’d improved his glovework to at least be passable in those areas.

Nottingham will head back to the market in search of a third organization this season. Teams are regularly in search of catching help, and Nottingham has more than 600 professional innings at first base as well, which could add to his appeal back in free agency.

Brewers Option Luis Urías, Recall Brice Turang

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The Brewers announced that they have optioned infielder Luis Urías to Triple-A Nashville and recalled infielder Brice Turang in a corresponding move.

Urías, 26, seemed to have established himself as a solid part of the Milwaukee over the past two years. Over 2021 and 2022, he launched 39 home runs and hit a combined .244/.340/.426 for a wRC+ of 111. This year, however, has been an entirely different story.

He was placed on the injured list with a hamstring strain after the first game of the season and wasn’t able to return until June 5. In the past three-plus weeks, he’s yet to get into a groove, hitting just .145/.299/.236 for a wRC+ of 60. A .179 batting average on balls in play isn’t doing him any favors, but his exit velocity, hard hit rate and barrel rate are all down a few points, suggesting it’s more than just luck. That cold spell was pronounced enough for the Brewers to send him to the minors, his first time being optioned since he was a Padre back in 2019.

The infielder has already had two passes through arbitration as a Super Two player, earning a salary of $2.5MM last year and $4.7MM. He has already surpassed four years of service time here this year and would be eligible for two more arb seasons, though his rough season might give the club some pause about tendering him a contract. The arbitration system is designed so that player salaries essentially always climb, meaning Urías could be looking at jumping over $5MM even with his struggles so far this year.

The Brewers are unsurprisingly looking for more offense, as Urías isn’t the only one struggling. The club is hitting .226/.305/.370 as a whole for a wRC+ of 85, which puts them ahead of only the Athletics and the Rockies. They will surely be hoping that today’s swap can give them a boost in that department.

Turang himself was a part of those struggles, as he made the club’s Opening Day roster but hit just .205/.254/.307 through his first 177 career plate appearances. That performance got him optioned to Nashville in early June, where he has been faring much better. He’s hit .298/.365/.561 over the past three weeks since getting sent down, posting a 127 wRC+. Though he struck out in 27.1% of his major league appearances, it’s been just a 15.9% clip in Triple-A.

He’ll now get another shot against major league pitching to see if he can find better results. Due to that optional assignment, he’ll come up short of a full year of service time here in 2023, though he would be on track to get Super Two status after 2025 if he can stay up for good.

Guardians Option Logan Allen

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The Guardians today optioned left-hander Logan Allen to Triple-A and recalled right-hander Michael Kelly in a corresponding move, per Mandy Bell of MLB.com. The move seemingly opens up a rotation spot for righty Cal Quantrill, who is currently on the injured list but scheduled to start tomorrow’s game.

This move highlights the rotation surplus in Cleveland. Allen, 24, was considered by many evaluators to be one of the top 100 prospects in the game coming into this season. He was promoted to the big leagues just over two months ago and has done little to dampen his stock. He has a 3.47 ERA through 62 1/3 innings in 12 starts. He’s struck out 22.9% of opponents, walked 8.7% of them and gotten grounders on 44.3% of balls in play. He might be getting a bit of a boost from a 79.9% strand rate, but his 3.70 FIP and 4.28 SIERA still suggest he’s been solid overall.

Most clubs would love to have that kind of performance. That may not be the production of an ace but it would make him a serviceable mid-rotation arm in any of the 29 other rotations. The Guardians, however, are spoiled in this department.

They have three more-established arms in Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale and Quantrill. The latter had a 5.61 ERA before landing on the injured list but has been much better in previous campaigns, with a 3.38 ERA last year and a 2.89 the year before. Bieber and Civale are having solid results, with ERAs of 3.69 and 3.18, respectively. Then the Guards also have two other top 100 prospects they promoted this year: Tanner Bibee has a 3.79 ERA while Gavin Williams is at 2.84 through his first two career starts.

Despite Triston McKenzie being shut down due to a sprain of his UCL, Zach Plesac struggling to the point of being outrighted off the roster and Daniel Espino, yet another top 100 prospect, requiring season-ending shoulder surgery, they still have so much pitching that Allen has been squeezed out. It’s possible this is just a short-term option, with Allen essentially being given an early start on the upcoming All-Star break, but there’s still obviously a logjam here. General manager Mike Chernoff suggested as much (link via Bell), implying that sending Allen to Columbus will allow the team to monitor his workload a bit. “While he’s down, he doesn’t have to go out and throw 100 [pitches] and try to prove something,” Chernoff said of Allen.

Even with all of that starting pitching, however, the club is below .500 at 39-40 thanks to their tepid offense. The team as a whole has hit .248/.313/.375 for a wRC+ of 90, placing them 24th out of the 30 clubs in terms of overall production. But with the weak American League Central, that record is enough for the Guardians to currently possess the top spot in the division, half a game up on the Twins.

All of that will give the Guardians’ front office much to think about. With the expanded playoffs and weak Central divisions, there are very few clubs that make for obvious sellers. Teams that are clearly in the seller lane like the Athletics or Nationals have already sold many of their most appealing players. That creates the possibility for more deals between contenders this year, trading from areas of surplus in order to address areas of need.

There are many contending clubs that could use a rotation upgrade, either due to injury or underperformance, and the Guards would get plenty of interest if they made any of their arms available. They could certainly entertain the idea of moving one of their rookies for some kind of blockbuster, but the more likely path would be moving one of the more experienced arms. The low-budget Cleveland club has operated this way for many years, often trading away players in their arbitration years as they get more expensive and closer to free agency.

Each of Bieber, Civale and Quantrill would fit this bill. Bieber is making $10.01MM this year and slated for one more pass through arbitration before reaching free agency after 2024. His strikeout rate and velocity are both down compared to previous years but he’s still keeping earned runs off the board. Each of Civale and Quantrill have one extra year of control beyond that, slated for the open market after 2025. Civale is making $2.6MM this year while Quantrill is earning $5.5MM.

Each of those individuals would garner varying levels of interest based on how highly they are valued by other clubs, but each undoubtedly has value and could potentially land the Guardians some kind of offensive upgrade. Another injury or two before the August 1 deadline would obviously change their calculus, but the ingredients seem to be in place for the Guardians to be a team to watch over the next month.

Royals’ Owner: “Total Confidence” In GM J.J. Picollo, Manager Matt Quatraro

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Entering play Thursday at just 22-58, the Royals have the second-worst record in Major League Baseball, narrowly leading an Athletics team that has aggressively torn down its roster amid payroll cuts and efforts to restock the farm system. Unlike their floundering AL West counterparts, Kansas City did not enter the season in the early stages of a rebuild and with such minimal expectations. The Royals did recently push for a somewhat accelerated retooling period, but they added several veterans for a second straight offseason and at least hoped to keep afloat in a weak division. No one viewed the Royals as contenders heading into the year, but this level of struggle was not expected either.

Brutal as the Royals’ season has been, owner John Sherman today voiced “total confidence” in first-year general manager J.J. Picollo and rookie manager Matt Quatraro, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com (Twitter links). Of course, that doesn’t mean Sherman considers the 2023 season acceptable — far from it. Said the Royals’ CEO: “I feel accountable for where we are right now with our baseball team. We are committed to do what it takes to return to form. … This is a real year of evaluation, and that evaluation right now is painful.”

Picollo is still new to the top spot in the baseball operations hierarchy but has been with the Royals organization since 2006, when he was hired as the team’s director of player development. Quatraro, meanwhile, is in his first year with the club after previously serving as an assistant hitting coach in Cleveland and as a third base coach and bench coach with Tampa Bay.

The Royals fired president of baseball operations Dayton Moore back in September and elevated Picollo in his place. Moore had been one of the longest-tenured baseball operations leaders in the sport, originally ascending to the position of general manager in 2006. The Royals gave him a title bump to president of baseball ops in 2021, simultaneously promoting Picollo from assistant general manager to GM.

Picollo has had baseball operations autonomy for less than a year, but the moves made this past offseason generally haven’t panned out. A two-year deal for Jordan Lyles has thus far produced disastrous results (6.68 ERA in 91 2/3 innings). Zack Greinke again returned to Kansas City on a one-year deal and had been pitching as a capable innings eater, though a recent trio of rough starts has pushed his ERA north of 5.00. The signing of lefty Ryan Yarbrough is tougher to judge, as he’s been out nearly two months after being struck in the head by a comebacker.

To Picollo’s credit, the Royals’ low-cost investment in former Yankees stopper Aroldis Chapman has worked out as well as one could’ve hoped. The 35-year-old’s fastball velocity has rebounded to its highest level since 2017, and his 42.9% strikeout rate is his highest mark in a 162-game season since 2018. The southpaw’s 16.8% walk rate is still far too high, but command issues have long been an part of the Chapman experience. As it stands, he’s a slam-dunk trade candidate and could net Kansas City some minor league talent of note between now and the Aug. 1 trade deadline.

Lackluster performance from the Royals’ offseason additions are only a small part of the team’s 2023 woes, of course. Much of their recent rebuilding effort staked its hopes on developing polished college pitchers —  with a heavy emphasis on that in the 2018 draft — but those efforts have yet to bear fruit.

Brady Singer looked like he’d broken out with an outstanding 2022 season, but he’s regressed in alarming fashion this year, pitching to a 5.88 ERA with worrying negative trends in his strikeout rate, walk rate and velocity. Fellow college arms Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar, Kris Bubic, Jonathan Heasley and Asa Lacy haven’t developed as hoped. On the position-player side of things, youngsters like MJ Melendez, Michael Massey, Nate Eaton, Samad Taylor and Kyle Isbel have all struggled at the big league level in 2023.

As for Quatraro, while Royals fans surely can’t be pleased with the on-field results in his first year on the job, the roster composition is such that no skipper could be reasonably expected to have coaxed passable results from this group. Managers are evaluated based on far more than sheer wins and losses anyhow — arguably more so than ever in today’s game.

Based on recent history, Sherman’s comments are wholly unsurprising. There’s little to no recent precedent for a general manager or first-year manager being on the hot seat just three months into his first season on the job. Details of Picollo’s contract remain unclear, but the organization signed him to a multi-year extension late in the 2021 season. Granted, Moore was also extended and promoted at that point, but he’d had a 16-year runway as baseball ops leader by the time he was dismissed; Picollo has been in his current role for just nine months. Quatraro, meanwhile, signed a three-year deal that runs through the 2025 season and has a club option for the 2026 campaign.

If the Royals are to turn things around in the near future, they’ll need a lot of help from a farm system that entered the year ranked in the bottom half of the league — as low as 29th at both Baseball America and MLB.com. Picollo will have the opportunity to add to that system over the next month when he markets Chapman and presumably closer Scott Barlow, but the underwhelming performances from many of Kansas City’s veteran players leaves the Royals without many trade chips to dangle to contending clubs.

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