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Brady Singer

Royals Add Nick Pratto, Seven Others To Major League Roster

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The Royals announced Thursday that they’ve recalled top first base prospect Nick Pratto from Triple-A Omaha as one of eight players joining the Major League roster. Also coming to the Majors are catcher Sebastian Rivero, infielder Maikel Garcia and lefty Angel Zerpa, who’ve been recalled from Double-A Arkansas. Additionally, the Royals selected the contracts of infielder/outfielder Nate Eaton, catcher Freddy Fermin, outfielder Brewer Hicklen and infielder Michael Massey from Omaha.

The deluge of additions comes in conjunction with the previously announced slate of ten current Royals heading to the restricted list in advance of the team’s road series against the Blue Jays, where travel restrictions prevent unvaccinated athletes from entering Canada. Andrew Benintendi, Dylan Coleman, Hunter Dozier, Cam Gallagher, Kyle Isbel, Brad Keller, MJ Melendez, Whit Merrifield, Brady Singer and Michael A. Taylor are all now formally on the restricted list.

As MLB.com’s Anne Rogers tweets, the roster spots of starting pitchers placed on the restricted list (i.e. Singer, Keller) cannot be filled until four days after they last pitched, per MLB rules, which explains the discrepancy between eight players being added versus the ten who went on the restricted list.

The Royals indicated in today’s announcement that they expect to add “up to two more players” to the big league roster over the course of the series. They’ll make another addition tomorrow and another on Sunday. Any players whose contracts were selected to the 40-man roster for this series can be returned to Triple-A without first needing to clear waivers, due to their status as Covid-19-related replacements.

Pratto’s promotion is the most notable of the bunch. The 14th overall pick in the 2017 draft, the California high school product slowly progressed up the minor league ladder. He had an awful 2019 showing in High-A, and the cancelation of the following minor league season dealt his prospect stock a hit heading into 2021. The lefty hitter rebounded in a huge way last year, blasting 36 home runs in a season split between the minors top two levels. That came with some alarming strikeout numbers, but Pratto’s combination of power and huge walk totals was enough to put him firmly in top prospect consideration. He entered the season as Baseball America’s #43 overall farmhand.

Assigned to Omaha to open this year, Pratto has essentially picked up where he left off. He’s hit 17 more longballs and drawn walks at a massive 15.1% clip, but he’s fanned in over 30% of his trips to the plate. The end result — a .240/.374/.484 line through 337 plate appearances — is still excellent. The Royals nevertheless brought up fellow top prospect Vinnie Pasquantino ahead of Pratto, seemingly preferring he get a long leash to iron out the strikeout concerns in the upper minors. It’s very possible he’ll head back to Omaha after the Jays’ series, but Kansas City fans will at least get their first glimpse at a player they hope eventually develops into a middle-of-the-order bat.

It’ll almost certainly be a brief stint for the group of players temporarily added to the 40-man roster. Hicklen was called up briefly as a COVID replacement earlier in the season. Fermin, Massey and Eaton all have opportunities to make their big league debuts in the coming days. Fermin, a former international signee out of Venezuela, is hitting .242/.357/.422 with Omaha this season.

Massey, a fourth-round pick out of Illinois in 2019, was recently named the #8 prospect in the Kansas City system by Baseball America. He owns a .348/.408/.630 line with six homers in 24 games since being bumped up to Omaha last month, and he’ll almost certainly land a permanent 40-man roster spot by next offseason (when Kansas City would need to add him to keep him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft). Eaton is a former 21st-round pick out of VMI. BA recently slotted him 29th in the farm system in recognition of his .329/.388/.591 showing with the Storm Chasers.

Royals To Place Andrew Benintendi, Nine Others On Restricted List

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The Royals are traveling to Toronto tomorrow to begin a series against the Blue Jays but will be without a significant portion of their regular roster. The team announced to reporters, including Alec Lewis of The Athletic, that ten players will be placed on the restricted list. Since unvaccinated travelers are not allowed to cross the Canada-U.S. border, it’s become common for teams to place a handful of players on the restricted list before playing in Toronto. However, the quantity and quality of the Royals players included is noteworthy. The full list of names: Andrew Benintendi, Whit Merrifield, Hunter Dozier, Cam Gallagher, MJ Melendez, Brady Singer, Brad Keller, Kyle Isbel, Michael A. Taylor and Dylan Coleman.

Benintendi is one of the top trade chips this year, as he’s an impending free agent having a good season for a noncompetitive team. He landed the #2 slot on MLBTR’s recent list of top trade candidates, trailing only Willson Contreras. Benintendi is walking in 10.2% of his plate appearances while striking out just 14% of the time and hitting .317/.386/.401 on the year. That amounts to a wRC+ of 127, or 27% above league average. With the Royals currently 35-53, a record worse than all American League teams except for the A’s, they stand out as obvious deadline sellers.

Two weeks ago, it was reported that the Blue Jays were among the teams interested in acquiring Benintendi, which was a fairly logical match. Benintendi bats from the left side, whereas the Blue Jays have a right-handed heavy lineup. They acquired outfielder Raimel Tapia from the Rockies in an offseason trade as a way to try to balance things out. Unfortunately, he’s hit just .263/.289/.375 for an 84 wRC+ this year. Swapping Benintendi into Tapia’s role as part of an outfield/DH mix with George Springer, Teoscar Hernández and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. would have been a straightforward upgrade. However, this news would seem to more or less eliminate the chances of such a deal coming together since Benintendi would only be available to the Blue Jays for road games.

In the short term, the Royals will have to find replacements for these players in order get through the upcoming four-game series against the Blue Jays, which starts tomorrow. The corresponding moves are not known at this time.

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.

AL Central Notes: Royals, Singer, Lynch, Tigers, Peralta, Pineda, Twins

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The Royals finalized their season-opening rotation yesterday, with manager Mike Matheny telling reporters (including Alec Lewis of the Athletic) that southpaw Daniel Lynch will claim the final spot behind Zack Greinke, Brad Keller, Kris Bubic and Carlos Hernández. Notably, that means right-hander Brady Singer — who has started all 39 of his MLB appearances — is set to work out of the bullpen initially. Matheny indicated the Royals still view Singer and righty Jackson Kowar as starting pitchers long-term, but it’ll be Lynch who gets the nod for now.

It’s a bit of a surprising move, as Singer is coming off the better season. Neither hurler had a good ERA in 2021, but Singer had a better strikeout and ground-ball rate than Lynch while issuing slightly fewer walks. Lynch generated a slightly higher whiff rate, but Singer was among the league’s best pitchers at picking up called strikes. Some evaluators raised concerns during Singer’s prospect days about whether his below-average changeup and lower arm slot could diminish his ability to turn a lineup over multiple times, but he’s not shown marked second or third times through the order splits in his career thus far. Injuries and/or underperformance to the front five figure to give Singer another rotation look in the near future.

More pitching updates from around the division:

  • The Tigers are planning to use Wily Peralta in relief this season, writes Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press. The righty started 18 of 19 appearances with Detroit last year, posting a solid 3.07 ERA but an underwhelming 14.4% strikeout rate. The Tigers brought Peralta back on a minor league contract this spring. He seems likely to get another big league call fairly soon, but he was delayed in reporting to Spring Training because of visa issues and is set for further ramp-up work in the minors. The Tigers added Michael Pineda on a one-year big league deal to assume the final rotation spot behind Eduardo Rodríguez, Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal and Matt Manning. Pineda — held up by visa concerns of his own — consented to be optioned to Triple-A Toledo to open the year for more build-up time, giving Tyler Alexander the #5 spot for the season’s first couple weeks. Pineda tossed three innings for the Mud Hens yesterday, and Petzold notes he’s likely to make two more appearances there before being recalled to the majors.
  • The Twins made a last-minute addition to their rotation before Opening Day, acquiring Chris Paddack from the Padres in a deal that involved four MLB players changing hands. Minnesota already had a starting five of Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Dylan Bundy, Bailey Ober and Chris Archer lined up, and manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com) the Twins will roll with a six-man starting staff to open the season. Active rosters are expanded from 26 to 28 through April, giving teams flexibility to carry plenty of arms. Minnesota is also carrying top prospects Josh Winder and Jhoan Duran on the Opening Day roster, with both working in relief. Duran is expected to remain in that role (where he shined in two innings during his MLB debut this afternoon); Winder could be a rotation option down the line, and Baldelli said Winder could shoulder as much as five innings during an appearance out of the ’pen in the early going (Park link).

Royals Select Dylan Coleman

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The Royals have selected the contract of righty Dylan Coleman and reinstated right-hander Brady Singer from the injured list, per a club announcement. Kansas City moved fellow righties Brad Keller and Wade Davis from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL in a pair of corresponding 40-man roster moves. (A 40-man move was necessary for Singer, who’d been on the Covid-related injured list.) The Royals are also calling up outfielder Edward Olivares as the 29th man for today’s doubleheader.

Coleman, 25, joined the Royals alongside Olivares in last summer’s Trevor Rosenthal trade with the Padres. The 2018 fourth-rounder has enjoyed a strong season in the upper minors, splitting his time between Double-A and Triple-A while recording a combined 3.28 ERA with a massive 40.4 percent strikeout rate and a 9.6 percent walk rate in 57 2/3 innings of relief.

Coleman ranked 18th among Royals farmhands on the midseason rankings from FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen and 29th over at MLB.com. Longenhagen notes that while Coleman lost some life on his fastball in 2019, he’s now throwing harder than ever before, sitting upper 90s and occasionally reaching 100 mph. Both FanGraphs and MLB.com note that his slider lacks consistency, however, so he’ll need to refine that offering (or develop a new secondary offering) if he’s to settle in as a high-leverage option in the Kansas City bullpen.

The news on Keller and Davis isn’t especially surprising at this point. The Royals revealed last week that Keller would be shut down for the season, and Davis went on the injured list due to shoulder inflammation five days ago. He’d technically have had time to return, but there’d only have been about a week’s worth of games remaining on the calendar by the earliest date on which he could be activated. Davis is a free agent at season’s end. Keller is arbitration-eligible and under club control through the 2023 season.

Royals Place Brady Singer On Injured List, Select Jon Heasley

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The Royals have placed right-hander Brady Singer on the injured list and selected the contract of right-hander Jon Heasley from Double-A Northwest Arkansas, per a club announcement. An injury designation was not provided for Singer. The Royals already had a full 40-man roster but did not announce a corresponding move, suggesting that Singer is going on the Covid-19-related IL.

Heasley is expected to start tonight’s game in Singer’s place, tweets Alec Lewis of The Athletic. The 6’3″, 225-pound righty was Kansas City’s 13th-round pick back in the 2018 draft and has turned in a solid season in Double-A thus far. Through 105 1/3 innings, the 24-year-old had pitched to a 3.33 ERA with a 27.7 percent strikeout rate, a 7.9 percent walk rate and a 38.9 percent ground-ball rate.

Baseball America ranked Heasley as the Royals’ No. 17 prospect on its midseason reranking of the team’s farm system, and he’s listed 14th over at MLB.com. Both reports praise Heasley’s high-spin four-seamer, which tops out at 97 mph, and an above-average curveball. He throws a changeup and slider as well. Heasley hasn’t drawn as much national fanfare as teammates like Singer, Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch and Kris Bubic, but he gives Kansas City yet another young, MLB-ready rotation candidate for 2022 and beyond.

The Royals didn’t specify whether Heasley is being selected as a Covid-related replacement player for Singer, though making that designation would allow the team to return Heasley to the minors without needing to first pass him through waivers. However, Heasley would be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this offseason if not on the 40-man roster, so it’s likely the Royals would’ve added him within the next two months or so anyhow.

Singer, 25, is third on the Royals in both innings pitched and games started, trailing only Mike Minor and Brad Keller in that regard. He’s taken a step back from last season’s solid rookie debut, pitching to a 4.85 ERA with a 22.4 percent strikeout rate and 9.2 percent walk rate — both slightly worse than league-average — through 120 2/3 frames. Singer has been hampered by a .347 average on balls in play, however — an 87-point increase over last season’s .260 mark despite giving up less hard contact than he did a year ago. Metrics like FIP and SIERA feel he’s been essentially the same pitcher as in 2020, pegging him in the low-4.00 range.

Royals Place Danny Duffy On Injured List

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The Royals announced Tuesday that they’ve placed left-hander Danny Duffy and right-hander Brady Singer on the 10-day injured list. Duffy is dealing with a left flexor strain, while Singer is dealing with right shoulder fatigue. Righty Tyler Zuber and first baseman/outfielder Ryan McBroom were recalled from Triple-A in a pair of corresponding moves.

Duffy, 32, spent May 12 through June 23 on the injured list with this same injury. He’d returned to post a 3.72 ERA in 19 1/3 innings across five starts and one relief appearance. Overall, he’s pitched to a 2.51 ERA with a 25.8 percent strikeout rate and an 8.7 percent walk rate through 61 innings this season.

Given the Royals’ poor season and Duffy’s status as a pending free agent, there was some speculation that he could be moved in the coming days. Between Duffy’s health in 2021, his previously vocal stance on spending his whole career in Kansas City, and the fact that he can veto any trade as a 10-and-5 player, a trade might not have been especially likely anyhow. However, this latest IL stint seems to all but eliminate the possibility of a deal coming together.

With the elimination of August trade waivers, there’d be no possibility of Duffy changing hands following the July 30 deadline. He’ll play out the final season of a five-year, $65MM contract extension he signed prior to the 2017 season and reach the open market. That said, the Royals will be in the market for pitching help this winter and could very well look to bring Duffy back on a new contract as a free agent — assuming the current flexor strain doesn’t prove to be too severe, of course.

It’s been an up-and-down season for the 24-year-old Singer, who was hit hard in his season debut before settling into a nice groove. Singer posted excellent numbers in April, struggled immensely in May, and had a solid-but-unspectacular showing in June. That had all balanced out to a 4.52 ERA and a 3.84 FIP through July 7. However, Singer was blown up for seven runs in two innings against the Orioles in his most recent outing, sending his season ERA soaring to 5.13.

The obvious hope for Singer and the Royals is that this does prove to be nothing more than fatigue. While they’re 18 games under .500 and clearly not postseason contenders in 2021, Singer is a former first-round pick and top prospect who is viewed as a key long-term piece for the Royals’ rotation. He logged a 4.06 ERA in 12 starts last year in his Major League debut and is controlled all the way through the 2025 season.

Central Notes: Twins, Singer, Moustakas, Alzolay

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The Twins have been dealt a series of injuries this season, and another pair of notable players departed last night’s game against the Mariners early. Third baseman Josh Donaldson left for precautionary reasons in the second inning with tightness in his right calf. Shortstop Andrelton Simmons came out shortly thereafter with left ankle tightness (relayed by Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune). There’s no indication either player is dealing with anything serious, but each of Donaldson and Simmons landed on the injured list because of issues with those respective areas last season.

Donaldson missed nearly a month with a right calf strain, while Simmons missed a similar amount of time with a sprained left ankle. Given that history, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Twins play things cautiously with their left side infielders. In better news, outfielder Max Kepler, who has been on a rehab assignment at Triple-A St. Paul, could join the big league club by this weekend, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press).

Elsewhere in the Central divisions:

  • Royals right-hander Brady Singer was removed from yesterday’s start after three innings as a precautionary measure after he experienced right posterior shoulder tightness, the team announced. It’s not clear if he’s in jeopardy of missing his next start. The 24-year-old has only managed a 4.76 ERA in 68 innings this season, but Singer’s generally average strikeout and walk numbers (23.3% and 8.2%, respectively) and strong 50.5% groundball rate suggest he’s been a bit unlucky to allow so many runs.
  • Reds manager David Bell told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that infielder Mike Moustakas has had his minor league rehab assignment halted after experiencing some soreness. It doesn’t seem there’s much cause for concern, but Moustakas’ return looks likely to be delayed a few extra days. The Reds have been without the 32-year-old for just under a month due to a right heel contusion. Before the injury, Moustakas got off to a pretty good start, hitting .241/.337/.437 with four homers over 104 plate appearances.
  • The Cubs have been without starter Adbert Alzolay for the past week-plus due to a blister issue. The 26-year-old tells Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago he expects to return at some point during the Cubs upcoming homestand, which runs from June 18-22. Chicago turned to Robert Stock in Alzolay’s place yesterday, but he allowed five runs and issued six walks in just four innings against the Mets. Alzolay has a solid 4.06 ERA/3.63 SIERA in eleven starts this season.

Royals Promote Brady Singer, Option Meibrys Viloria

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July 25: The Royals have officially announced the roster move, optioning catcher Meibrys Viloria and adding Singer to the active roster. The former first-round pick is slated to make his first Major League start tonight in Cleveland.

July 22: The Royals will promote righty Brady Singer to open the 2020 season, manager Mike Matheny tells reporters including Alec Lewis of The Athletic (via Twitter). Singer is expected to start the team’s second game.

It seems the Kansas City club won’t stand on service-time considerations to put its best foot forward this year. They’d only need to keep Singer down for about a week to gain another year of club control over him, but they’ll instead come right out of the gate with who they feel is their best arms. It’s possible, of course, that Singer could be optioned later or eventually agree to a long-term deal that renders the common service time games moot anyhow.

Singer, who’ll soon turn 24, has yet to appear in the Majors. The No. 18 overall pick from the 2018 Draft opened the season as a consensus top-100 leaguewide prospect, as did promising young Royals arms Jackson Kowar and Daniel Lynch. It seems that Singer will get the first look of the bunch, but that pair and highly touted lefty Kris Bubic might not be far behind.

Singer has just one full professional campaign under his belt, but it was a good one. He blitzed through the High-A level and took 16 starts at Double-A, pitching to a 3.47 ERA with 8.4 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 over 90 2/3 innings.

Royals Activate Brady Singer For Debut

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Tyler Zuber made his debut out of the Kansas City Royals bullpen last night in a week that will see quite a number of newly-minted big-leaguers dirty their cleats on major-league soil for the first time in their careers. Count highly-touted Royals’ prospect Brady Singer among them. The 18th overall selection of the 2018 draft is slated to start tonight’s game against the Indians. The Royals activated Singer earlier today, moving Ronald Bolanos to the taxi squad, the team announced on Twitter.

It’s not the ideal debut in that Singer’s friends and family won’t be able to be in attendance, but after just 26 professional starts, the Royals and Singer both are eager to see the 6’5″ righty against the game’s top competition, per Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star. Said Singer, “Obviously, the difference between the Futures Game and your first big-league start is much different. I feel like the Futures Game you’re kind of just showing what you’ve got and getting through that inning. But (Saturday) is day one. Locking in for as many games as I can go. Absolute huge game plan and studying tonight and figuring out what to do.” 

If there were a Triple-A season, it stands to reason that Singer would be making his debut there this season given that he only just reached Double-A in 2019. Still, the Royals would not put him in the majors if they felt he were not ready to handle that level of competition. In his only full season of professional ball, Singer went 12-5 with an eye-catching 2.85 ERA across 26 starts between High-A and Double-A in 2019. Singer notched 8.4 K/9 versus 2.4 BB/9 for an overall 3.54 K/BB as a 22-year-old last season. He’s the #4 ranked prospect in the Royals’ system by both Baseball America and Fangraphs.

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