Building a better infield
The Royals are quiet on the transaction front, but did give away quite a tasty morsel on how their defense will align in 2022.
The Hot Stove is burning brighter than the sun, but you wouldn’t know it from the Royals’ transaction page.
Wouldn’t it be, you know, kind of fun if there was at least one rumor that involved the Royals? At this point it doesn’t even matter if there’s any juice to it. Just gimme something. Something to let me know that this team actually exists and they have working phones.
I know, I know…this is a team that remains in transition and is banking heavily on the prospects already in the fold. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a few points of need, a few roster spots that can be filled. We knew going into this off season that it would be a quiet one in Kansas City, lockout aside. Who knows…perhaps this is a clever waiting game being played by the Royals front office. Perhaps they’re just waiting out the free agent musical chairs and at the end of the day, when the dust on the major players has settled, they will swoop in an grab a bargain or two.
For what it’s worth, my money still says they land a reliever or two. With the abbreviated spring schedule, bullpen depth will be crucial. I mean, it’s always crucial, but this year it’s especially true.
With players filtering in to Surprise, the workouts have begun. Alec Lewis from The Athletic has this tidbit for us:
Sure, it’s the first day after a long lockout, but I find this to be telling for a couple of reasons.
First, Whit Merrifield in the outfield. Remember last year, how Merrifield spent most of spring in right, only to move to second when Adalberto Mondesi went down with an injury just prior to Opening Day? Merrifield talked about how difficult that adjustment was moving back to the infield after taking all those outfield reps. We saw it manifest itself in a couple of strange throws to first in some random April games. Credit to Merrifield for making the appropriate adjustments and playing some stellar defense at the keystone.
Based on that, I kind of doubt the Royals would be working Merrifield out in right if that wasn’t where they planned for him to play the majority of his innings in 2022.
Second, the infield alignment is something that caught my eye. Nicky Lopez at second is fine and that’s really where he should be playing. It’s Mondesi at short and Bobby Witt Jr. at third that I have a bit of a disagreement with. I know Witt Jr. is an all-world athlete (so is Mondesi when he’s healthy, for that matter), but to me when you have a generational prospect with tremendous upside, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to move him off his primary position. Especially to accommodate someone like Mondesi, who Dayton Moore himself said the Royals could not count on for regular innings due to his past battles with injury.
According to Mike Matheny on Tuesday, this is how things are going to set up.
Matheny and I are going to have to agree to disagree on this one.
Third, having said all of the above, it was the first day of players on the field. We have three more weeks of workouts and exhibitions and these sorts of things always have a way of sorting themselves out. Tueday could see the Royals reverse course with Witt Jr. at shortstop and Mondesi at third. Hunter Dozier could be waiting on the arrival of a new first baseman’s mitt before he can get some reps at first behind Carlos Santana.
It seems like I write this almost every edition of the newsletter, but the Royals really have set their roster in a way that gives them options. It’s up to the club to figure out how to maximize all those pieces in a way that gets the best out of each player and translates into wins. The situation can certainly remain fluid.
How would you align the infield?
Fourth, with the pitching sort of taking a back seat at the moment, maybe with the fielding alignment allegedly settled, we can focus on the real intrigue…how the starting rotation is going to shake out.
You have to like this:
I don’t want to dive too far overboard, but this is one of the intangible reasons Witt Jr. has been tagged for future success. As the son of a former major leaguer, he knows how to act in the clubhouse and on the field. Defer to the veterans. Learn from them.
While the Royals are quiet on the transaction front, I couldn’t help but notice this on Monday:
If you were to pick a landing spot for a pitcher who has struggled to consistently put it all together, your number one destination would almost have to be San Francisco. With former Royal Brian Bannister as the Director of Pitching for the Giants, their staff has been hugely successful in recent seasons.
Junis, you will recall, arrived to the 2021 season with much fanfare given the addition of a cutter. The pitch classification sites such as Baseball Savant and Brooks had a bit of difficulty distinguishing the cutter from the slider, but the bottom line was, the cutter wasn’t as successful as had been hoped. Hitters struggled against the slower Junis slider, but walloped the fastball and cutter.
The Junis move to the Bay Area will be interesting to chart over the course of the upcoming year. Can the Giants unlock something in the Junis arsenal to make him successful? Should that happen, it would not be a positive reflection of the Royals. We’ll see.
1st - I thought Jacob Junis had all the talent to be a solid starter. I hope he gets that chance in SF. I hated to see him go.
2nd - I am with you on Witt Jr staying at SS long term. I also am also probably the biggest Emanuel Rivera fan in KC. I really thought this season would be Lopez SS, Witt Jr. 3B, Merrifield 2B, Mondesi, UTL, and Rivera UTL. Then next year it would be Rivera 3B, Witt Jr. SS, Lopez 2B, and Mondesi still UTL. My rationale is Mondesi will eventually get injured and Merrifield will either get traded or not have his option picked up with Massey, Lofton, etc presenting themselves as legitimate MLB options. This gave us one season status quo before moving on to other prospects.
Totally agree with you on Witt. I don't think you mess with a promising superstar. I would also love to see Isbel in cf instead of Taylor.