Four questions about the Royals this spring
We all want some answers.
As I was digging out from yet another snowstorm, pitchers and catchers officially reported to Royals spring training. Damn the snow. Baseball season is here.
With every spring, there are questions that hover over every team. A position is up for grabs. A player is searching for health. Who’s the damn fifth starter? Is anyone in the best shape of their life?
With that in mind, here are a few questions I have about the Royals as baseball is finally here.
None of these questions will be original—at least to those of us who regularly follow this team. There’s been a little new info dropped on some of the more familiar ones. Still, we’re all working things out to be ready for the regular season.
Who will man the keystone?
Ahhh, yes…I think this is the number one question we all have this spring. Will the Opening Day second baseman be Michael Massey or will it be newcomer Jonathan India?
We know that both will be regulars. We also know that India was acquired to solidify the leadoff spot in the lineup. We just don’t know where they’ll line up defensively. Will the Royals opt for one to be the regular at second, or will they rotate, playing all over the field?
Word is, both are open to moving around the diamond. While the most likely landing spot for the guy who isn’t the regular second baseman looks to be left field, there’s also the possibility India would slide over to third. He was the regular third baseman for the Florida Gators from 2016 to 2018 and has played there some as a professional. However, the last time he held down the hot corner was in 2019 for Double-A Chattanooga. He’s only played second since then.
As you know, Massey has missed time with a back injury in the past. Last season, his back didn’t bother him while he was hitting, but it flared up when he would bend forward to field grounders. Maybe moving to the outfield would put less pressure on Massey’s back, a situation that has been described as “chronic” and something he will have to manage going forward.
Is the outfield going to be good enough?
I hate to be a downer, but this outfield just isn’t doing it for me. And the position players haven’t even officially reported yet! Perhaps a better question to ask is, will someone force the issue through a quality Cactus League performance? I’m talking about Nelson Velázquez, Drew Waters or Joey Weimer. I know, I know…We know all about the first two guys and haven’t formally been introduced to the third, but still…
About the only thing we know for certain at this point is that Kyle Isbel figures to play the most innings in center. But will his defense be enough to counter what has been, to this point, an extremely underwhelming bat?
I’m already having nightmares about this outfield.
What will Kyle Wright’s role be?
It seems as if Wright is carrying a bit of that backup quarterback vibe as camp opens. I’ve written about this before, but the backup quarterback vibe is the thought that the second stringer is this close to achieving greatness, but we can’t know for sure exactly how great he will be because he’s on the bench. We just know his talent is being wasted.
For Wright, it’s not about wasting talent. Rather, it’s how he will return from a shoulder injury that caused him to miss all of 2024. He’s the great unknown at this point just like that backup QB, but I’ve still seen expectations ranging from greatness in the rotation to a role in the bullpen.
The one thing we do know about Wright is the Royals are going to take it slowly. No reason to push, given the injury history and the depth the Royals have assembled. I will be curious to see when Wright gets into a Cactus League game—if he gets into a game at all. And if he throws, how far will he be stretched out? At this point, I expect him to open the season on the IL, but I’m willing to be surprised. I also would not be surprised if he made an impact in the Royals season at some point in the second half. Patience.
What’s up with the fifth starter battle?
With the late winter re-signing of Michael Lorenzen to go along with the early re-signing of Michael Wacha, it would seem that the front four in the Royals’ rotation is set, leaving very little intrigue. So, the focus will be on the fifth starter position. Will it go to Kris Bubic, who I had penciled in as the number four before Lorenzen returned? How about Daniel Lynch IV? Then there’s Alec Marsh, who opened last season as the number five and ended up making 25 starts.
Quatraro had this to say on Wednesday:
Yeah, I mean, we've all off-season, the guys, Lynch, Bubic, have started to have progressed to build up as a starter. We're going to continue to build them up, and then, at some point, we're going to have to make a decision. We saw how well they did out of the bullpen last year. You know, health is a huge part of this, and understanding that we have guys that can do both. But both of those guys are going to be progressing as starters.
Marsh will be behind. You know, he had a little shoulder soreness in the off-season, nothing that we're overly concerned with. But he will be behind in that mix, behind timing-wise. But I think that depth and all those guys being willing to do whatever it takes to help us win is going to be helpful.
So we have our first injury news of the spring, a nonchalant, almost off-the-cuff note from Quatraro. If Q isn’t sweating the Marsh injury, should we be concerned? On a scale of 1-10, I’d put my level of worry at about a five, just because these minor spring injuries sometimes balloon into something major. He’s throwing bullpens, though, which is encouraging, so he must not be that far “behind.” I’ll feel better about it once he gets into game action.
But wait! There was another injury we learned about on Wednesday. From Anne Rogers on the ground in Surprise:
Screws in the elbow. That sounds like the worst offseason ever.
I haven’t really started formulating another roster projection, but with the depth the Royals have assembled, James McArthur was going to be a longshot to open the season with Kansas City, injury or no.
The McArthur injury news makes me wonder whether he was injured all during the season. I mean, you wouldn't think the guy would pitch through an elbow fracture, but Wacha pitched most of a game with a broken toe and Chris Stratton was apparently injured for almost all of last season.
This also reminds me that Carlos Santana claimed he was injured for most of one his years with KC. At the time, people were talking about how players will blame bad seasons on injuries, but based on how good he looked last year, I wonder if he might have been on to something.
Basically, I really don't trust the Royals when it comes to injury stuff.
It seems Kyle Wright is the Royals Schrodinger's cat. On one hand he can be thought of as being perpetually on the 60 day IL. Never available to play. On the other hand he can be thought of as the 2022 version of himself when he threw 180 innings with a 3.19 ERA and led the National League in wins. I understand that spring is a time of unbridled optimism and every glass is half full, but its fun to dream on this guy and what he could mean for this team.