The Sunday Ramble

The Ramble returns with a look ahead to a busy week on the transaction logs.

It’s the last Sunday before Opening Day. A perfect time to ramble.

I’ll start off today with a personal note. This will be my 19th season covering the Royals on the World Wide Web. (I believe that’s what we were calling this space when I started writing.) I have a great appreciation for those of you who have joined me along the way. It’s been a helluva journey. Some lows, some highs, some lows again…

Anyway, I’ve mentioned this from time to time, but I’d really like to bring some newsletter heat to the 2023 season. To that end, if you are a reader who visits the Substack site or just clicks the links I drop on Twitter, it would be great if you could find your way to signing up for a free subscription. I promise there is no spam! And I don’t do anything stupid with your email address. I just send a (hopefully) entertaining and informative article about the Royals a few times a week.

If you’re already a subscriber, thanks! But hang on…I have a favor to ask of you, too. The best way to grow this newsletter is through word of mouth. Or the 21st-century version of that, which means clicking a button and sending it to your pals electronically. So if you have a Royals fan in your life who, for some reason, isn’t reading this newsletter, to them (and me) a favor and share Into the Fountains.

I have a few things planned this season that I’m keeping on the lowdown for the moment. It’s going to be a little more writing from yours truly, so we’ll see how long I can make it happen before the inevitable burnout creep.

Long-time readers know that this is as optimistic as I’ve been about this franchise since the 2015 season. Hop on board. Let’s take this journey together.

Ok…let’s get to why you’re really here…roster moves!

The Royals’ latest spring training roster lists 20 non-roster players still in camp. There’s a ton of work to be done over the next several days to whittle that down to get to the Opening Day roster. A handful of those non-roster guys are easy calls, like the crop of catchers still in camp behind Salvador Perez and MJ Melendez. There are at least two, and probably three, NRIs who will make this team. With the current roster at 40, there will be some transactions in the next few days.

Franmil Reyes, hitting .375/.444/.675 with three home runs in 45 plate appearances (all stats are through Friday) is an obvious addition. There’s really nothing to discuss here. He’s in.

The Non-Roster Matts—Beaty and Duffy—present something of a difficult choice for the Royals’ decision-makers. Beaty has impressed, hitting .343/.378/.629. He appeared in just two games in the last week, starting in right and at first base, which doesn’t quite illustrate the positional flexibility he brings at the corners—which the team most certainly covets.

Duffy, meanwhile, made starts at second and short in the last week. Overall, he’s hit .314/.342/.439 in 38 Cactus League PAs. He could fit on this roster as another utility man.

Then there is Jackie Bradley Jr. Man, I have no idea where this is going. When the Royals brought him into camp as center field depth after Drew Waters went down, I figured he would collect a few reps, not exactly distinguish himself and then the team and Bradley would part ways before the regular season. Then Bradley hit .385/.385/.577 in 26 spring PAs. All the while playing his usual exceptional center field defense.

Which is how we find ourselves at this point…

Jon Heyman @JonHeyman

Hearing Jackie Bradley Jr. is making the Royals

Bradley’s agent is Scott Boras. Given it’s Heyman with the Tweet, this is as good as showing up in the transaction column on MLB.com.

Speaking of Boras and Bradley, who can forget this quote?

“JBJ is the PBJ of the major leagues. He’s sweet, smooth and spreads it all over.”

Could I appropriate that for the newsletter? You know, something like “ITF is the PBJ of the Substacks. It’s sweet, smooth and spreads it all over.”

I’ll continue to workshop this.

It’s foolish to buy into spring stats, especially when these non-roster players have plenty of regular season major league at-bats to glean from. However, the Royals have decided to ride with Melendez as the backup catcher so that opens another spot that could go to one of these non-roster guys. Yet they can’t take all of them. Not with Nicky Lopez holding down a spot and your boy Hunter Dozier still getting opportunities.

Each non-roster guy added comes at the expense of someone already on the 40-man. They can use the 60-day IL to find some space (like they already did for Angel Zerpa…Diego Hernandez is another candidate), but the reality is one or two guys are going to hit the waiver wire.

It’s going to be a very interesting week of roster jockeying.

Ahead of their game on Saturday, the Royals announced a handful of roster moves that will impact the bullpen.

Kansas City Royals @Royals

We have optioned LHPs Richard Lovelady and Josh Taylor, and RHP Josh Staumont to Omaha (AAA).

My initial reaction is…Damn, even with a new coaching staff in place, Lovelady still can’t buy a break. The lefty twirled eight Cactus League innings, didn’t walk a batter, whiffed 10 and surrendered just five hits. I don’t know about you, but that gets you a spot in my bullpen!

Unfortunately for Lovelady, I’m not the one calling the (official) shots. However, it would be best for him to not get discouraged. As I’ve written at length this winter, the Royals will be employing quite the revolving door with their pitchers this season. Expect a lot of shuffling, both in the bullpen and the rotation. Lovelady may be a preseason roster casualty, but it would be incredibly surprising (and massively disappointing) if he didn’t find his way to Kansas City, and soon.

Options are going to matter. And most of the Royals relievers possess at least one. That’s the crunch Staumont found himself in. Despite tickling 100 MPH in his early spring outings, he walked five in eight innings (against 10 whiffs) and finds himself in Omaha to open the year. Yeah, yeah, yeah…the Royals want better command from Staumont but is this really ever going to happen? Seems to me that he is what he is…an electric, if oft-times erratic, weapon in the bullpen. Pitching him in high-leverage situations may induce a handful of white knuckles in the dugout, but he can still bring some value to that bullpen in more medium-leverage opportunities.

Like Lovelady, Staumont will be back with the big league club. Soon.

With the moves, what had been a competitive camp for the bullpen gains some clarity. The usual suspects (Scott Barlow, Dylan Coleman, Taylor Clarke, Amir Garrett and Aroldis Chapman) remain locks. The same, I believe for Carlos Hernández and Ryan Yarbrough. That leaves one spot open (that would’ve been Staumont’s) for either Jose Cuas or Collin Snider. Cuas has walked just one of the 22 batters he’s faced this spring, while Snider has seen 30 hitters in the Cactus League and issued just a single free pass.

The starting rotation likewise remains in flux. Late in the week, the team announced Zack Greinke would be the Opening Day starter for the second year in a row. In early March, I had penciled in Brady Singer for the honor, but his lack of game time in the World Baseball Classic has set his timetable back enough that he wasn’t in the running. So it’s Greinke. That’s fine and fun and good.

Meanwhile, Daniel Lynch and his shoulder discomfort means he’s out of the running for a roster spot coming out of camp. The Royals are optimistic that with seven to 10 days of rest, he’ll be ready to go. The lefty spoke to Anne Rogers about the injury.

“It felt like my arm was stretching out of the socket, going with the ball,” Lynch said prior to the Royals’ 3-0 win over the Giants at Surprise Stadium. “To feel all that, I was like, I can’t go any further. It was just kind of a shocking thing. I was so excited for the season.

“I felt like my stuff was in a good place. I felt like I was in a good spot, very confident, very excited. I was bummed out. Had really high hopes. So that goes through your mind. But I’m glad I can get back soon and help the team for the majority of the season.”

This means the Royals will open with a rotation featuring Grienke, Jordan Lyles, Brad Keller and Singer. In that order.

Singer will make the Royals’ final start of the spring, on March 28. That will put him in line to make his regular-season debut on Monday against Toronto. With just one off day in the first two weeks of the season, the Royals will need their fifth starter on April 8. Or, they could run with a fifth starter right out of the chute to keep everyone on the normal regular season schedule.

Here’s how the Royals will stack their pitchers as they close out their exhibition season:

3/26 - Ryan Yarbrough, Carlos Hernández, Mike Mayers
3/27 - Kris Bubic, Amir Garrett, Scott Barlow, Dylan Coleman
3/28 - Brady Singer, Josh Staumont, Josh Taylor, Taylor Clarke

Early camp injuries mean Yarbrough and Bubic have thrown four and 6.2 innings, respectively. It’s possible both could find themselves on the outside of the Opening Day roster. Or, they could chose to piggyback Bubic, say, with Hernández while Yarbrough continues to build up length in the bullpen. It all depends on the comfort level of pitcher and manager. With Matt Quatraro having worked with Yarbrough before, I would imagine a line of communication and trust already exists.

Anyway, the point here, as elsewhere through this edition of the newsletter, is the Royals have myriad options at their disposal. Yet another reason the 2023 season commands our attention. I think we are going to see some things from this franchise that they were…let’s say resistant to…in the past.

Five days until Opening Day.