KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In December, Royals chairman and CEO John Sherman addressed the moves the organization made during the offseason.
The Royals signed center fielder Michael A. Taylor to shore up their outfield defense. They signed left-handed starter Mike Minor to eat innings. They signed first baseman Carlos Santana to lengthen the lineup and provide more quality plate appearances.
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What would it mean in terms of wins and losses? Sherman, who purchased a majority stake in the team in the fall of 2019, cited a line often spoken by Royals general manager Dayton Moore.
“We’ll find out,” Sherman said. “Sometime next summer, we’ll start to find out.”
The Royals (27-26) are nearly a third of the way through this season. It’s been a roller-coaster ride. The club opened by going 16-9. Then they lost 11 in a row. Now they’ve won eight of their last 12. At times, the lineup has looked deep and formidable. So has the rotation and the bullpen. At other times, well, the Royals have looked like the 100-loss Royals of old.
The point: There’s still so much to be seen, so much to be analyzed. But Sherman’s quote is coming into focus: It feels like we’ve started to find out what this team is about. So what have we learned, and what can we expect over the final two-thirds of the season?
Andrew Benintendi appears headed toward a career year
There’s a little bit of rhythm in the way Benintendi sets up at the plate. His bat waves forward ever so slightly, then back, forward again, then back again. When the pitch is thrown, Benintendi loads into his back leg and uncorks a swing that can produce moments such as these:
First-pitch slamming.#TogetherRoyal pic.twitter.com/f1xIt71fRO
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) June 2, 2021
As of June 3, here’s Benintendi’s stat line: .291/.348/.401 with five home runs, 23 RBIs, 38 strikeouts and 17 walks. Even his OPS+ is 108 (100 is MLB average), so he’s been just a touch above average, right?
Wrong. Don’t let the overall numbers fool you.
There’s context to Benintendi’s bounce-back season that goes far beyond a hitter and his production. His story speaks to baseball in 2021. To what it means when a player drifts away from the thing that made him so successful. In 2019, Benintendi, then playing for the Boston Red Sox, set out to hit more homers. This affected his bat path and his approach. Instead, he struggled to a .462 OPS in September of that year.
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After an injury limited him to 14 games in 2020, he chose to revisit his ill-advised pursuit of more power. He wanted to return his bat path to the angle that allowed him to have so much success in college at Arkansas and in his early career with the Red Sox. The Royals acquired him by trade, and just 16 games into this season his OPS sat at .483. But that’s when he closed his stance and opened his leg kick, and that’s when the breakthrough happened.
Since April 23, Benintendi has batted .347/.396/.487. He has also hit .417 with runners in scoring position, ranking sixth in MLB. These are ridiculous numbers, but they’re also hard to dismiss, and here’s why: His strikeout rate (18.9 percent) is as low as it’s been since 2018, he’s whiffing at fewer offspeed pitches (14.7 percent) than at any point in his career and his solid contact percentage (7.5 percent) is a notch below his career high.
The bullpen should continue to be a strength
Before the season, the Royals believed strongly in their bullpen. They had at least five pitchers (Josh Staumont, Scott Barlow, Greg Holland, Kyle Zimmer and Jesse Hahn) who could pitch in high-leverage spots.
Two weeks into the season, Hahn was placed on the injured list with shoulder impingement and not returned. A month into the season, Zimmer was placed on the injured list with a left trap strain and missed three weeks. On May 28, Staumont was placed on the injured list with a left knee strain and remains absent.
Somehow, the bullpen has continued to be the team’s strength.
Take this recent eight-of-12 winning stretch. Since May 17, the Royals’ bullpen has a 2.14 ERA, fourth-lowest in the majors.
Loads of credit goes to Barlow, who pitches both well and often. Among all relievers in baseball, Barlow’s WAR (1.0), per FanGraphs, ranks fifth in MLB, behind Aroldis Chapman. Thing is, Barlow has pitched more innings (27) than each of the relievers in front of him.
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Another pivotal piece to the pen has been lefty Jake Brentz, whom the Royals signed in the fall of 2019 after he was released by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He’s posted a 2.10 ERA over 25 2/3 innings, so many of which have been in leverage spots. Holland has been inconsistent (he has a 3.66 ERA in 19 2/3 innings), but with Zimmer back in the fold, and pitchers such as Jakob Junis readying for more spots, it’s hard to imagine this group slowing down.
Brady Singer stories will continue aplenty
One of this season’s most intriguing Royals subplots — Angel Hernandez, you deserve a mention — has been goofy stories surrounding righty Brady Singer.
On April 15, the Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5. Afterward, Royals manager Mike Matheny said “someone dropped the ball.”
“We came (into the clubhouse),” Matheny continued. “And there was no music. I heard people yelling at Brady Singer. I don’t know if they made him the impromptu DJ, but he dropped the ball.”
A few days later, during his weekly radio spot on 610 Sports in Kansas City, Royals All-Star second baseman Whit Merrifield recounted how “O Canada” played before a series at Kauffman Stadium against the Blue Jays. Afterward, Singer, who looked confused, asked, “What the hell was that song?”
“The entire national anthem I was just doing everything I could not to bust out laughing,” Merrifield told radio hosts Cody Tapp and Alex Gold. “Nobody answered his question, so he was even more confused after the anthem. … We tell him it’s the playing of the Canadian anthem and he was all, ‘Oh sorry, I guess we don’t get many Canadians down in Florida.’”
The Singer stories didn’t stop. On May 24, Merrifield had another gem for Tapp and Gold. Evidently, on an off day, Singer planned to propose to his now-fiancée by a pool at Big Cedar Lodge. It was raining. They were outside taking pictures. And Singer, Merrifield said, slipped and fell into the pool with his phone and wallet in his pocket. He attempted to get out but slipped and fell back again.
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“This is only going to happen to him,” Merrifield said.
Sopping-wet Singer did indeed propose that night. He told his teammates the next day. They congratulated him and asked how it went.
“Good. Got engaged. Took pictures. Fell in the pool,” Singer told them.
Until another story arises, Merrifield’s exposés have continued on Twitter. During a recent rainout, Merrifield posted this photo of a Singer reaction:
https://t.co/URCYza6FE9 pic.twitter.com/XcGIPwKPHP
— Whit Merrifield (@WhitMerrifield) May 22, 2021
It’s going to be hard to expect production from Adalberto Mondesi or Jorge Soler
Take a deep breath, then read: lower-back strain, right-shoulder impingement syndrome, groin strain, left shoulder subluxation, strained oblique, tweaked hamstring.
That’s the list of Mondesi’s known injuries since 2015.
In July 2019, we wrote this: “(Mondesi’s) speed and power and defensive tools are essential to the team’s rebuild. Problem is, those tools stay in the box when a player is injured, and that has often been the case for Mondesi.”
The line continues to be true. When he’s healthy and on the field, he is electric, as evidenced by this home run Monday night:
A Mondi moonshot!#TogetherRoyal pic.twitter.com/MYnfZr0Y13
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) June 1, 2021
It’s just that his tantalizing talent is unavailable so often. Any speculation that his hamstring injury nixes a potential extension feels like an overreaction. However, it’s a reminder that while Mondesi did return and tally a 0.4 WAR, per FanGraphs, in seven games (which is already the sixth-highest WAR among Royals position players), it’s hard to expect him to remain on the field.
That’s also true of Jorge Soler. He’s batting .178/.257/.314, but put his lack of production aside. Soler’s injury history is also a laundry list. On Saturday, he was removed from the game because of right groin discomfort. Matheny said Tuesday that Soler could be nearing a return. Still, given that Soler has only played topped 101 games in a season once since 2014, it feels like a fool’s errand to keep thinking he’ll be available.
(Photo of Andrew Benintendi / Getty Images))
