Crown Jewels: Shaping the Royals, Spring Intrigue and Two Good Things
The Royals seem to finally be very close to what Matt Quatraro wants in a team. That's a good thing.
By the time the next Crown Jewels comes out, there will have been videos taken of the Royals stretching in uniforms and reporters will be in Surprise. I’ve booked my trip down there for early March, so I’ll be boots on the ground (and in a lot of Mexican restaurants with my family) then, which I’m greatly looking forward to. My two-year-old loves sports and loves being at games, so I’m excited to see her experience it with a little more ability to grasp what she’s experiencing than last year. Plus she finally gets to see her dad stop looking out the window just waiting for baseball to start, which is nice. I guess we’ve got to get through a pretty important game for the Kansas City area first this weekend, but baseball is very much around the corner.
And in an offseason that feels like it was a lighter lift than the last one, the Royals did do quite a bit without changing a whole lot about their team. They brought in some depth on minor league deals and brought back two pitchers in their starting rotation. They added a leadoff hitter to a lineup that got some of the worst production from that spot in the past decade plus. I wrote about it yesterday, but it does feel like there’s still work to be done. I think part of why it feels like there’s so much left to do is that there are still possibilities, even with free agents flying off the board.
Just yesterday, the Angels signed Yoan Moncada. No, he doesn’t play the same position as Taylor Ward, but you start to think about if they’re making one move to make another. The Orioles with their Ramon Laureano deal means someone there might be available. There are a lot of teams who you feel could move players who the Royals could use. Heck, there are a lot of players who feel like they’re squeezed out on a few teams who a bunch of teams could use. I think it’ll be an exciting final few weeks and a game of musical chairs around baseball.
This week’s newsletters:
A Roster Matt Quatraro Can Love
There are a few things you think of when you think of the Rays. Winning is one of them. Last year’s 80-82 finish for them was their first time under .500 since 2017. Another is a versatile roster. You watch the Rays and it feels like they have players who can all play a handful of different positions. That’s not true of every player, of course, but Kevin Cash likes to utilize his entire roster and we’ve learned over two years of Matt Quatraro that he either picked that up from his former boss or that’s also in his nature. He talked in his opening press conference more than two years ago now about winning in the margins. Everyone wants to out-talent the opponent, but sometimes on a team like the Royals or the Rays or any other lower-revenue team, you need to win in areas that other teams don’t have to.
And so now you look at the Royals roster and there is a ton of versatility, and they might be pushing for it to grow even more. The franchise stalwart, Salvador Perez, is even part of that. His ability to move from catcher to first base (and being comfortable at DH) allows them to get Freddy Fermin time to flash his Gold Glove-worthy defense. It sounds like Jonathan India is going to at least try to play second, third and left. Michael Massey is going to get time in left field. Maikel Garcia is the third baseman as far as I can tell right now, though I’m already doubting that roster projection, and he can play a more-than-competent shortstop and second base and is looking to add center field (and presumably the corners too) to his resume.
Bobby Witt Jr. doesn’t move. Vinnie Pasquantino isn’t versatile, though he also is fine at DH, which isn’t true of all players. But on the position player side, they have five players who it seems can bounce between two position groups and outfielders who can play any of the three spots (though at varying levels of quality). Add in that my roster projection featured eight right-handed bats and five lefties and there are platoon opportunities galore. So we see that in the offense, but it’s the pitching staff too.
The top three starters are starters. Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha aren’t going anywhere. But Michael Lorenzen and Kris Bubic are the fourth and fifth starters right now. They could jump to the bullpen and it feels like they won’t miss a beat. Bubic was excellent there in 2024 and Lorenzen pitched for six years out of the bullpen before he was a free agent and wanted to sign somewhere as a starter. The bullpen features multiple pitchers who can go multiple innings and it has two pitchers who have gotten high-leverage saves in the last year in Lucas Erceg and Carlos Estevez, and both seem to be on board with pitching wherever they’re needed.
Any manager would choose nine position players who they can just write in ink 162 times and walk away and know they’re going to win 95-100 games, but that’s not the reality. The Royals roster, while still not quite there, seems to finally be shaped in the way Quatraro was hoping when he took the job as he enters his third year. It was way closer last year than in 2023 and I think the next step from 2025 to 2026 is to improve some defensive spots. But I think we’ll see a lot of mixing and matching that gives the Royals a slightly better chance to win, and in a tightly contested division and league, that can matter.
Spring Training Things to Watch
Since the next time you see Crown Jewels, spring training will officially be in session, I want to talk about what’s important in the spring and what isn’t. I used to write a blog post at the start of every spring with this, but I’ve relegated it to the middle of a notes column I’ve written for 14 years now (oh no, I’m old, aren’t I?). Anyway, there are a few things to watch in spring that are important and a few things that don’t mean all that much.
For the Royals this year, that versatility I mentioned above is going to be something to keep a big eye on. One of India or Massey is going to have to play a position they’ve never played in the big leagues. Either could play outfield, which neither has played professionally. India could also play third, something he hasn’t done since 2019 in the Arizona Fall League. How either takes to their other positions is a big thing to watch this spring. With India at third, it’ll be more about the throws. His arm does not rate well, though I had a question that I’ve yet to have answered if second basemen inherently will have worse arm strength ratings because they don’t have to make many full strength throws. I will try to find that out.
With either in the outfield, it’ll be about tracking the ball more than anything. Most big leaguers are good enough that they can look fine in the outfield (with enough speed), but tracking the ball off the bat and getting good jumps is what makes it so difficult. Some take to it right way, others do eventually (Alex Gordon comes to mind) and some just don’t (*cough* MJ Melendez *cough*). That’ll be the biggest thing I’m watching this spring on the position player front because it can really change the way this team looks if either or both can handle a second or even third position. I also want to see how Gavin Cross looks because I think he has a shot to help out at some point, but it’s about how he looks, not the results.
Because the reality is that the numbers don’t mean a ton. You’d rather be good than bad, yes, but the air is thin. Pitchers are working on things. The infield can get super rigid because of all the sun. The sun can cause players to miss popups. So you could see what will be a routine ground ball in Kansas City just zip through the infield for a hit. Or a fly ball that isn’t touched go for a double, but it would likely be caught in most regular season games. Every year there are examples of why the numbers lie. Last year, Nick Pratto hit .421/.476/.816. Melendez hit .310/.420/.571.
On the pitching side, I’ll be curious to see what Bubic’s velocity looks like as he gets stretched out. We’ll have to wait for that. Ragans doesn’t have anything to prove anymore other than if he can do it again, but he mentioned attacking hitters more. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up with bad spring numbers because he’s working on throwing strikes, and that can lead to some mistakes. Angel Zerpa is a big part of this bullpen, as of right now. If he’s the guy who pitched in September and October, they have another big-time arm. If he’s the guy who got sent down in August, they might need to make a trade. He’s really interesting to me for this bullpen.
If you’re going to Arizona, and I’ll probably write this up in the next couple of weeks, I recommend you go to the back fields and just watch practice. You can see big leaguers before games at maybe 10:30 or 11 (I think, I’ll have to look back at my notes to verify that) or you can see minor leaguers as well. I remember watching batting practice a few years ago and hearing just an incredible sound off the bat. It turns out it was Pasquantino hitting missiles. One minor leaguer’s batting practice I’d like to catch this year is Austin Charles. I’ve heard he has a similar sound. Anyway, this was a super quick rundown, but that’s my spring training plea to ignore stats and watch situations.
Free Negro Leagues Museum Admission and Over-the-Air Broadcasts
I want to combine these two because I don’t have a ton to say about either, but both are great for the fans. For the second year, Royals Charities is covering admission to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum throughout the month of February. If you haven’t been to the museum, I’d highly encourage it, and if cost has been an issue, it isn’t for the rest of this month.
I remember the first time I went when I was a kid, and I was just in awe of everything. There’s just something about walking on that field with the players out there and reading all the stories and hopefully hearing all the stories. I can’t recommend going enough. In fact, I’m going to have another giveaway for two year-long memberships to the museum after the free month is over. More on that soon.
Additionally, the Royals announced this week that they’d be broadcasting 10 games on KCTV5 and KSMO, which will be free for anyone with a television (and maybe an antenna, I don’t actually know how that works anymore). They’ll all be Sunday games that are announced at a later date and at least six of them will be on KCTV5. There’ll be more information on that coming out as we get closer to Opening Day, but there is no world where this isn’t a good thing. I did see a lot of people with snarky responses (no really, snarky responses on social media) about how 10 games isn’t enough. Here’s the thing - I don’t disagree. But 10 is more than 0, which was the number of games last year that were provided. It’s a nice step in the right direction.
The baseball television landscape is a mess right now. Teams made money hand over fist with their deals for a long time and that bubble burst and now they’re left scrambling to find where to show their games. I think every team has a deal in place, whether it’s with MLB, Diamond, their own network or something else. There is work to be done on that front, and I think that it will be, though the fact that I find myself having confidence in the commissioner’s office and the owners makes me a little queasy. Still, this is a good step for the Royals, and hopefully, we see much more in the future.
My Underdog Super Bowl Picks
We are now just two days away from the Chiefs playing in their third-straight Super Bowl and trying to win a third straight, which is absolutely bonkers. And, as you know, I’m partnering with Underdog Fantasy and providing some picks throughout the postseason. Don’t worry, I’ll be picking for baseball soon enough, but there isn’t anything there, so… Anyway, here are my plays for the week.
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I look at Mahomes and he’s completed more than 65 percent of his passes in 15 of 20 career postseason games. Plus, the Eagles pass rush is so good that he’s going to be making quick throws, which are more likely to be completed. I’ve got Kareem Hunt with a TD because he’s scored a rushing TD in every one of his six career playoff games. I’ve got Samaje Perine with higher than 1.5 receptions because of that pass rush. I think Andy is going to bust out the screen game that we haven’t seen a ton of and Perine is very good at that. He’s only caught two or more passes in two of his last eight games, so it’s a risk. Then I’ve got Dallas Goeddert with higher than 4.5 catches because I will always bet on tight ends getting catches against the Chiefs. And I’ve got Harrison Butker with higher than 1.5 field goals because the Eagles red zone defense is great, so the Chiefs are going to have to settle at least a couple of times.
Please remember to make your picks responsibly. If you’re not someone who can handle it, just don’t do it. But it makes the games just a little bit more interesting for me, and if that’s you too, this is a really fun way to watch the games!
Hmm old i wouldn't say that ya may started writing when ya was 14 yrs old lol. As long as ya under 150 I say ya young 🤣
Have fun in Arizona! Go Royals!