Examining the Non-Roster Invites

It's a lighter list for a lighter spring.

If you look around the league at the lists of players invited to spring training who are not part of the 40-man roster, you’ll see some combination of top prospects, once-upon-a-time big leaguers and never-will-bes. The Royals are no different, but this year is different for every team because of the limited amount of time the organizations will have to see their players perform in games. Because of that, I believe that we’ll probably see fewer surprises making the roster than we have in the past. Last year, five NRIs made the Opening Day Roster. In 2019, it was one. In 2018, it was two. With the first spring game (FINALLY!) being played tomorrow let’s look at the list for this year.

The (Near) Locks to Make the Team

There’s only one and it’s one of baseball’s best prospects.

Bobby Witt Jr. is in camp as a non-roster invite for the second straight year and while he had a shot to make the team last season, he’s been written into the Opening Day lineup in pen. Yes, it’s an erasable pen, but those never come off the way erasing from a pencil does. Barring something like him going 1 for 35 and looking terrible or *whispers* getting hurt, Witt is on this roster to start the season and he’s the Vegas favorite for Rookie of the Year. The only question is now is where he’ll play and the answer is probably third.

They’ve Got a Good Shot

The Royals sure do love their veterans on the pitching staff and trying to rekindle old flames, so that’s where the best shots come into play for guys who aren’t basically reserved a spot like the golden child.

Brad Peacock could be this year’s Ervin Santana, who came in as a long man who could make a spot start and help the young arms in the bullpen. He brings more than 540 innings of big league experience, which isn’t exactly a ton, but it’s more than a lot of the guys on the pitching staff has. He was good in 2019, going 7-6 for Houston in 23 games and 91.2 innings with a 4.12 ERA, 25.1 percent strikeout rate and 8.1 percent walk rate. The last two years have been a bit tougher for him, but he’s only appeared in five games between the Astros and Red Sox, though he was also horrible in the minors between the Boston and Cleveland systems. He gives a different look than most of the bullpen as he’s not a hard-thrower, but I think he’ll either be gone quickly or be a solid part of a good bullpen.

Arodys Vizcaino was once a top prospect and then once a top reliever. From 2015 until his injury in 2019, he had a 2.77 ERA with a 26.9 percent strikeout rate. If he has an opt-out in his contract like so many minor league deals do, I think he has a better shot to make the team than I originally figured. If he’s healthy and still throwing 97+ with the slider that he’s gotten whiffs on more than 50 percent of swings over the years, he could break into the back end of the bullpen. It looked like he was getting back to that with the Mets last season in the minors before more elbow soreness. Especially if the rosters are expanded, he has a great shot, but it’s not a done deal.

There’s a Spot If He Earns It

The Royals current roster makeup probably matters a lot here, but right now the Royals are running an outfield of Andrew Benintendi, Michael A. Taylor and Whit Merrifield. I have a hard time thinking they’ll want Edward Olivares and Kyle Isbel on the roster as backups.

JaCoby Jones is the one who can benefit from that and I actually had him in my last roster projection. Jones, of course, was with the Tigers for the last few seasons and looked like he might have been figuring some things out offensively. He hit .243/.316/.451 in 441 plate appearances before falling off last season back to the level he was before 2019. But also, the last time he rated well defensively was 2018 when he was a plus defender in all three outfield spots. His speed has dropped off some, but I have a hard time thinking he can’t be a capable outfielder. The problem is he’s struggled against lefties outside of a few plate appearances in 2020, so it’s not a great fit, but I think he has a shot.

Making an Impression for Later

So much of the drill for non-roster invites is to make an impression on the big league staff for later. I think there’s always a surprise that can come out of this list and make the team, but far more often than not, they’re trying to catch an eye or two. Sometimes it’s an eye on another team.

Dairon Blanco is a guy I like quite a bit and actually mentioned adding him to the 40-man to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. The Royals acquired him as part of the Jake Diekman deal a few years ago and he just started hitting this past year. He’s older at 29 this year, but he came from Cuba and has a chance to be a solid fourth outfielder with good speed, good defense, a little pop and not a terrible hit tool. He might even be a better fit than Jones, but I think his time will have to wait.

Gabriel Cancel is in a tough spot because of all the infield depth the Royals have. Ahead of him on the depth chart right now is Nicky Lopez, Merrifield, Emmanuel Rivera, Witt and Mondesi. And if it takes a bit of time before someone else is needed, you could add Nick Loftin and Michael Massey to this list. So I think a lot of this invite is a chance for Cancel to showcase and to give him the shot after being in the organization for so long. Cancel does have some pop and some versatility, so there’s a chance he could catch on somewhere, if not in KC.

Austin Cox was someone I was very excited about heading into the 2021 season, but he had an uneven year with his velocity dipping and making me drop him from my top prospects. That doesn’t mean he can’t come back. Pratto wasn’t in my top prospects before either. It’s easy to look at the numbers in AA and think all was well with a 3.00 ERA, but he just wasn’t right. This is a great opportunity for him to show the organization he can get back on the map. And whether he’s part of the next great Royals team or part of a deal to bring back someone who is, this is an important spring for him. If he can get back to the 92-94 range with his fastball consistently, he’s back to being a legitimate prospect.

Josh Dye could be the other lefty the Royals need. A tall, thin lefty from FGCU who comes at you from a funky arm slot will remind fans of Chris Sale, but the stuff is a bit different. His fastball is only upper-80s, but his changeup is murder on hitters and he continues to get the job done. I think he’s probably behind Gabe Speier and maybe Daniel Tillo as the second lefty right now, but if Speier and/or Tillo falters, Dye could be positioning himself for a callup.

Nathan Eaton has been pretty much looked over by everyone but my friends at Royals Farm Report. And it’s not without reason. He hasn’t been a standout performer, but he did finally hit in the Arizona Fall League this past year with a .317/.352/.463. He has decent speed and is listed as an outfielder, which is interesting. The Royals had mentioned in the past that they saw him in the mold of Merrifield, so he’s going to get that shot to show off what he can do and is someone you might earmark to see in the future.

Brewer Hicklen is one of my absolute favorite prospects in the system and it’s not because there’s a ton of rhyme and reason. He’s shown flashes, though. He’s athletic, can handle center and has big power. He knows balls from strikes, but he swings and misses too much. It just felt like something clicked last year, though. He hit .298/.415/.591 with a 26.6 percent strikeout rate in his last 207 plate appearances. The strikeout rate is still high and he’s probably a fourth outfielder, but he’s the guy for me who I’ll always hope figures it out.

Vinnie Pasquantino might be the fastest riser we’ve seen in awhile. He was an 11th round pick who multiple scouts told me was a nice organizational bat to help anchor some lower-level lineups but would flame out as he moved up the ladder. But then he got better when he reached AA. Some of that was the shift being banned in AA, but some of it is the guy can just legitimately hit. He makes contact. He works walks. He has power. No, he’s not good defensively, but the guy can hit. He’s making an impression, but also getting rewarded for his 2021 season. You’ll see Vinnie in the big leagues soon enough.

Jace Vines might have the biggest arms in the entire Royals system. He hasn’t had a ton of success since being drafted in the fourth round in 2016, but he’s bringing it hard, hitting upper-90s and even into triple digits in the minors. I don’t see a long-term piece, but with all the ups and downs that I think we can expect this season even with the maximum of being optioned five times, he’ll have a shot to get a few big league innings and a few big league paychecks.

Everyone Needs Catchers in Spring

There are a lot of pitchers in camp and someone has to catch their bullpens. That’s not to say that some of these guys can’t become big-time performers, but if you want to get into big league camp ahead of schedule, be a catcher.

Tyler Cropley was drafted in 2018 in the eighth round by the Nationals out of Iowa. Catchers are slow developers sometimes and he did hit decently in college, but he hasn’t yet hit in professional baseball. But again, pitchers need someone to throw the ball to, so here he is. And hey, you never know. Maybe he can figure something out with the bat.

Kale Emshoff came to the Royals after the bizarre 2020 draft as a free agent. Of this group of catchers, he has the best shot to be a big league contributor, I think anyway. He struck out a bit too much, but he did a great job of understanding the zone in A-ball. He showed power, an ability to make strong contact when he makes contact. If the strikeout rate drops, he has a future.

Freddy Fermin gets a lot of attention for his joy for the game and rightfully so. It’s not all just smiles for him, though. He actually hit well in AA last year with a .279/.356/.446 line in 303 plate appearances. He struggled in Omaha in a limited sample, but he has the look and feel of a backup catcher. That might seem like a dig, but it’s not. He’s not in a great organization for that with all the catching talent, but he’s fun to watch.

Logan Porter was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2018 and spent some time dominating rookie ball, as you’d expect a college player to do. Then in 2021, he showed off some plate discipline and some power in A-ball. He’s not a great defender, but the bat could potentially play as a nice organizational piece over the next few years, whether that’s in KC or elsewhere.

So there’s your list. I think your best bet for surprises on the Opening Day roster are Blanco and Dye, but I wouldn’t sleep on Cox if he shows the velocity is back. I don’t think he has much of a shot, if any, to break with the team, but he could be one of the first callups if he shows something this spring.