Crown Jewels: Fermin is a Hero, Royals Priorities, Sherman Speaks and More

There is a lot going on for a bad Royals team.

I did not anticipate the Royals would win the game yesterday. Shane Bieber, who is still good but also not as good as he was, looked pretty amazing in shutting down the offense for six innings. They couldn’t do much in the seventh either, but they were able to break through in the eighth, which was great to see. A Nicky Lopez walk and a Drew Waters single set things up.

And honestly, it was very close to never being as exciting a win as it was because Edward Olivares came on to pinch hit and just missed it.

A sacrifice fly was good, but a three-run homer would have been better. Still, that was followed by Waters stealing second and that allowed Nick Pratto to actually make contact with the ball and tie up a game that I thought would never possibly get tied up.

Scott Barlow handled the ninth just fine (wow, shocking that a good pitcher had a good inning) and the Royals went 1-2-3 in their half of the inning, which lead to the 10th and prepped for what I think is the absolute worst rule in all of sports. With Jose Ramirez on second base, he moved to third on a ground ball to the right side. Aroldis Chapman struck out Josh Bell and had Andres Gimenez down 0-2 when Ramirez decided to take matters into his own hands.

I hate Ramirez. Absolutely hate him. And it’s an absolutely adoring hate because he is such a great player. He got a huge lead, which all players should do in that situation and took off.

I mean look at that slide! It was brilliant.

Luckily, the dumbest rule in sports applies to both sides and the Royals got to start their 10th with Kyle Isbel on second. He moved to third on a grounder to the right side that the Guardians didn’t handle well and allowed Lopez to reach on an infield single. After a called third strike, Freddy Fermin came up.

You sure love to see that! The Guardians had so many chances to put this game away early. They left the bases loaded in the first. They got thrown out on the bases four different times. They were picked off, thrown out at third twice and thrown out at the plate. Then the grounder from Lopez fielded poorly allowed the winning run to reach base. If the Royals do that, we call it a day that ends in “y” but the Guardians sit at roughly the halfway point tied for first place and games like this could really come back to bite them in the end. Oh well.

Let’s get to the notes.

Priorities

As we’re right on the doorstep of July, it’s pretty obvious that trade season is upon us. With that in mind, there is no greater priority for the Royals than to make sure they can get the most possible for their trade candidates. Some of that will (and should) come at the expense of some young players. I’ve heard from a couple people that teams are interested in Matt Duffy, for example, and I think the Royals would do well to play him in advantageous spots to boost the results some.

I tweeted before Brad Keller’s vomit-inducing outing in Omaha on Wednesday that getting him some starts was a big priority for this club. I’m a little less convinced we’ll see him again given that he threw four strikes in 20 pitches, but let’s say that was just a blip and he pitches again early next week and is fine. They need to get him to the big leagues and get him some innings. One of two things is going to happen. He’s either going to be fine and garner trade interest and the Royals can trade him for some guy who will be released in three years or he’s going to be so bad that they just DFA him. Either way, that’s worth four or five starts/bulk inning appearances.

The same is true for Amir Garrett, who hasn’t been good in his rehab assignment. Get him back to the big leagues as soon as possible and get him big league innings in high leverage spots. Could they lose a game because of it? Absolutely. Does it really matter? Meh. No. They’re not going to get much for these players, but they also don’t have any real benefit to carrying any of them on the roster. I think there should be a priority placed on seeing if you can create a market for them. Or, in other words, putting as much lipstick as possible on a few pigs.

But once that passes, literally everything has to be about 2024 and beyond. It’s not that it hasn’t been already, but it needs to go into overdrive. They’re the youngest offense in baseball and that’s great, but their pitching staff is seventh-oldest. A lot of that will naturally change when they move Aroldis Chapman and potentially a few others, but they need to get some starts for guys like Alec Marsh (who does go tonight in a spot start), Anthony Veneziano, Jonathan Bowlan and Angel Zerpa. Three of the four are on the 40-man roster already and Veneziano will need to be added in the off-season. I don’t care if they rotate them, go to a six-man rotation or what, but I would love to see five to seven starts for all of them.

I also want to see Carlos Hernandez closing games. I want to see Will Klein up to see what he has. Christian Chamberlain should join him. Heck, call Jon McMillon up. See what Jonah DiPoto has. I’m probably missing someone, but you get the idea. I don’t know how much they can drop that average age before the end of the season, but it needs to come down. I think it will, so I’m not saying anything someone doesn’t already know, but I’m actually kind of excited to see that pitching staff get younger.

Sherman’s Comments

John Sherman spoke yesterday before the Royals faced the Guardians. I have a few thoughts. The first is that if you were expecting something beyond what any owner has ever said publicly, I would wonderwhy you’d think that. But I also think he said some very interesting things regarding both the team on the field and the stadium issue that is getting more and more heated each and every day.

To be honest, I thought he was more forthcoming than I expected. He made a point to say that they believe they have a young core of talent but thought it might be deeper. Some people probably wanted him to say something like, “Man, I sure thought MJ Melendez would be better but boy does he stink,” but we know that was never going to be said. To even acknowledge that they have changed their evaluations of these players is something that I think is very positive.

The organization has been loyal to a fault. Nobody can argue that. And actions will ultimately speak louder than words, but I do think it’s encouraging that they’re willing to admit that some guys just aren’t who or what they thought they were. Sherman mentioned that with his evaluation year, they know they’ll need to supplement the core they do have with additional players, whether that’s through trades or free agency. And this all ties in somewhat with the new stadium as he also mentioned that if the site they choose is downtown (I think it will be), the measure will likely be on the ballot in April.

I’ve written this before and I’ll write it again. If there is a ballot measure for this team in April, which will be right around Opening Day, they aren’t going into next season without making an investment on the field. Sherman was asked by a few people the question that many fans have asked. Why should we give you money for a stadium to support a team that stinks? Contrary to what some might say, this is not a stupid man. Nor is he a man who isn’t active and involved in the community. He knows what’s being said. Obviously, a Jackson County ballot that includes the Chiefs is going to help the Royals out, but so would signing two semi-major free agents and making a couple of noteworthy trades. I expect something like that to happen.

I want to say that I appreciate many of the questions he was asked. I think Kansas City is treated as a bit of a soft city by media standards, and often that’s earned. But there were many great questions that forced an answer from Sherman. I was just listening on the radio, but I definitely recognized my friend Sam McDowell grilling him and I thought that was great. A few other interesting points he made:

• He thinks the Bally issue will be a blessing in the end. He mentioned the Padres as a team that Bally has defaulted on this year and that their reach has expanded by quite a bit. I completely agree with him here.

• They’ll be down to one stadium site by the end of the summer. My guess is still downtown, but I actually do think the Clay County option is a real option, but I’d personally put it at 75/25 for downtown based on the people I’ve talked to recently.

• He spoke a lot about the development process. They can go sign free agents and trade for players, but if they’re going to be consistent winners, it’s going to be by developing young talent. Even the teams that do spend a ton of money win because of their talent in their system. He specifically talked about the pitching development, which I’ve written about quite a bit, and I think they’re making big steps there.

I know I’m in the growing minority here and that’s okay, but I don’t especially have a real problem with anything Sherman has done as the team owner as it pertains to the team. I think the fact that owners aren’t willing to use their money to finance stadiums is a massive issue, but it goes well beyond Sherman or any other individual owner. There are very clearly some other issues that I don’t even pretend to know enough about, but from a Royals baseball perspective, I’m probably in the big minority.

Would I have done some things differently from the team and what Sherman did when he took over? Oh yeah. I’ve said before that I’d have cleaned house entirely, but I also will reiterate something about JJ Picollo I’ve said many times before. I think he has changed quite a bit and separated himself from Dayton Moore. From what I’ve heard, working under Moore the last few years gives basically no indication of what anyone else can do because he overruled a lot.

Even so, I’d have cleaned house when I bought the team. I get why he didn’t. I get why it took a little time too with the 2020 season unfolding the way it did and then seeing some actual progress in 2021. He made many of the right moves after the 2022 season, and I appreciate that and we’ll see if the non-moves were the right call. It’s okay if you disagree on that, by the way. It’s all a matter of opinion anyway.

A Dodgers Test

The Royals haven’t had the easiest June schedule in the world, but it hasn’t been quite as bad as what they faced in April. I know the record isn’t necessarily what you’d expect, but the Dodgers are a really good team and face a test against the Dodgers that we have no real reason to believe they’re up for, but hey, they split a series against the Rays in Tampa, so I guess you never know.

The Dodgers offense is excellent even without being quite as feared as they’ve had in the past, but they still have star power. Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Mookie Betts are three of the best. J.D. Martinez is back hitting home runs this season even though he’s not quite the same hitter he used to be. Max Muncy just came back to add another thumper. The difference is the depth of the lineup, but the key pieces are still as good or better than anyone and they’ve scored 5.45 runs per game.

For one of the first times all year, the trio of starters in this series is a group that is all interesting. It’s Marsh, Brady Singer and Daniel Lynch. We don’t really know what to expect from Marsh, but he has the stuff to get out the best lineups in the world. It’s about command and control for him (plus there’s a pretty fair amount of uncertainty regarding a big league debut against this kind of offense). If he can command his fastball up in the zone, I do think he can handle anyone. If Singer pitches like he did in the fifth and sixth the other day, he can also handle anyone. If he leaves pitches in the middle like he did before that, it’ll be a long day. I don’t feel great about Lynch, but he’s surprised this year.

For the bats, the Dodgers pitching staff has had its issues. Their team ERA is just 23rd in baseball. They do throw strikes and they are getting Julio Urias back from the IL for this series, but the Royals will miss Clayton Kershaw. They will face Bobby Miller tonight. He had a 0.78 ERA through his first four starts. He’s given up 13 runs on 17 hits in his last 9.2 innings over his last two starts, though. After Urias on Saturday, who hasn’t pitched since May 18 and he has struggled this year. Then on Sunday, it’s Tony Gonsolin who is actually good.

The Dodgers bullpen, on the whole, is pretty close to the Royals. Evan Phillips and Brusdar Graterol have been great, but boy could they use a hard-throwing lefty and a righty with two really good breaking balls to add to that unit while they give up three or four solid prospects. The Royals bats are struggling right now without Vinnie Pasquantino and with Salvador Perez not hitting, which isn’t surprising, but there are going to be some opportunities to get right against a staff that hasn’t been great, so we’ll see how they handle this test.