It's Over

It wasn't all bad, but it was a lot of bad. The 2022 season has mercifully ended.

When spring training finally got started, the predictions started rolling in. I think most people were somewhere around where I was - 79 wins. Some were a touch higher, a few were lower, very few were in the neighborhood where this team ended up. There are any number of reasons that things went sideways for this team. You can look at the short spring for a young pitching staff as an issue. You can argue the coaching simply wasn’t good enough. And you can say the players were the problem. Those aren’t the only possibilities, but the reality is that it was a combination of all of it that led to the disappointment that was 2022.

But I believe there are times when failure can lead to success. I can’t tell you if that will happen out of the 2022 failure, but I can tell you that if they’d won 78 games and vaguely hung around a playoff race until the last month of the year that you likely don’t see the changes that will be coming from this organization in the coming days, weeks and months. They’ve already moved on from Dayton Moore. I doubt that happens with a season in line with expectations. I would anticipate Mike Matheny, Cal Eldred and others on the coaching staff will follow close behind. This will be an organization that looks very different the next time we see them on the field in Surprise in February.

And that’s a good thing. The changes quietly, and in some ways loudly, were happening throughout the season. We saw big league debuts all season. Let’s take a look at all 13 debuts and when they happened:

Bobby Witt Jr. - April 7
Collin Snider - April 9
MJ Melendez - May 3
Dairon Blanco - May 20
Brewer Hicklen - May 26
Jose Cuas - May 31
Vinnie Pasquantino - June 28
Nate Eaton - July 14
Nick Pratto - July 14
Freddy Fermin - July 15
Maikel Garcia - July 15
Michael Massey - July 15
Drew Waters - August 22

This isn’t a list of players who we’ll never hear from again. Some might be, but I count eight as players who could very easily play a big role in a playoff team in the near future. The Royals essentially called up their next core throughout the 2022 season and we saw them grow. We saw Witt go through his ups and downs throughout the season. We saw Pasquantino blossom into a guy who I think will be considered not just the best hitter on the Royals, but one of the best in the game next season. Melendez slotted in as an unconventional but effective leadoff hitter and worked to learn a new position at the big league level. Eaton and Massey and Pratto showed they could be maintstays with a little work. And Waters ended his year on an especially strong note. It was fun to watch these guys.

I’m not going to dive too deep into the numbers because I want to save something for some offseason analysis! But they are one of four teams to get 2,000 plate appearances from rookies. The other three haven’t come close to the production of the Royals. Only the Pirates have gotten close to the number of rookie home runs. Nobody has even approached the number of rookie stolen bases. Their walk rate is one of the 10 best in baseball. Their ISO is one of the five best. They’re young and while they may not be truly good just yet, they’ve clearly shown big signs of being there soon.

And that doesn’t even mention their young starters who we started to see in 2021. These are the innings pitched for their young starters entering 2022:

Brady Singer - 192.2
Kris Bubic - 180.0
Daniel Lynch - 68.0
Jonathan Heasley - 14.2

It’s so easy to think that they should have this all figured out. And I’ll say that Singer figuring it out has made it a little easier to take this, but these are not veterans. These are young pitchers who have dealt with a deficiency in their instruction since their debut. The coaching staff will change and the clock will start on them, but it’s very easy to see that if the pitching can somehow turn, this whole thing could actually turn quickly. I just believe in a lot of ways, this team isn’t as far away as they might seem to be by looking at their play this year and their overall record.

Normally I use this space to break down the most recent game, but it was obviously nothing to write home about. Heasley got an early lead and then got lit up to give up the lead before the offense even had a second chance to bat. It was a very Royals game. So no, I’m not going to spend time telling you that his velocity was down again or that his command was brutal or whatever. Because it doesn’t matter. Okay, maybe I’d be excited if he had a good start, but whatever. The point is that the season is over and now the fun can start for Royals fans.

What I really want to do is take this opportunity to thank all of you who have been readers this season (and last!). Whether you subscribed the first day I launched this thing last February or this is the first newsletter of mine you’ve ever read, you’re why I write this. So thank you for opening emails and reading and commenting and all that good stuff. Without you, this newsletter that has been way more successful than I ever could have imagined would be absolutely nothing.

I’ve got a lot of fun stuff planned this offseason, so I hope you’ll stick around. I’ll be here to analyze any move, look back on this season (begrudgingly), have a few mailbags and a lot more. The season may have ended, but we’ve got plenty to talk about. I’m looking forward to you all joining me for the ride until we can get to spring training once again.