Royals Roster Projection 2: The Bats
The Royals offense needs someone(s) to step up, and there are no shortage of options.
Spring games have been trucking along for a couple of weeks now and the Royals have shown some good and some bad, overall. I figured this was a good time to get to another roster projection now that we’ve had a chance to see how some guys on the bubble have looked and how any potential injuries could factor into the equation. This is probably the point in the spring where I’d expect to see the most changes from a pre-spring projection, but I don’t really see a whole lot of shifting within the position players. I guess that’s not too surprising given that the question isn’t so much who is going to be on the roster to start the year but rather where will they all play.
On that front, I do have a shift from the initial one, but I also think the defensive alignment is going to be relatively fluid for the Royals. It’s not so much that I think they’ll make changes every single day, but I do think they’re willing to make adjustments as games pass and they determine that maybe there’s a different need than they envisioned previously.
For these projections, I’m utilizing the ZiPS projections for statistics. As I’ve mentioned, I like to look at some different stats. The next time, I’ll use a different projection system and then on the final projection, I’ll use their spring stats. I’m not sure there’s a significant importance in either projections or spring stats, but they’re just another number to look at. With that, let’s get to the hitters. I’ll look at pitchers tomorrow.
Catchers
Salvador Perez - .262/.314/.452, 24 HR, 81 RBI, 109 wRC+, 2.8 zWAR
Freddy Fermin - .252/.310/.382, 8 HR, 38 RBI, 92 wRC+, 1.6 zWAR
In the mix: Luke Maile, Brian O’Keefe
This is the easiest position group on the team to predict. Perez is the franchise stalwart who is catching less and less but still started 90 games back there and that includes him spending more time at first in September. But the Royals have one of the best backup catchers out there in Fermin. He’s an excellent defender and has shown that he can be more than adequate with the bat for extended periods of time. The issue is that he completely no-showed with the bat for the last two months of 2024. If he does that again, the offense needs more and likely requires Perez to start more often and likely wear down, which will impact the offense at a time it might be most important.