Royals Roster Projection 3: Hitters
With a little more than a week to go, the Royals roster is only barely more in focus than it was a few weeks ago. Let's start with the hitters.
The Cactus League schedule comes to an end this upcoming weekend with the finale coming Saturday at 2:05pm CDT. The Royals will then head to Arlington to take on the Rangers for two games as a tune-up in a three deck stadium and then they’ll be home one week from Thursday to take on the Guardians, last year’s division winner. If it seems like spring has flown by to you, you’re not alone. My wife and I were talking because, quite frankly, our lives change a bit to work around baseball and it was slightly shocking how close it all is. I actually had planned to wait another week to do the third roster projection, but that won’t work because we’ll just mostly know the roster.
For this round, I want to look at things a bit differently. I’m obviously going to give you my projection of who makes it, but I also want to look at players who have done enough to prove that they have a good shot to help the big league club in 2025. There are more than a few deserving players and many of them will remain in the organization and be ready to go if and when another body is needed for any of a number of reasons. With 25 games in the books for the Royals too, I’m going to use spring numbers as the stats I list. The sample is still way too small to be meaningful, but it’s at least bigger than it was a few weeks ago.
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Catchers
Salvador Perez - 30 PA, .138/.167/.172, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 10 K
Freddy Fermin - 27 PA, .417/.407/.667, 0 HR, 8 RBI, 1 BB, 5 K
Ready to Help: Luke Maile, Brian O’Keefe
This is the easiest group in the organization to predict. It might start to get harder next season, but it’s Perez and Fermin as the catching duo for 2025. You might wonder why Carter Jensen isn’t listed in the next section and it’s because he hasn’t had a good spring. It doesn’t mean that can’t or won’t change. In fact, I expect him to build on his 2024 season and his Arizona Fall League showing and be someone who the Royals have to at least have a conversation about calling up at some point. But that’s not what I’m writing about today. I can’t see the future. If I could, I’d sure be doing a lot more than writing a Royals newsletter. Okay, actually I’d probably still be doing this because I love it.
But anyway, I think we know the thought process here. Perez is going to be in a 55/45ish timeshare. Last season, that’s exactly what it was with Perez starting 90 times behind the plate and Fermin 72. I think that’s probably similar to the plan this season. Will it end up there? It’s hard to say with so many variables like potential big power bats who might require Perez to catch more, but I would imagine that’s the plan. Because Fermin is an outstanding defender and has mostly shown he’s competent offensively, they have that luxury. It’s a pretty enviable spot to be for the Royals.