Second "Half" Questions for the Royals
The season's back half starts today and the Royals are teetering.
Hand up, I picked the Royals to win the American League Central. I don’t think it was a homer pick given that many in the national media did the same. It made me feel weird to do it, though, mostly because of the recent (and not so recent) history with this team. But they won 86 games a year ago, added a leadoff hitter to an offense that didn’t have anything close to one but still fared quite well before Vinnie Pasquantino’s unfortunate injury at the end of August. Even with some regression from Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Jr. not putting up all-time great numbers, the extra OBP at the top would be big for them.
Make sure you’re checking out Kauffman Corner every Thursday. Soren Petro, Les Norman and I talked about the Adam Frazier trade way more than that deal deserved, the All Star Game, some fifth starter questions, the second half and more.
Well…about that. Witt has still been great, though not as great. Pasquantino stumbled out of the gate. Perez did too. Jonathan India, the leadoff hitter in question, has put up a much better OBP than what the Royals got out of the leadoff spot last year, but he hasn’t been good enough. And everyone else other than Maikel Garcia has regressed. I don’t even want to think about what this offense would look like without Garcia’s surprise All-Star season.
Some things have changed since the start of the year. Pasquantino started to hit after the calendar flipped to May. Perez remains streaky, but he’s been much better lately. Witt is starting to maybe get Bobby Hot. India has been better than he was to start. But the nightly hole from 6-9 in the batting order is causing the Royals to sputter.
I’ve said this before, but can you imagine where this team would be if they had 2024 MJ Melendez and Hunter Renfroe in left field and right field? You think I’m joking, but Renfroe had a 93 wRC+ while Melendez was at 86. Neither is good. But Royals left fielders are at 62 this year while right fielders are at - hey, put down the sharp object before I tell you this - 37. The Royals would kill (not literally, maybe not the best choice of words after the sharp object comment) to have simply below average production in the corners.