Some Royals Roster Clarity Has Emerged
With Opening Day just days away, the Royals roster is coming into focus with a few moves that are interesting at the very least.
There are a few things about an Opening Day roster that I think are extremely interesting. For one, we put a lot of stock into it. I’ve written many times that the reality is that there are 187 days in a baseball season and the first one is just that…one. But it’s the most special roster of the season because it’s the only one (okay there might be another if you open on the road or you get someone else’s home opener in a few days) that the players line up on the baseline and get introduced to the crowd. Still, it’s just one day out of a season and moves can happen at any time.
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The Royals made one of those moves over the weekend that helped to get the roster into focus. I’m going to get to that move here shortly as I break down where the roster stands three days ahead of Opening Day. And that’s kind of the other especially interesting part about looking ahead to a roster. Teams make moves in these days leading up to the opener. So you may end up talking about a player who wasn’t even in the organization days earlier and then they’re poised to be a part of a team hoping to make a playoff run. While this isn’t exactly the trade deadline, with a lot of fringe players getting red tags in their locker, it leaves open a lot of possibility for movement.
Let’s dig in to some of the moves that the Royals have made to take the roster picture from a bit murky to a lot clearer.
Acquiring Mark Canha From the Brewers
JJ Picollo just wasn’t going to give up in his search to find another outfielder. It took until less than a week before the season, but he made a move with the Brewers to acquire Mark Canha for cash considerations or a player to be named later. I think it’s a strong move. Canha isn’t a difference-maker, but he gives a professional at bat and can be used in a number of different ways. First, let’s look at the offensive profile. He hit .242/.344/.346 last year in 462 plate appearances between the Tigers and the Giants. The .104 ISO was the lowest of his career, but he also hadn’t cracked .150 since 2021, so he’s settled into a guy without much power but one who knows how to get on base.
There are worse things, but it certainly limits his upside. He doesn’t really swing and miss all that much. He works a walk. His average isn’t the worst thing in the world, though, again, it’s mostly singles with a few doubles. As he’s aged, he’s hit the ball softer, though had a nice resurgence last year in terms of average exit velocity. But he also had the lowest barrel rate of his career as well. I guess my point is that if you want him to be the middle of the order bat the Royals really still need, he’s not that guy. But he can help a lineup.
Canha is pretty much a left fielder or a first baseman at this juncture of his career. He’s actually been better in left field than I realized, at least by the numbers. He only played 185 innings out there last season, but was -1 DRS, so not far off average and +1 OAA. In 2023, he played 522.1 innings in left field and was +2 DRS and -4 OAA. At least in the metrics, there’s something to kinda sorta like. I don’t think you want to put him out there for 162 games, but I was surprised to see that he wasn’t a complete butcher by those numbers at least. And he still runs pretty well with a sprint speed roughly in line with what we saw from Maikel Garcia and Kyle Isbel last season.