What the Royals Are Getting with Jonathan India

He takes a lot of pitches and he gets on base, but is that it for the Royals new second baseman?

It would be very easy to look at the Fangraphs page for Jonathan India and make your final evaluations on the player from there.

What do we have? He works a walk. He doesn’t hit for much average or power. He can steal a few bases. He’s been an average to below average baserunner for most of his career, though he was really good in 2023. And he went from a negative defensively to a positive in 2024. Okay, good to go. Let’s move on.

But that’s not what I do here and you very well know that, so I’d appreciate it if you’d stop trying to get me to write fewer words. Today I want to do a deep dive into what India provides and what he doesn’t provide. Depending on your viewpoint both in life and for this trade, it’s very easy to key in on either side. If you’re generally optimistic, you’re going to look at India and say, “well gee, he gets on base and he’s fairly fast so he’s perfect for the top of the lineup.” If you’re generally pessimistic, you’ll look at him and say that he had middling power in a ballpark that promotes home runs from everyone and now he’s moving to a huge park, and oh yeah, he’s had injury issues and, well, you get the point.

So let’s dig in to both. As I love to do, I’m learning all these things as I write. It’s kind of a fun way to go about it. What I will say is that I’m starting this liking India as a player and believing without a doubt that he’ll make the Royals better. As I wrote yesterday, how much better might depend on what the Royals do next because I don’t think he’s a difference-maker on his own.