Matt Quatraro raves about quality of Royals’ lineup amid second-half offensive surge

While this weekend may not have been the greatest representation of what the Kansas City Royals offense can do – after they were shutout by the Tigers on Sunday and outscored 11-6 in the series loss as a whole – the fact is, they’ve looked a lot better at the plate in the second-half compared to the first.

Before the All-Star break, Kansas City sat 27th in MLB in wRC+ at 83, tied for 18th in AVG at .245, 26th in OPS at .674 and 29th in both runs scored and home runs at 328 and 73 respectively.

However, since then, the Royals have looked like one of the league’s more productive offenses. They sit 9th in wRC+ at 109, tied for 10th in AVG at .251, seventh in OPS at .767, 12th in runs scored at 201 and 8th in home runs at 59.

Such a stark contrast has caught the attention of many, including manager Matt Quatraro who recently raved about how productive his hitters are approaching their at-bats of late.

Matt Quatraro raves about Royals’ second-half offensive approach

In a recent appearance on MLB Network Radio over the weekend, Quatraro acted as hype-man for several of his top performing hitters, praising them for the work they’ve managed to do in recent weeks to climb them out of the offensive hole they’d dug themselves into in the early stages of the season.

“The lineup has been really good,” Quatraro said. “We’ve talked a lot about Vinnie [Pasquantino] in recent weeks, we’re excited to get [Michael] Massey back, he’s provided some big hits already.”

“[Kyle Isbel] has had a solid year and improved at the plate as well,” he said. “Then you add in the [Mike Yastrzemski] and [Adam] Frazier combo and there’s a lot of different ways we can combat pitchers.”

Before discussing these names, Quatraro took the time to outline his two All-Star hitters this season in Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia.

“It’s really exciting for us when we look at the left side of our infield to have two guys that are 24-25 years old that are All-Stars and play Gold Glove-caliber defense and hit in the middle of the order,” the Royals’ skipper said.

Key existing names are performing, new additions are adapting nicely and lineup tweaks are providing excellent returns.

Quatraro went on to say it’s been a simplified approach from his hitters that’s made all the difference in the world offensively of late.

“We’ve hit some more homers this month and it’s something that has been nice to see, but I don;t think the guys view themselves as just going up there to mash,” he said. “They go up there to put the best at-bats together and see if we can string something together and wear some pitchers down.”

The fact is, amid a tightly contended AL Wild Card race this is exactly the type of offensive showing and mindset the Royals will need to overcome some long odds to reach their second straight postseason.

They’ll look to continue their second-half surge at the plate when they play host to the Los Angeles Angels for a three-game midweek series starting Tuesday evening.