As each day passes, fans patiently await the Kansas City Royals to flip a switch.
And as the calendar quickly approaches late May, the realization it may never happen is slowly setting in.
Saturday’s 4-2 loss in the I-70 series dropped the Royals record to 19-27. Even in the A.L. Central, that mark is good enough for five games off of first-place Cleveland.
The maddening aspect is finding a place to point the blame finger to. It realistically could go in every direction.
The biggest strength of the team coming into the season was starting pitching, and that has quickly become as issue. Kansas City ranks 20th in starting pitching ERA at 4.30.
The bullpen was supposed to be bulked up by acquiring Matt Strahm and Nick Mears, along with promising young players like Stephen Cruz and Luinder Avila. That bulked-up bullpen ranks 22nd with an ERA of 4.38.
Pitching was supposed to mask a lineup that struggled almost all of last season with 4.0 runs per game, which ranked bottom five in baseball.
The lineup hasn’t been any better this season with 4.1 runs per game, especially on the road with just 3.1 that has led to a 6-17 record away from Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals only have four players with a qualifying OPS that starts with a number better than six. For reference, the league average OPS is .707, meaning more than half the lineup most days has received below-average production.
Yikes.
The offensive struggles are highlighted by the team’s No. 3-4 hitters.
Vinnie Pasquantino has not snapped out of his annual slow start, and Salvador Perez has not been any better.
After Saturday’s loss, Pasquantino has a slash line of .201/.286/.341, while Perez’s is .195/.232/.328.
The duo has combined to drive in 40 runs, which sounds even worse when you factor in Bobby Witt Jr. has gotten on base at nearly a 40-percent clip in front of them.
If the lineup is ever going to pick up production, it absolutely has to start with those two.
And if you want to find a place outside of the roster to blame, manager Matt Quatraro has been the most popular answer.
I have not been in that party, mostly due to the fact an MLB manager is the least influential coach in all of professional sports.
Outside of filling out the lineup, which is done based of spreadsheets by nearly every team in this era, or making pitches changes, a major league manager is mostly just a face to speak to media.
Could you make the argument firing a manager can light a fire in a team? Sure, look at the Philadelphia Phillies’ turnaround since firing Rob Thomson.
But that by no means is a guarantee. The organization is analytically driven from the top down, so if the compaint is platooning bats or bullpen management, those decisions will remain the same no matter who is in charge.
The short answer to all of the issues is there is not much Kansas City can do. There is little incentive to mortage the future to improve this roster, and the minor leagues is not filled with talent ready for the big leagues.
Is the season already a lost cause? No, there are still 117 games left and no team in the division looks like it will run away.
But there a long list of problems for this Royals team, and they look unrecognizable from the 2024 playoff team.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.newstribune.com ’
