While the Kansas City Royals might be laser-focused on doing what’s needed to ensure they can secure their spot in the postseason this year, one puzzling re-occurring lineup decision isn’t doing them any favors.
When the Royals released their lineup for their crucial Thursday night contest against their Wild Card rivals in the Cleveland Guardians, top prospect Carter Jensen was omitted once again in favor of veteran Luke Maile.
Normally, as the number one catcher, Salvador Perez is the backstop of choice for Matt Quatraro and Company. However, on night’s like tonight where Perez is at first base and the backup catcher is needed, the choice of Maile over Jensen makes little to no sense for Kansas City for multiple reasons.
The Royals’ decision to give Luke Maile starts over Carter Jensen is doing them no favors
The inclusion of Luke Maile on the Royals’ active roster is certainly warranted, as there’s a need for three catcher’s if the team wishes to keep Perez in the lineup nearly every night but still preserve him as he ages.
However, Maile has not performed nearly well enough this season to be any more than a third-string catcher.
Now, I understand the traditional argument of not wanting to throw an unproven rookie lime Jensen into the fire when the stakes are as high as ever, but it’s hard to argue that he wouldn’t be offering more to the lineup than Maile is right now.
This season Maile has been a decent enough depth piece and worthy of a third-string bench spot on this roster. He’s hitting above the Mendoza Line at .211, he’s getting on-base a third of the time (.333 OBP) and his 86 wRC+ is a typical bench-looking mark. They’re not great numbers by any means, but a third string catcher doesn’t need to have great offensive numbers.
That being said, you’d likely want more from your backup catcher, especially if they’re more heavily involved than normal due to a situation like Perez’s rapid aging.
Particularly, he’s looked horrendous at the plate of late, with numbers that are aren’t worthy of the big leagues, let alone starts.
In the second half of the season, Maile is hitting just .167 with an extremely low .486 OPS and putrid 43 wRC+ in 37 plate appearances across 13 games.
Jensen on the other hand, while unproven overall, has managed to more than look the part of a MLB backtop in his limited run, making the hype around his September call-up entirely worth it.
While his .125 AVG looks unispiring, his ability to get on-base has shone his opening five games, as he’s sporting a .417 OBP. He’s also managed to keep the strikeouts to a minimum, punching out just 16.7% of the time so far. All of this has culminated in above average 111 wRC+.
Keeping Jensen out of the lineup statistically doesn’t make sense now and the Royals are doing themselves no favors by sitting him, especially when he could at the very least be staying fresh getting regular ABs in Omaha.
Riding the pine does the Royals no favors competitively now and does Jensen’s development no favors either.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
