Royals embrace youth movement with trio of call-ups during September roster expansion

At long last, Kansas City Royals fans now know what their expanded roster will look like in September after the team made an announcement on Sunday regarding their anticipated Monday transactions.

Now, there were plenty of options for the Royals to choose from. They could have gone with the veteran depth route, either from existing names on the 40-man or promising names they’d signed along the way.

However, the Royals opted instead to lean on their youth movement to lengthen their major league depth amid an uphill battle to the postseason.

Jac Caglianone will be re-instated off of the injured list after a lengthier spell in the minors. The 24-year-old Luinder Avila will have his shot at following up a solid initial outing out of the bullpen last month. Then, arguably the most exciting of the trio is their No. 2 overall prospect Carter Jensen receiving his first big league call-up.

Royals lean on youth movement as roster’s expand for September

What seemed to be both a forgone conclusion and yet still a bit of an uncertainty was the re-instatement of Jac Caglianone.

He’d been sidelined with a hamstring ailment since the end of July. In his absence though the Royals acquired the likes of Mike Yastrzemski and Randal Grichuk ahead of the trade deadline to patrol the corner outfield, thus making both his natural first base position and his secondary outfield position all but crowded.

However, the numbers speak for themselves and Caglianone was putting up numbers in Triple-A that were simply too good to be overlooked – even if he did hit the shelf after posting just a 29 wRC+ in the majors.

In 16 games, the former top Royals prospect was slashing .385/.467/.692 with five home runs, 16 RBI and a 200 wRC+.

Given the fact Yastrzemski, Grichuk and Adam Frazier have looked strong since their arrival in KC, Caglianone may not necessarily have the same volume of gameplay he had before his injury. But again, his numbers were simply too good to pass up on the chance to bring him back now that his rehab assignment is set to end.

Then there’s Luinder Avila, who makes his return to the majors after what was a very impressive major league debut on Aug. 13 versus the Washington Nationals.

With his devastating curveball dismantling hitters that afternoon, Avila sports a perfect 0.00 ERA, WHIP and .000 BAA.

Now, Triple-A hasn’t been too kind to him, as he’s throwing to a 5.23 ERA and 1.33 WHIP in 53.1 innings primarily as a starter. However, he’s shown his stuff can play in the big leagues and he’s more than warranted a chance to see of he can do it again down the stretch.

And given the fact Hunter Harvey and Steven Cruz are still on the IL, there is certainly room for impact arms in this Royals bullpen.

Lastly, the moment many have been waiting eagerly for; top prospect and hometown kid Carter Jensen is set to be a member of the Kansas City Royals.

This seemed like the most painfully obvious of moves the Royals could make, however the 22-year-old was showing that there wasn’t much, if anything, left for him to prove offensively at the minor league level.

After flying through Double-A Northwest Arkansas, slashing .292/.360/.420 with six homers, 37 RBI and a 118 wRC+, Jensen got his shot at Triple-A and ran with it. In 43 games in Omaha, Jensen slashed .288/.404/.647 with 14 HR, 39 RBI and a 166 wRC+.

With how underwhelming both Salvador Perez and Luke Maile have looked behind the dish of late, there is definitely a chance for Jensen to get some solid run in the Royals lineup.

With a trio of names coming up and roster’s only expanding from 26 to 28 names, the Royals will still have to make room on the active roster when these moves become official on Monday. But for now, Royals fans will just be excited knowing they get to continue to hope for a successful postseason push in September while getting to watch multiple key names for the future get some run at the major league level.