Royals should take page out of Twins’ book and give underperforming duo the Royce Lewis treatment

At 20-29 with a pair of losing streaks of at least six games or more to start the season, the Kansas City Royals are in a terrible spot at the moment. This has been in large part due to many names heavily underperforming, including some unexpected key names vital to their success. Two players that fall into this category are first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino and sophomore starting pitcher Noah Cameron.

While other names like Salvador Perez come to mind as well, what Pasquantino and Cameron have in common is the fact that they still have minor league options to their names. Now, as bold as this idea may sound, both look very overmatched and if there’s any time for the Royals to take drastic action, now would be the time nearly two months into the season.

And it’s not as if there’s not precedence for a bold move like this, especially after their division rivals in Minnesota did something of this nature this week when the optioned former number one overall pick and major league regular Royce Lewis to Triple-A St. Paul on Tuesday. The oft-injured third baseman was slashing just .163/.261/.279 with a 31.1% K-rate and 55 wRC+ through 31 games to start the new season.

Even from a Royals standpoint, in 2014, four seasons into his big league career, they chose to option future World Series winner Mike Moustakas to Triple-A on May 22. At the time, he was hitting just .152.

Now, these moves aren’t meant to be punishments per se. There’s likely not many who believe that Lewis won’t be back up for the Twins in 2026 and Moustakas still managed to play 140 games and make 500 plate appearances the in 2014 season after his brief stint in with the Storm Chasers. These are simply moves to shake things up in the interim while offering the struggling names in question a chance to rebound and find their footing in a lower pressure environment.

Vinnie Pasquantino could due with time away from Royals to get back on track

This certainly isn’t the move the Royals had in mind after signing Pasquantino to a two-year extension this winter, but the stats prove that perhaps this wouldn’t be a bad move for both the Royals and the Pasquatch regardless of how bold it might look.

Nearly 12 years to the day that the Royals sent Moustakas down to Triple-A, Pasquantino’s numbers bear a lot of similarities to start the 2026 season. Both were hitting below the Mendoza line, striking out more than usual and not looking nearly like the power threats they’d previosuly proven to be.

And the advanced metrics show that Pasquantino has been woefully uninspiring across the board this season, with significantly weaker marks in terms of quality of contact and plate discipline in comparison to his breakout 2025 campaign.

Arguably the biggest hangup of Pasquantino’s 2026 season has been his lack of ability to hit when the pressure is on and runners are in scoring position. With RISP this season, he’s slashing just .163/.262/.163 with no long balls and a 25 wRC+. And with men on base in general, he’s still hitting below the Mendoza line with a .190 AVG as well as a .459 OPS and a 32 wRC+.

With how integral Pasquantino is to this clubhouse dynamic and the lineup card when he’s firing on all cylinders, this wouldn’t be a long-term move. However, the opportunity to face lower-level competition and just get back into any sort of rhythm at the plate could do wonders to getting his mojo back.

Noah Cameron’s consitency could benefit from some time in Omaha

Cameron is not devoid of his solid moments this season. In every start, he’ll have a fairly dominant-looking inning or two where he goes up and shows how strong he can be with his diverse pitch arsenal. However, these usually fall between some blow-up innings.

This has resulted in a stat line that pales in comparison to his sub-3.00 ERA rookie campaign in which he finished fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting. He currently holds a 5.40 ERA, 1.51 WHIP and .283 BAA. This issue isn’t that he’s becoming a less controlled arm, it’s that hitters are finding success against him far more often.

His primary four-seam fastball is being hit at a .289 clip this season, which is 56 points higher than his 2025 mark. Then there’s his secondary pitches with his cutter’s BAA sitting 17 points higher than his 2025 mark, his curveball sitting 27 points higher, his changeup sitting 35 points higher and his slider sitting a whopping 195 points higher.

Cameron is also struggling when it comes to seeing the lineup the second time through, which is something any competitive team needs from their key starters. In his first trip through an opposing lineup, Cameron holds a 2.37 ERA. But once that flips to the second time through, he’s been immensely less effective with an 8.16 ERA.

Now, at first glance, this moment might not seem like the best time for the Royals to make a change of this nature to their rotation with Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic both on the shelf. However, regardless of who’s available and who’s on the shelf, Cameron is not putting them in a great position to win during his starts anyways.

And the argument can be made that their doing a young arm like him no favors by getting allowing him to get shelled time and time again. There’s reason to believe that he may be better served finding his groove against lesser competition in Triple-A. And it’s not as if he’d be the first second-year player optioned to the minors for performance-based reasons.