The Kansas City Royals are still a long way from where they want to go, but at least they have some solid building blocks.
One might look at league-wide hitting statistics from this past season and think the Royals were straight-up bad offensively. But the truth is that they had some of the best hitters at their individual positions, as Thursday’s news indicates.
American League Silver Slugger Award finalists were announced by Major League Baseball on Thursday, and the Royals had four nominees: first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. , third baseman Maikel Garcia, and catcher Salvador Perez.
That tied the Royals with the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays for the most finalists per team in the Junior Circuit.
Royals’ offense was top-heavy this season
All four of the nominees deserve their shine, and all four will be major pillars of Kansas City’s offense next season. Perez and Pasquantino became the first Royals teammates ever to put up matching 30-homer, 100-RBI seasons.
Witt could easily win the award despite putting up lesser statistics compared to last season, and Garcia was the breakout star of the year for the Royals’ offense.
However, the fact that the Royals had four offensive standouts and still finished 26th in both scoring offense and home runs in Major League Baseball is undoubtedly troubling. This is a top-heavy lineup, and it could get more top-heavy if trade deadline acquisition Mike Yastrzemski leaves without a clear replacement.
On the flip side, the Royals have two young hitters with almost unlimited potential who could make their way into the opening day lineup.
Their current No. 1 prospect, catcher Carter Jensen, lit opponents on fire in September, though it was a very small sample size. And their former No. 1 prospect, outfielder Jac Caglianone, got humbled by major league pitching after his call-up in June, but his raw power is among the top handful of hitters in the world, with exit velocities regularly topping 110 mph.
Thursday showed that the Royals’ lineup is on the cusp of being above-average, maybe even excellent. But more role players need to step up behind the foursome of Silver Slugger hopefuls to take them to the next level.
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