The Kansas City Royals have seen numerous old friends find themselves in new homes this winter, and Monday saw a former fan favorite continue his journeyman career arc.
The Colorado Rockies started the month of December by making a pair of minor league signings including former Royals infielder Nicky Lopez, according to Kevin Henry of the Denver Gazette. He’s also received an invitation to spring training as part of the deal.
Some other #Rockies news today. Colorado has signed INF Nicky Lopez (2025 Angels and Cubs) and RHP John Brebbia (2025 Tigers and Braves) to Minor League deals with invites to spring training.
— Kevin Henry (@kgh23) December 1, 2025
Not only is it yet another stop after what was a chaotic season of bouncing around several organizations, heading to the 43-win Rockies on a minor league deal appears to be somewhat a low-point for the former promising prospect.
Former Royal Nicky Lopez signs with Rockies on minor league deal
The 2025 season was one Lopez likely wants to forget, as he found himself never really getting an elongated shot with any of the four organizations he spent time with.
In the majors, appearing for the both the Cubs and the Angels, the veteran infielder made just 28 plate appearances across 19 games, hitting for a measly .042 AVG, .220 OPS and a putrid -21 wRC+.
Then, in the minors, between Triple-A stints with the Cubs, Yankees and Diamondbacks, Lopez slashed just .267/.352/.333 with 20 RBI and a 79 wRC+ in a cumulative 301 plate appearances across 70 games.
The bat obviously was next to invisible this season, and he wasn’t the 20+ stolen base threat he once was back in his career-best 2021 season when he swiped 22 bags. This meant, his defensive versatility to play second base, third base and shortstop along with some left field was really his only desirable calling card.
Lopez spent parts of five seasons with the Royals from 2019 to 2023 where he saw varied success.
He had his aforementioned breakout season where he demonstrated his one strong prospect pedigree by posting a 5.5 fWAR season. In that campaign, he hit .300 with a .744 OPS, just a 13.1% K-rate and a 104 wRC+. On top of where’s his strong speed like we touched on earlier, having stolen 22 bases and putting up a strong defensive effort resulting in 26 OAA, 5 DRS and a 22 FRV between second base and shortstop that season.
That being said, his overall Royals tenure didn’t age well overall, having slashed only .248/.311/.317 and never usurping the 80 wRC+ threshold in a season other than his 2021 breakout.
Now after bouncing around so much in 2025, the question around Lopez is how long will he stick around in Colorado? Is this where he may finally find his footing or is this just another stop in a growing list of teams for the former fifth-round pick.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
