The perfect supporting cast member
Everyone knew Bobby Witt Jr. would be good. There were a few questions surrounding Witt, of course. One was “how good is he going to be?” The answer to that, as this season showed, is “MVP-level good.” The other important question about Witt’s Royals tenure wasn’t about him at all; it was “who is going to be his supporting cast?”
Unlike the first question, that second bit has not gone nearly as well. Nick Pratto and MJ Melendez, who both ranked as top 50 overall prospects by Baseball America prior to 2022, both have negative Wins Above Replacement figures (per Fangraphs) in their big league careers. Kyle Isbel has offered good defense but has struggled offensively. Vinnie Pasquantino hasn’t been nearly as effective since his rookie season. Maikel Garcia’s bat has declined pretty severely.
Only one young player on the team has shown growth over the last few years and has become a reliable supporting cast member on the field and at the plate, and that is Michael Massey.
2024 Michael Massey Stats at a Glance
- Games played: 100
- Triple slash: .259/.294/.449
- wRC+: 102
- WAR: 1.5
- HR: 14
Massey came into 2024 as a bit of a disappointment. The second baseman finished 2023 by with a .229/.274/.381 line that contributed to a 72 wRC+ and only 0.4 WAR—essentially, a replacement level player. Additionally, Massey suffered back problems, leading to only 129 games played. It wasn’t very pretty of him, as he struck out four times for every walk and just did not look comfortable.
This year, Massey made significant adjustments at the plate, making better swing decisions and combining that with better contact. Last year, Massey swung at 70% of pitches inside the strike zone. This year, Massey swung at 65.2% of pitches inside the strike zone. At the same time, Massey made contact with more pitches—94% of the time inside the zone compared to 87.7% of the time last year. The end result was a dramatically lowered strikeout rate, from 21.5% of the time last year to 15.7% of the time this year.
Interestingly, Massey isn’t swinging his bat harder or making better contact. He’s always had good power, even in the minor leagues. He’s just able to get to it better now that he’s spitting on more pitches and taking hacks at pitches he can do damage on. Massey’s hardest hit home run came on August 6, and it was a beauty—107.6 MPH off the bat to right-center field on a changeup that caught way too much of the plate.
Massey has two main weaknesses that are preventing him from ascending to being something more than a complimentary player. First, Massey is an aggressive hitter who swings at 38% of pitches outside the zone. Massey doesn’t have the exit velo capabilities of guys like Witt or Vinnie Pasquantino, and the result is fewer walks and a limit to batting average—aka, a lower on base percentage.
The second weakness, Massey’s true Achilles’ heel, is his back. Massey was limited to 100 games this year, just one year removed from only hitting 129 games played. Massey would have produced 2.3 WAR if he had played 150 games, but he barely clipped the triple digits in regular season games played. Availability is important, and back injuries are the type of injury that doesn’t go away with age (anybody in their 30s and 40s and higher can attest to this).
Defensively, Massey has been solid at second base and has formed a nice middle infield duo with Witt. That combined with his equally solid overall bat makes Massey the only other non-Witt, two-way young gun that the Royals can rely on. He has the tools to become a fan favorite and take another step forward in 2025. Can he? We’ll see!