Salvy gets another day off.
Spring has sprung and baseball is being played by MLB professionals once again. Today’s Royals matchup will be against the Dodgers. Today’s game will not be broadcast on television but can be listened to for free on 96.5 FM and MLB Radio.
Chandler Champlain will make his first appearance of the spring for Kansas City as today’s starter. As for the lineup, only Joey Wiemer among the starters played in yesterday’s contest. Salvador Perez, interestingly, is missing for the second day in a row.
Unrelated to today’s action, but a blow for anyone hoping to spot top Royals prospect and 2023 first-round pick Blake Mitchell this spring was delivered by Royals’ beat writer Anne Rogers this morning.
#Royals top catching prospect Blake Mitchell has a broken right hamate bone, manager Matt Quatraro said. Surgery is scheduled for sometime this coming week, and it’s a 4-6 week timeline for recovery.
— Anne Rogers (@annerogers.bsky.social) 2025-02-22T17:06:47.147Z
Here’s hoping he has a speedy recovery and it doesn’t slow his progress down too much, though injuries are among the many reasons that even highly rated baseball prospects all too often simply don’t make it to the big leagues.
Lineup
Game day in Glendale.
A smattering of thoughts about the lineup:
- Despite touting the fact that Jonathan India, Michael Massey, and Maikel Garcia should all see playing time in the outfield this preseason, only India has made an appearance there in the first two games with Garcia and Massey playing their usual infield positions.
- In contrast, Nick Pratto is playing in the outfield as opposed to his usual first base spot. He’s probably attempting to prove his versatility in an effort to cling to a roster spot.
- MJ Melendez is batting high in today’s lineup, probably as an opportunity to get him two or even three plate appearances but still afford him an early exit from the game.
- Cavan Biggio and Harold Castro both earned infield starts today and will be competing for a big league utility infielder slot.
- Keep an eye on Cam Devanney as spring continues, he’s not on the 40-man roster but neither are Castro or Biggio and ZiPS projects him to be significantly better than either of them. He’s very old for a prospect, but at 28 he’s still younger than Castro or Biggio and has more team control.
- Salvador Perez is missing from the starting lineup for the second day in a row. When was the last time that happened, even in Spring Training? Perhaps Q is attempting to keep his workload extremely light as the 34-year-old certainly seemed to wear down toward the end of the season in 2024.