New year, new swing?
Anne Rogers writes about the outfield situation.
Melendez is the most interesting part here, because he still boasts tremendous power potential. It hasn’t clicked in his first three seasons, and the 26-year-old slashed .206/.273/.400 with 17 homers in 2024. The Royals, thinking back to Melendez’s 41-homer Minor League season in 2021, believe there is more in there, but consistency is key. If Melendez’s power potential becomes reality, Kansas City’s lineup would look vastly different. So as long as Melendez is on the roster, the Royals won’t give up on him.
David Lesky notes some changes on Melendez’s swing on social media.
Look, I don’t know if this is going to work. I still think he’s very front foot heavy with this swing, but the moving parts are lessened by so much here. Everything about this approach and this swing is different than the one he has had since well before he was a member of the Royals. It’s tough for a player to make swing changes like this. For one, the muscle memory for these guys is insane. They’ve been doing things a certain way since before they could probably even remember, and to fail at their craft for the first time ever has to be humbling.
But I know that Melendez’s batted ball data is solid, even though it took a step back in 2024. I know that one of the biggest issues for him has been swing and miss. And another one has been handling the outer edge, even including some pitches categorized as being in the heart of the plate. On pitches on the other side of the middle for him that are still decent to swing at, he hit .197 with a .342 SLG. He hit it hard enough, I guess, but just couldn’t tap into what is clearly pretty impressive power. By closing up a little bit and quieting things down, you have to hope that it can help him be impactful on pitches across the whole plate.
Dan Syzmborski at Fangraphs has Royals ZIPS projections out.
ZiPS is naturally excited about Witt, but that excitement doesn’t carry over to the rest of the team. This probably isn’t a surprise considering that other than Witt, only Salvador Perez finished with 2 WAR among Royals hitters in 2024. If you rank Kansas City’s hitters from last season, and add up the five best after Witt, they still add up to a full win short of the franchise shortstop.
That being said, it’s not exactly a Darryl Strawberry-playing-with-Springfield-Nuclear-Plant-employees situation. ZiPS expects the Royals to get around 2 WAR at most positions, with projections for Perez, Jonathan India, and Maikel Garcia crossing the two-win line in 2025. And if Michael Massey and Vinnie Pasquantino end up playing in more games than the 120-something that ZiPS projects for them, they each would also be worth more than 2 WAR. Witt may stand alone as a superstar in this lineup, but the Royals do have some solid talent here.
The Royals place three prospects on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospect list – Jac Caglianone (#22), Blake Mitchell (#48), and Carter Jensen (#86).
Matt Snyder at CBS Sports writes about the active players on track for the Hall of Fame.
Salvador Perez – Perez is 32nd in catcher JAWS, but if there’s one position where a player can get around stats, it’s catcher. He doesn’t quite have the reputation of Yadier Molina, but he feels like a similar candidate. He could help his own cause by topping 2,000 hits (he’s at 1,571) and 300 home runs (273), I think.
Michael Massey was on Foul Territory to discuss a possible transition to the outfield.
Michael Massey said there’s been conversations about getting more work in the outfield. pic.twitter.com/nza7jHU6Hi
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) January 22, 2025
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