Today, 30 Clubs in 30 Days continues with the Kansas City Royals, the 2014 American League Champions and the 2015 World Series Champs.  They are coming off of several disappointing seasons and General Manager Dayton Moore has said that the team intends to compete this season.  Is this a possibility?  Well, the Royals are now multiple years into their rebuild and with plenty of good young talent, they went out and signed more help to try to be relevant in 2021. 

Additions

• SP Mike Minor (FA/Athletics)

• 1B Carlos Santana (FA/Indians)

• OF Michael A. Taylor (FA/Nationals)

• OF Andrew Benintendi (Trade/Red Sox)

• RP Greg Holland (Re-Signed)

• RP Wade Davis (Minors)

• RP Brad Brach (Minors)

• SP/RP Ervin Santana (Minors)

• 2B Hanser Alberto (Minors)

• OF Bubba Starling (Minors)

One of the biggest moves for the Royals this offseason was picking up Andrew Benintendi from the Red Sox in a 3-team trade involving the Mets as well.  Benintendi has struggled through injuries the last couple of seasons but he brings a great arm, speed and excellent on-base abilities with some pop to the Royals lineup.  If he can stay healthy, he will be a huge addition for Kansas City in 2021.  Carlos Santana was also signed and the good news is he stayed healthy for all 60 games in 2020.  He led the league in walks and had an on-base-percentage of .349 despite an average of .199.  After hitting .281 with 34 home runs in 2019, it can be expected that he will hit much better than .199 over a full season with tremendous power. 

Mike Minor was also signed to return to Kansas City after a fantastic 2019 and a solid ending to the 2020 season with the A’s after a rough start with Texas. Greg Holland will be back in the bullpen after regaining some velocity and, like Trevor Rosenthal, having a career resurgence in 2020.  Finally, Michael A. Taylor, one of the Nationals playoff heroes from 2019, was also signed to bring speed and some more potential pop to the lineup.  There were also some interesting minor league deals including bringing back Wade Davis, one of the flamethrowers from the 2014 and 2015 Royals pen.  Who knows – maybe he becomes the Rosenthal/Holland of 2021.

Lineup

1.       Whit Merrifield RF

2.       Andrew Benintendi LF

3.       Carlos Santana 1B

4.       Jorge Soler DH

5.       Salvador Perez C

6.       Hunter Dozier 3B

7.       Adalberto Mondesi SS

8.       Nicky Lopez 2B

9.       Michael Taylor CF

The lineup kicks off with Whit Merrifield, who is amazingly entering his age-32 season.  It took him a full six years of riding buses in the Minors before getting an opportunity so he is older than it might seem after only 5 years of big-league experience.  Still, he is an extremely versatile iron man who can play every day and let the league in hits as recently as 2019.  Benintendi and Santana will be huge additions to this lineup, providing more power and on-base skills to the 2 and 3 slots.  Cleaning up could be Jorge Soler, who has shown improvements in his discipline and hard hit rate over the past 2 seasons.  He strikes out a lot but smashed 48 home runs with 117 RBI as recently as 2019.  Salvador Perez is a all-time Royal and continued to rake in 2020, hitting .333 with 11 home runs, finishing 17th in the MVP voting.  He will be another year recovered from Tommy John and hopefully has another big season in him for ’21.  His backup will be Cam Gallagher, also a skilled defensive catcher and solid hitter.

Hunter Dozier is a bit news topic today as he and the Royals just agreed on a 4-year $25 million extension with a $10 million 5th year option.  He had his breakthrough season in 2019 season when he crushed 26 bombs while leading the league with 10 triples.  The deal contains lots of incentives and bonuses should Dozier perform as well as the Royals hope.  2020 was unfortunately a down-year, but Dozier is 29 years old and a former first round pick, so hopefully the 2019 season was not an anomaly and he will come back strong in 2021 and years to come.

Next is Adalberto Mondesi, one of the more exciting players on the team.  His defense sparkles and he has amazing speed and intelligence on the basepaths.  When he makes contact, he absolutely crushes the ball but he doesn’t have the best plate discipline and doesn’t walk much.  His ceiling is super-high and with some of the tape-measure shots he’s hit, I wouldn’t be surprised if he can hit at least 20 home runs.  Nicky Lopez is another defensive specialist but hit just .201 in 2021.  He did improve some of his advanced offensive stats in 2020 and should be better over a full season.  Finally, Michael A. Taylor, similar to Mondesi, brings a lot of energy but struggles offensively, hitting just .196 last season.  He does have some power, hitting 19 bombs back in 2017.  Also look for Edward Olivarez to get some starts in the outfield.  He has great on-base skills and hit 18 home runs in Double-A back in 2019. 

Overall, this lineup is vastly improved with Santana and Benintendi while the reliable long-time Royals like Merrifield, Soler, Dozier and Perez remain threats throughout.  It’s not exactly the Dodgers lineup with superstars all over, but it’s definitely not an obvious bottom-feeder type lineup either.  I expect this team to score plenty of runs and, if the pitching can hold up, win a lot of games as well.  I’m going to gives this lineup a B.

Rotation

1.       Brad Keller

2.       Danny Duffy

3.       Brady Singer

4.       Mike Minor

5.       Kris Bubic

Ervin Santana (Minors)

Looking at the rotation, Brad Keller has an elite slider and other solid pitches to keep contact pathetic throughout the season.  He doesn’t have big strikeout numbers but doesn’t give up many hits and in more than 54 innings in 2020 gave up just 2 home runs.  Left-hander Danny Duffy is another World Series Royal still in this rotation and had a decent but not great 2020 with a 4-4 record and 9.1 strikeout rate.  He still has a solid slider and should be looking to give it his all in 2021 as he will be a free agent after the season.  Brady Singer is a first-round pick who has a fantastic sinker that produces a lot of groundballs. He’ll be looking for his breakout year in 2021 after starting 12 games in 2020 with a respectable 4.06 ERA. 

Then there’s Mike Minor, who if nothing else, should be able to eat up around 200 innings for the Royals and keep them in plenty of games.  He was an All Star in 2019 and had a 2.55 ERA for Kansas City in 2017.  This is a solid signing for the Royals as a middle of the rotation guy.  Finally, Kris Bubic has some nice stuff with a slow breaking curve, mid-90’s fastball that has increased in velocity since his professional career begun and some killer slow stuff keeping hitters off-balance.  His control is a problem with 22 walks last season in 50 innings, but he was much better in the minors before that and should find more of a comfort zone in 2021 with another year facing big league competition. 

Overall, this rotation if it stays healthy, could be serviceable but probably not too great.  Duffy and Minor, despite some good stuff, are veterans who could get hurt or get lit up at any moment.  Bubic needs to show improvement in his control which is certainly possible but it’s not guaranteed.  Also, other guys I haven’t mentioned like Jake Junis should be able to provide some decent starts, but most of the best looking arms like Asa Lacy and Daniel Lynch are still in the Minors and likely won’t be ready until 2022.  Ervin Santana will also be in camp trying to earn a spot in the rotation or bullpen, but at 38 and not having a good season since 2017, he feels like a long shot.  All that said, I’m going to give this rotation a C-.

Bullpen

• Greg Holland

• Josh Staumont

• Jesse Hahn

• Kyle Zimmer

• Tyler Zuber

• Scott Barlow

• Jake Newberry

• Scott Blewett

• Jake Junis

• Wade Davis

• Richard Lovelady

Here’s a few names we’ll see in the Royals bullpen in 2021.  Greg Holland had a great comeback season in 2020, pounding the zone with a nasty slider and a hard fastball, albeit not as hard as it was in his heyday.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he continues to pitch well in ’21 but at 35 after several so-so seasons, it wouldn’t be a huge shock to see a decline either.  Josh Staumont is a possible set up man or closer if Holland struggles.  He’s got a fastball that creeps close to triple digits along with a plus curve.  Hahn and Barlow are solid veterans out of the pen while guys like Zimmer and Newberry are solid middle relievers.  Zimmer was finally injury free last year and had a 1.57 ERA.  Lovelady hasn’t gotten a full shot to show what he can do yet, but he wowed in the minors.  Overall, the Royals are a team that was known for their amazing bullpen during their playoff runs in 14 and 15 and then in 2020 they were 19-for-20 in Save Opportunities.   Their coaches seem to get the best out of the bullpen and with even more great young arms like Tyler Zuber in there, I expect this to continue.  This bullpen gets a B-.

Overall, I really like the lineup and bullpen for this Royals team going in 2021.  The rotation is the most shaky part of the team.  With a ton of competition in the central – The White Sox and Twins looking amazing with the Indians still solid and Tigers up and coming quick – the Royals won’t be heavily favored to be a playoff team in 2021.  However, with the latest upgrades to the lineup, I do think they will score a lot of runs and win more games than people think.  Overall, this team gets a C+.