A Pessimist’s View Of The 2014 Kansas City Royals

Kansas City Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas (8)Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Third Base

Dayton Moore sold high on David Lough in the off season for Danny Valencia, which happens to make a perfect platoon partner at third base with Mike Moustakas. Valencia does very few things well, but the one thing he can do is hit lefties.

The issue is, the Royals say they have no inclination to actually platoon the two and I’m actually okay with that initially. You didn’t draft Moustakas second overall to have him platoon with anyone.

Ned Yost better not stick with him long if he continues to hit lefties ( .222/.275/.332) with approximately the proficiency that I would. Yost has many faults, and one of them is that he is too loyal to his players. The Royals can’t afford this at third base with Moustakas.

I don’t say that with any pleasure. I like Moose. I thought he was going to be great. He’s my son’s favorite player, which is my fault because I steered him in that direction when he didn’t know any better.

This is a make or break year for Moustakas and the path his career heads after this season will likely be decided by the end of 2014. Does he want to be an everyday player or does he want to bounce around baseball as a bench player? Let’s all hope at the end of the year we can look back at the Valencia trade and say it was the reason Moustakas busted out in 2014.