KC Royals: Projecting The 2016 Starting Lineup

The KC Royals don’t have many holes to fill, but there are a few spots in the lineup that could go a few different directions.

The KC Royals already have several spots that will likely look the same as last season. In reality there are probably four spots in the lineup that don’t even require thought as to who will fill them.

Ned Yost has worked his lineup magic over the last two seasons and has done so very consistently. When he finds a lineup that works, he’s not going to tinker with it. Ned Yost used the fewest variations in his lineups of any manager in 2015. He’s one of the least meddling coaches in baseball and his team has responded well to it.

He’s not the kind of coach that will use a pitcher for one out if he can avoid it. He doesn’t like to pull pitchers and he likes sending pitchers out to clean innings. So far his formula seems to have worked. He trusts his players to do their jobs, and he doesn’t try and fix something that isn’t broken.

What seems like a non-meddlesome approach, may actually be just the opposite of that. Ned Yost has everything so scripted that most Royals’ fans can rattle off the lineup two weeks ahead of schedule. Baseball is supposed to last nine innings. Yost has little time for that so he’s shortened it to six innings. Everyone knows the outline. If the Royals lead in six innings, they win.

So what does the story look like this season? There’s no more Ben Zobrist to start pop-fly rallies. There’s no more Alex Rios to bury our faces in our hands at either. Most of the core is back, but where will they bat and who will fill the holes left by Zobrist and Rios?

Let’s look at each spot in the lineup and determine who I think the best fit would be order one through nine. Ultimately, Ned Yost is going to make the best decision for the team, and at this point who can question his tactics?

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