Kansas City Royals: Next Man Up

Some Kansas City Royals fans are writing off the season after some key injuries, but it’s a bit early to do that. Other guys have to step up for the Royals to win. What can we expect from this team moving forward?

I saw an interesting tweet from 610 Sports on Friday asking if KC Royals fans would take 88 wins right now or play the rest of the season out. People were split on the decision. A little less than half (48%) would take the wins right now. While the other 52% would wait until the season finished.

Would you take 88 wins right now for the #Royals, or would you play out the season & see what happens?
— 610SportsKC (@610SportsKC) May 27, 2016

The poll is up until Saturday, so things could obviously change, but that’s a lot of people taking the wins nonetheless, a bit disappointing.

There are 116 games left in the regular season as of Friday afternoon. “Young” guys will have to step up if the Royals want to make it back to the playoffs for the third season in a row. The core of players are still manly together. Four of the nine players on the current roster were on World Series roster: Eric Hosmer, Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain and Salvador Perez.

Take 2, #Royals vs RHP Gonzalez:
Escobar SS
Merrifield 2B
Cain CF
Hosmer 1B
Perez C
Orlando RF
Cuthbert 3B
Eibner DH
Dyson LF
Duffy P
— Joel Goldberg (@goldbergkc) May 27, 2016

The other guys are the ones that need to step up, and those are a lot of guys that need to step up. Brett Eibner and Whit Merrifield got to the big league this season, and Cheslor Cuthbert has not played many major league games.

Jarrod Dyson will be called upon to fill in for Alex Gordon in left field most games. Last season, Dyson was used as a fourth outfielder and speed option off of the bench most of the time. He played in 90 games with a slash line of .250/.311/.380.

Dyson injured himself in game one of spring training. He strained his oblique while hunting down a fly ball in right field. He missed the first couple of weeks of the regular season due to the injury.

This season Dyson has played in 27 games with a slash line of .259/.308/.341. He also has good defensive numbers with a .981 fielding percentage playing all outfield positions. He also added five assists.

The small sample size Whit Merrifield put up is impressive.

Coming into Friday night’s game against the White Sox, Merrifield slashed .348/.348/.478 in six games. He showed what he could do against the Sox in the seventh inning when he laced a single to score Eibner and Dyson, two of the guys who needed to step up as well.

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Last season and this season, Eibner has looked good at Omaha. He put up slash numbers of .303/.364/.514 last season for the Storm Chasers. This season he has slashed .309/.411/.537 through 41 games at Triple-A. Eibner stroked ten homers this season for the Chasers.

With all those unproven guys on the field some experts think the Royals have little chance of success for the rest of the season, but Eibner and Merrifield have already shown that they’re capable of stepping up to the plate (literally) and making an impact.

Baseball Prospectus gives the Royals an 8.9% chance of winning the central division, 13.3% to make the playoffs and a .5% chance of defending the World Series title. The site also says the Royals will finish the season 54 and 62 as of May 27th. Finishing the 2016 season at a disappointing 78 and 84. That is 17 games lower than last season.

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Those are terrible numbers to see for KC Royals fans. Luckily, the team still has plenty of games to play to prove the numbers wrong.

Last season, Baseball Prospectus said the Royals would finish in fourth place in the central division. The Royals proved them wrong winning the division and the World Series.

The Kansas City Royals are good at proving the numbers wrong. Time will tell if this new group can band together like brothers and prove the “experts” wrong again. I have a feeling they just might.

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