Kansas City Royals: Time to Move on From Christian Colon
The Kansas City Royals turned heads when they named Raul Mondesi Jr. as the starting second baseman. That decision now puts Christian Colon’s future as a Royal in jeopardy.
With a new starting second baseman in place for the 2017 season, the Kansas City Royals will have some tough decisions ahead of them in the next week or so. The main decision will be which player gets the final bench spot and who will either be sent down to the minors or possibly be placed on the waiver wire for another team to grab.
The candidates in question are Whit Merrifield and Christian Colon, both of whom had a fair shot at winning the job at second base, but came up short due to the resurgence of Raul Mondesi in Spring Training.
As hard as this is for me to say, Whit Merrifield should be the one staying in Kansas City and Christian Colon might have spent his last day in a Royals uniform.
Ned Yost says Whit Merrifield and Christian Colon will continue battling for bench spot this week.
— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) March 27, 2017
The Royals are out of options on Colon, meaning if they choose to keep Merrifield in the big leagues, Colon can’t be optioned to the minors. He’d be up for any team to grab on the waiver wire before the Royals would have a chance to get him back.
Merrifield can be sent to Omaha, but is it worth sending the better player between the two to the minors just so Colon can stay with the Royals? I sure don’t think so.
In three seasons with the Royals, Colon has just been average. He’s hit one home run as a major leaguer, which came last season, and despite being apart of some of the biggest moments in team history, he’s not all that great at the plate.
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Merrifield, on the other hand, provides the ability to leadoff in the lineup and also to play a variety of different positions on the baseball diamond. He spent time at every outfield position last season as well as time at first base, second base, and third base. Merrifield even was slotted in as a designated hitter last season too.
The point being that Whit Merrifield is the right choice to have be the final player on the bench.
I know it’d be tough for Royals fans to say good-bye to Colon, but there’s no guarantee that another team would even pick him up. He might clear waivers and be able to return to Kansas City.
Colon’s career average in three seasons is .268 with 162 games under his belt. When the Royals drafted him fourth overall in 2010 (over guys like Chris Sale and Noah Syndergaard), it was a surprising pick.
Colon isn’t meant to be anything other than a utility guy, and not even as an effective one as Merrifield, who started a ton at second base last season.
So yes, while parting ways with Christian Colon might be difficult, the new era of Royals baseball has proven that you can’t keep every fan favorite. It’s the right decision to keep Merrifield on the bench and send Colon on his way.