Kansas City Royals: Christian Colon Makes Opening Day Roster
The Kansas City Royals settled the debate on Saturday evening when they named Christian Colon to the Opening Day roster. That means that Whit Merrifield has been optioned to Triple-A Omaha to start the season.
Every time I make some type of “The Royals should do this” statement, they do the exact opposite. That’s okay though. They obviously know the team way better than I do.
The other day I inked an article about how it was time for the KC Royals to “move on” from Christian Colon. He’s never going to be anything more than a utility guy and was a shocking selection with the fourth overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft.
Rustin Dodd of The Kansas City Star tweeted the news out on Saturday, however, that the Royals were optioning Whit Merrifield to Omaha, which in turn meant Colon had made the Opening Day Roster.
That's a tough break for Merrifield, who had a productive camp. The Royals appear to be going with roster inventory and Christian Colon.
— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) April 1, 2017
I couldn’t agree more with Dodd’s second tweet. Merrifield deserved a spot on the Opening Day roster for nothing more than his versatility. The guy can play just about any position on the diamond and was a decent hitter last season for the Royals.
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Meanwhile, Colon is a career .268 hitter with one home run during his three MLB seasons. I honestly think the KC Royals decided to keep Colon on board because he had no options left. Had he not made the final cut, the Royals would have had to chance getting him back via the waiver wire.
Colon also is a historic player for the Royals. He scored the winning run in the 2014 Wild Card Game and had the clutch hit in Game 5 of the 2015 World Series, which pushed the Royals to their first title in 30 years.
The sentimental value is why Christian Colon is making the team and it’s a decision I don’t agree with. I like Colon, but when it comes to who I want at the plate in the regular season this year, that’d be Whit Merrifield.
All of this was thrown for a loop when Raul Mondesi Jr. earned the starting second base job. Many (myself included) thought that the youngster would be optioned to Omaha and that Merrifield would win the job. That seemed like the obvious scenario.
Mondesi had a great camp though and won the job fair and square, and that’s why the Kansas City Royals had to make this decision. Will it end up being the right one? Only time will tell.
What do you think, Royals fans? Is keeping Christian Colon on the bench and optioning Merrifield the right decision?