Kansas City Royals: Frank Schwindel spring training all star

The Kansas City Royals are having a good spring training going 13-9 and at being led by a lava hot young gun named Frank Schwindel.

Unless you are a crazy minor league following nut you probably don’t recognize Schwindel’s name and that is ok. He was not a big name first round pick and he has never been on a top prospects list the way Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas were. But with the spring he’s having in Arizona, I think it’s time we all got to know him because we could be hearing his name a lot.

Schwindel came to the Royal as a 21 year old from Livingston, New Jersey. He was drafted as a catcher and first baseman in the 18th round out of St. John’s University.

In five seasons with the Royals organization Schwindel has played well and moved up steadily. He’s amassed a career stat line of .287 batting average, .466 slugging percentage and .315 on base percentage. To put that into comparison the line of Hosmer in four years in the Royals minor league system are .301/.466/.390. Hosmer was better, but Schwindel isn’t far off his numbers.

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The best part of Schwindel is that he didn’t start on fire and then cool off, he’s steadily gotten better every season in the minors culminating in his 2017 season. He was named the George Brett Hitter of the Year for the Royals minor league system. In 133 games for Northwest Arkansas and Omaha he hit 43 doubles, 23 home runs and collected 97 RBIs.

He has continued that momentum into Spring training this year. While most fans have been paying attention to big name prospects like Jorge Soler, Hunter Dozier and Adalberto Mondesi, Schwindel has been dominating games. He’s batting .323/.903/.344 with five home runs and 12 RBIs.

His last five games he has been on an absolute tear. He’s gone 9-11 with three doubles, five home runs and eleven RBIs. With only eight games left in Spring training Schwindel has picked the right time to get hot. The Royals are in desperate need of a first basement to replace Hosmer who left the team for the perfect weather and big money of San Diego.

Schwindel has some stiff competition though. Recently signed Lucas Duda and big name prospect Dozier are both in the running to take the first base spot. Duda is likely to start the year at first base as the team signed him late and he’s performed well since his signing. The team would like one of their young stars to make that decision a lot more difficult.

Dozier is having a bad spring only batting .200 with zero home runs. His poor Spring as left an opening for Schwindel who has blasted it wide open. Depending on what kind of 25 man roster Ned Yost wants to start the season with, he could have easily played himself into a spot. If Yost decides to only carry one first baseman than that would most likely be Duda but Schwindel will be the first name on the list of call ups if the season starts slow.

Schwindel has little to prove in the minors at this point. He’s played at all three levels and been successful at each. He’s won the highest award a hitter can win in the minors and been one of the best hitters in Spring training this year. Even if he doesn’t make the opening day roster, it appears his all star spring training has put him squarely into the Royals future plans. I would be shocked if Schwindel isn’t getting regular playing time in the majors sooner rather than later in 2018.