Kansas City Royals: Their curious love affair with Alcides Escobar

Few things are more puzzling than how the Kansas City Royals remain enamored with shortstop Alcides Escobar.

The Kansas City Royals owe a big part of their mid-decade success to the consistent play of Alcides Escobar. He was a key ingredient that helped the franchise to make consecutive World Series appearances and winning a championship on 2015. This article is not to make light of his contribution or his place in team history.

The fact is, Escobar and Freddie Patek are the two best shortstops in franchise history. They have as many combined games with the Royals as the next five shortstops put together. Unfortunately, that is no longer a good thing.

At his best offensively, Escobar was seldom better than average. At his worst, he was not good at all. His best seasons came in 2012 (slash of .293/.331/.390/.721) and 2014 (.285/.317/.377/.694). Those were the only seasons his On-Base Percentage topped .300 and his combined Wins Above Replacement for those seasons make up more than 60 percent of his career WAR with Kansas City over eight seasons.

Defensively, he seemed better with the naked eye than he did by looking at metrics. Anyone who watched him every day would have few complaints about how he played his position. The fact he’s only been in the positive on Defensive Runs Saved twice in his eight seasons with the Royals, according to Fangraphs, almost seems like it should be a typo.

There are some disturbing facts about Escobar offensively historically. In the last eight years, only two players with 2,000 or more plate appearances have a worse OPS than his .632. You have to go down the list to number 62 to find another player with more 4,000 plate appearances and Escobar has 4,886.

On-Base Percentage is just as bad. Again, with his .290 OBP, he ranked third worst since 2011 for players with more than 2,000 plate appearances, with only one other player with more than 4,000 plate appearances in the bottom 60.

Which brings us to this season. It was a huge surprise and a baffling move when the Royals re-signed this past offseason for a practically nothing –$2.5 million. For a team rebuilding, there was no need for a poor offensive player to take at-bats and playing time away from developing players.  That is what happened and continues to happen.

This season, Escobar is by far and away the worst offensive player in the Majors. His .524 OPS is twenty-six points lower than the next worst. Only Chris Davis has an OBP lower than Escobar’s bleak .251. His .273 Slugging Percentage is thirty points lower than the next worst. His batting average is .200, the fourth-lowest mark. (All stats and rankings available at Fangraphs.com.)

Defensively, it is just as bad. His  -10 DFS is ranked 14th worst overall, and his -1.9 Ultimate Zone Rating is fifth worse among shortstops. Overall, he has a WAR of -1.4, third worst in all of baseball.

So why do the Royals and manager Ned Yost see fit to play him every day? They’ve even invented places for him to play, putting him in center field six times (played there once in his career with Milwaukee) and seven times at third base, where he has never played before.

More from Kansas City Royals

• This Plus-Money Bobby Witt Jr. Prop Bet is on Fire (Hit in 15/21 Games)!
• The Royals Need to Extend Bobby Witt Jr. Immediately
• DraftKings + FanDuel Kansas Promos: INSTANT $150 Bonus Plus Two Chances to Win!
• 3 Royals Players Who Won’t Be on the Roster Next Year
• LAST CHANCE to Claim $250 GUARANTEED Bonus With FanDuel and DraftKings Kansas Promos!

Evolving into a utility role is a good thing for an aging player like Escobar. He is certainly versatile enough to learn new positions.

It could go a long way toward lengthening his career because teams always need cheap veterans who can play a variety of positions. But why play him every day?

Yost has played Escobar in 107 of the team’s 111 games through Sunday. His bat and, at this point in his career, his glove, aren’t good enough to play every day.

The whole purpose of a utility player is to fill in when someone is banged up and needs a day off, or is in a big slump and needs a break for a day or two.

When Escobar first joined the Royals in 2011, Yost never hesitated to play him every day and let him learn a bit on the job. Why now is he not giving Adalberto Mondesi the same benefit?

Mondesi, while not setting the world on fire statistically, has far better numbers this year than Escobar (slashing .269/.283/.413/.696). Why not let him develop on the field during an obvious rebuilding year, just like this same regime did Escobar in his youth?

There would be no issue with having a veteran like Escobar on this roster – one with experience and a championship ring to his name – but not if it means taking away valuable playing time from youngsters who need to gain their own experience.

Used correctly, Escobar would be an acceptable utility fielder, although even this is debatable because the rebuilding Tampa Bay Rays released Adeiny Hechavarria (.258/.289/.332/.621), who had much better numbers than Escobar.

This love affair Ned Yost and the Kansas City Royals have with Alcides Escobar is puzzling. Yes, they should be eternally grateful for his contributions over the years but not at the expense of the future. That is what is happening, and frankly, it is inexcusable and unforgivable.