Kansas City Royals: Potential September call-ups in 2018

POTENTIAL SEPTEMBER CALL-UPS: NICKY LOPEZ

While a lot of Royals fans want to see Nicky Lopez get a chance to play at the Major League level this September, it probably won’t happen. Lopez, a fifth round pick out of Creighton just two years ago, has had a really promising 2018 in the minors.

He was doing incredibly well at the Double-A level, batting .331 when the Royals finally promoted him to Triple-A. That move signified one of the many pieces in the hopeful next wave was making strides to becoming a good ball player.

Lopez has continued to do well in Omaha (which is also where he played his college ball at), slashing .276/.364/.425 with six home runs and 20 RBI in 181 at bats. He’s sure looked the part of a player that Royals fans can count on in a few years.

As of now, however, Lopez might have to wait due to the service time factor. It could be interesting to see where the Royals opt to play him when he does get to the bigs, as they have Adalberto Mondesi as the shortstop in waiting (go away Alcides Escobar) and Whit Merrifield at second base.

Perhaps Merrifield gets moved to center field full-time and Lopez then starts at second. Or maybe Mondesi gets moved back to second and then Lopez slides into the shortstop position.

Whatever the Royals decide to do with Lopez defensively, I’m excited to see the kid play. Unfortunately I doubt it comes this year because of service time and the fact that he’s not on the 40-man roster.