Kansas City Royals slowly starting to see progress from rebuild
The Kansas City Royals aren’t any good this year, but they’re in the early stages of a rebuild. Recently, there have been signs that this franchise could be on the right path.
Being 50 games under .500 at the end of August isn’t good at all, but the Kansas City Royals are slowly, but surely starting to see some progress from their younger players. The younger players that could be a key part in the future are stepping up and that’s the best thing the Royals could ask for right now.
Two rookies hit back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning last Friday to give the Royals their fist walk-off win of the season. Those came via Ryan O’Hearn to tie the game up and then Hunter Dozier hit the walk-off homer. While Dozier saw some playing time in 2016, yes, he’s still technically a rookie this year due to the small amount of games he played two years ago.
Speaking of good offensive players, Adalberto Mondesi has shown he’s making progress this year too. He’s been terrific both offensively and defensively, batting .259 (considering how badly he’d struggled previously, the .259 average is a welcomed sight for Royals fans) and showing the leather at shortstop.
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The Royals are also getting some great results from their young starting pitchers. Brad Keller has been nails all year and the KC Royals somehow managed to get him from Arizona via the Rule-5 Draft. What luck, right?
To this point, Keller has thrown 105.1 innings and has an ERA of 3.33 with a 6-5 record. He’s been sensational as a rookie and if he can continue to throw this well, he’ll definitely be in contention to be the Royals’ ace not only next year but for many years to come. Oh and he’s only 23 years old, which is another great thing about Brad Keller.
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On Tuesday night, Jakob Junis threw a complete game and gave up just two runs in the process. He’s been dominant against the Tigers this year and the Royals will absolutely need Junis in their rotation moving forward.
Junis had hit a rough patch this year, posting an ERA over five for awhile, but he’s gotten it back down to 4.53. That’s not exactly a great ERA, but it’s better than the 5.13 ERA he sported in early July.
With the Royals still several years away from contending, it’s been great seeing the younger players go out there and prove their worth. The team is still bad (50 games under .500, especially at this point in the season, is nothing to ignore), but there are signs that the Kansas City Royals could be contenders with these young guys in the coming years.
That is the point of the rebuild after all. Let’s hope these guys can continue to gel and learn to play for each other.