Kansas City Royals: What Hunter Dozier is doing is incredible

The Kansas City Royals aren’t fun to watch in the first month and a half of the season, but my oh my is Hunter Dozier tearing the cover off the baseball. He’s been sensational through the first five weeks of the season.

The Kansas City Royals were waiting to be rewarded by taking Hunter Dozier with the eighth overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft and six years later, they’re reaping the benefits of that selection.

Dozier, who spent his collegiate years at Stephen F. Austin, was drafted by the organization with the eighth pick in 2013. It seemed like a long time coming when he was finally called up in 2016, but unfortunately fans didn’t get to see much from him that year.

Dozier had just 19 at bats in 2016 and slashed .211/.286/.263 and an RBI in limited action. He missed all of 2017 due to injury, but fans got a bigger sample size from him in 2018. He didn’t perform all that well in what was truly still his rookie season, slashing .229/.278/.395 in 362 at bats. He hit 11 home runs and 34 RBI in 2018.

While 2016 and 2018 weren’t great for Dozier as far as offensive numbers go, what he’s doing this year is crazy.

Through his first 34 games this year, Dozier is slashing .331/.427/.661 with nine home runs and 21 RBI. He’s also hit seven doubles and legged out three triples in 121 at bats.

Simply put –  What Hunter Dozier is doing this year is simply incredible. If the season ended today, there’d be a real discussion for him deserving to win the American League MVP even with the Royals being as bad as they are.

Now obviously we’re still VERY early into the season and a lot can change. Dozier probably won’t be hitting .342 when the season comes to a close, but for now, it’s been a lot of fun watching him crush the baseball.

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Dozier has been so good that the Royals have been able to justify using him as the designated hitter and putting Jorge Soler back into the outfield. There’s no reason Dozier should be out of the lineup and with Kelvin Gutierrez now in the big leagues, there’s two options at third base every day.

If Hunter Dozier can remain the long-term designated hitter moving forward, I don’t think Royals fans would be upset about that whatsoever. The DH is supposed to be the best hitter (or one of the best hitters) on the team and Dozier is easily the leader in that category for the boys in blue right now.

While there’s still a lot of baseball left to be played in 2019, let’s take a minute to marvel at what Hunter Dozier is doing and how he’s changed all of our opinions on him with this incredible run he’s been on.

The Kansas City Royals need guys like Dozier to step it up moving forward if they want to get back to being a playoff contender again. While they’re still a few years away from truly contending, Dozier certainly looks like he’ll be a big part of the rebuild and that’s a far cry from what we were all saying a year ago.