Kansas City Royals should consider moving Hunter Dozier to first base

The Kansas City Royals have a good offense, but Ryan O’Hearn is not getting it done at the plate. O’Hearn is batting .186 through the first six weeks of the season and this means Hunter Dozier should move back to first base.

The Kansas City Royals have been an interesting team early on. Their offense is doing quite well, but the problem is that there aren’t really enough spots for everyone now. They’ll need to weed out their weaker hitters to this point, and that includes Ryan O’Hearn.

O’Hearn is slashing .186/.306/.354 with four home runs and 13 RBI in 113 at bats and is definitely one of the weaker hitters thus far. With so many key prospects getting their opportunities this year, the Royals have had to get creative about who plays what position.

Kelvin Gutierrez getting called up meant that he and Hunter Dozier have to split duties between third base and designated hitter. Now with Nicky Lopez coming to Kansas City, Whit Merrifield is going to right field, and Jorge Soler now doesn’t have a set position. If Soler has to be the DH, that’d mean either Dozier or Gutierrez have to be out of the lineup and that’s not going to fly.

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My solution is to move Dozier to first base, where he spent a considerable amount of time in 2018, and have O’Hearn sit on the bench for the time being with occasional starts here and there. Dozier hasn’t played first base a ton this year, spending just four games there, but he manned first base 51 times last year.

This isn’t to say that the Royals should give up on Ryan O’Hearn, but when thinking about the future, Nick Pratto is making his way through the minors and will probably be ready to come up in two or three years. The hope is that he is the Royals first baseman when the team is ready to start competing for a postseason spot again.

O’Hearn had a promising rookie campaign, slashing .262/.353/.597 with 12 home runs and 30 RBI in 149 at bats. The hope was he’d continue to be that type of player in year two, but so far, he’s been struggling. He’s a serviceable backup option, but Dozier has the better bat and has experience at first base.

While it might seem odd to move away from O’Hearn, the Royals need to have their best bats in the lineup while also keeping key rebuild players around. O’Hearn doesn’t really fall into either category honestly and that’s why subbing Hunter Dozier in at first base makes the most sense right now.

What do you think, Royals fans? Should Dozier move to first or should O’Hearn continue to get the majority of the starts over there?