Kansas City Royals: Offensive future is failing in High A ball

The Kansas Royals have some of their best prospects in High A Wilmington, but the hitters are struggling mightily there.

The Kansas City Royals are probably still at least two and a half years away from some of their top prospects being ready for the majors. From the early performances of some of those youngsters, the future might be even further away.

Six of the Royals top seven prospects, according to mlb.com, are currently in High A ball Wilmington. The three pitchers, Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar, and Daniel Lynch, are doing quite well.

Through June 16, 2019, Lynch is 4-2, with a 3.09 ERA and has 52 strikeouts and 15 walks in 55.2 innings. Kowar is 5-3, with 66 strikeouts and 22 walks and a 3.53 ERA in 74 innings, and Singer is 5-2, with a sparkling ERA of 1.87, with 53 strikeouts and 13 walks in 57.2 innings. Singer was so good that he was promoted to Northwest Arkansas a few weeks ago.

It is the three hitters however that are failing in a big way right now. MJ Melendez has a horrific slash of .160/.244/.315/.559 with 91 strikeouts in 228 plate appearances. He has just four home runs but has driven in 34.

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Seuly Matias has produced another brutal slash – .148/.259/.307/.566, with a staggering 98 strikeouts in 221 plate appearances, with only four home runs.

Finally, there is Nick Pratto. His slash line will make you shudder – .167/.262/.230 (not a typo)/.492 with only two homers and 88 whiffs on 252 plate appearances.

Folks, those numbers are not good.

It is true that the three hitters are all 20 years old and the hitters are all 22. The Royals number 10 prospect, Kyle Isbell, is also 22 and is in Wilmington as well, and has much better stats than his younger teammates – .348/.423/.630/1.054 with only eight strikeouts – but with a much smaller sample size of 52 plate appearances.

As a team, Wilmington leads the Northern Division of the Carolina League with a record of 44-25, despite hitting just .206 as a team. As a team, the Blue Rocks have struck out 685 times and only walked 228 times and have a combined OPS of .598. Obviously, pitching is carrying this group.

Yes, those young hitters are only 20, but it has to be alarming that all of three of them are struggling so much and are striking out at such alarming rates. Matias, Melendez, and Pratto have a combined 277 strikeouts and only 97 hits. Those numbers have to give everyone pause.

The hope is that as players get older, they gain a better understanding of the strike zone. All three walk quite a bit (71 combined), but their lack of ability to make contact has to be frightening to the organization.

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Will their maturity fix this issue as they get older? Maybe, to some extent, but hopefully the Royals are trying to stem these trends early and not letting them develop into bad habits that can’t be overcome.

Learning how to make contact is a hard skill to develop as they face older and more accomplished pitchers, and it is tough to learn at the major league level.

There is some hope because Adalberto Mondesi struck out more often in the minors than he produced hits (569 to 536). He has continued this trend into the majors but has been a positive offensive force in spite of that failing. It does make us wonder, however, how much better he would be if he made more contact.

Of course, this particular issue is rampant in the majors and is not unique to the Kansas City Royals. Still, teaching youngsters to make better contact at an early stage has to be beneficial in the long run. Eventually, fans are going to get tired of watching games with so many walks, strikeouts, and home runs.

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Hopefully, the young hitters in Wilmington can turn things around and match the successes of the young pitchers. The Kansas City Royals need those three offensive players to be cornerstones of the next contending team on the major league level.

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