Kansas City Royals: Arizona Fall League Fall-Stars Update
By Cody Rickman
The Arizona Fall League is inundated with some of the best prospects from each team in baseball. History has proven some of these players will go on to become stars. Will any of the Kansas City Royals reps go on to become stars?
I previously wrote about which Kansas City Royals players to watch out for this Autumn here.
The Royals have two Fall-Stars (Arizona Fall League All-Star game) representatives in Kyle Isbel and Daniel Lynch. If you had to ask me which one is performing better, I would say both. Isbel and Lynch are putting up staggering numbers against some of best talent they’ve seen at the minor league level.
Isbel and Lynch are joined by outfielder Brewer Hicklen, pitcher Daniel Tillo, and reliever Tad Ratliff (Ratliff just continues to put up solid numbers in relief) on the Surprise Saguaros roster. Infielder Travis Jones was replaced by infielder Gabriel Cancel earlier this week and pitcher Trevor Oaks round out the Royals representatives on the Saguaros.
Royals catching prospect Freddy Fermin was also added to the Salt River Rafters roster on October 7th.
Kyle Isbel, Outfielder
- Arizona Fall League (stats): .346/.446/.481, 4 2Bs, 1 HRs, 10 BB, 14 K, 3/4 SBs in 52 at-bats
Kyle Isbel started off the 2019 campaign hot for the A+ Wilmington, continuing his success from his rookie campaign in the farm system in 2018. Then, Isbel suffered a hamate bone injury in his wrist and was placed on the injury list from April 18th to July 4th.
The rest of 2019 season looked like a lost year of development for Isbel until he arrived in Surprise, Arizona for the Arizona Fall League. Isbel has found his way at the plate and has shown the potential to be a strong candidate to be a dynamic lead-off hitter in the Royals lineup.
Isbel is displaying an advanced approach at the plate using his patience to seek out pitches he can hit hard and he’s been rewarded with a Fall-Stars game selection. On the basepaths and defensively, Isbel is showing off his athleticism providing above average defense in the outfield and leading the team in doubles while coming in second on the team in stolen bases.
A full season of this type of production at AA Northwest Arkansas for the Royals in 2020 and Isbel may outperform his projections to be a .270 average hitter (.340 OBP) with 15 home runs and 20 stolen bases, landing him on the Top 100 prospects list. I would like to see Isbel get his K% down for the remainder of the Arizona Fall League, he is currently sitting at 26.9%.