Kansas City Royals: Ryan McBroom best-kept secret on 2020 roster

Kansas City Royals utility player Ryan McBroom has been named the best-kept secret on the 2020 roster.

Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report compiled who he thought was the best-kept secret on every MLB roster heading into 2020 and he picked Ryan McBroom for the Kansas City Royals‘ best-kept secret.

Here’s what Rymer had to say about why he picked McBroom,

"As they wait for their best prospects to arrive, the best thing the Kansas City Royals can do in the interim is dig up some surprise gems.They tried to do this with Ryan O’Hearn last season, but it didn’t work out. He mustered only a .650 OPS and 14 home runs in 105 games.This is an opening for Ryan McBroom to wrest first base from O’Hearn. He didn’t do much in a late-season cameo with the Royals in 2019, but before it came a .976 OPS and 26 homers in the New York Yankees system.Because McBroom dramatically improved his walk-to-strikeout ratio, he clearly found something that had been missing before last season."

McBroom was brought in during the 2019 season to help in a few different areas. One such area was first base, which, as Rymer mentioned, was supposed to be Ryan O’Hearn’s job to lose. After a nice season in 2018, O’Hearn struggled to return to that kind of player and McBroom was brought in as someone else to man first base.

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McBroom also can play in the outfield, which is where he spent most of his time in the 2019 season. He played in 14 games in the outfield (12 of those coming in right field) and had just six games spent at first base.

Spring Training was going to be big for McBroom this year because he had a shot to win the job over O’Hearn, or at least receive more playing time there than he did last season. Instead, COVID-19 put everything on hold and the first base competition had to wait and continues to wait until things become more safe.

Rymer mentioned that McBroom didn’t pack much of a punch with the Royals in 2019, but he did note how his time with the Yankees is a nice sample size of what the Kansas City Royals could expect with the utility man.

McBroom’s ability to play multiple positions is key, especially right field, as that’s been a position of weakness for the Royals for a long time now. The team is also waiting for Nick Pratto to get to the majors and until then, they need a first baseman. O’Hearn won’t be handed the job this year and McBroom very well could steal it from him in 2020.

When looking at the Kansas City Royals’ roster and talking about the 2020 season (if one does indeed occur), Ryan McBroom isn’t mentioned much. It makes sense that he’d be looked at as a best-kept secret because he has a lot to offer, but didn’t get much of a chance to do so in 2020.

Hopefully Rymer is onto something here and Ryan McBroom becomes a huge impact player for the Kansas City Royals in 2020 and beyond.