Kansas City Royals: Three reasonable expectations for 2020 season

It is anyone’s guess as to how the Royals’ 2020 season will play out, but here are three reasonable expectations for the Kansas City Royals in 2020.

1) Whit Merrifield and Jorge Soler lead the American League in hits and homeruns respectively

The 2020 Royals MLB roster carries over some bright spots from 2019 in AL home run champion Jorge Soler and AL hit leader Whit Merrifield. Soler and Merrifield will start the 2020 season healthy and fully capable of repeating these achievements.

Jorge Soler

Soler had a dramatic breakout in regards to sustained health and power production in 2019. Soler shattered the Royals franchise record for home runs in a season with 48. He also finally played entire 162 game season, maybe the best result of his breakout season.

Soler finished the 2019 season on an absolute tear, hitting .306/.409/.699 with 20 home runs in 52-games between August to September. Soler was the most dangerous hitter in the American League during this 52-game stretch and if he is able to repeat this feat the AL homerun crown will surely be his.

The Royals 2020 season schedule will be against AL Central rivals and NL Central teams. Soler struggled against the Cleveland Indians last year hitting .176/.321/.412 with five bombs in 19 games. He destroyed the rest of the interdivisional rivals with a batting average of .341, with 22 homers in 57 games. The Detroit Tigers were Soler’s favorite target season, as he hit a monstrous .408/.469/.944, with ten home runs in 19 games.

Soler can carry over his pace from 2019 with another full season health to hit 18 home runs in the 60-game 2020 season. If Soler finds the magic, he found in the last two months of the 2019 season, then he could hit over 20 homers, which could outright win him another home run title.

Whit Merrifield

Merrifield has been the model of consistency at the plate for the Royals the past three seasons, generating 567 hits over 465 games. His 2018 season resulted in 192 hits and his 2019 season resulted in 206 hits, both good enough to led the AL in hits.

The 2020 season will be the equivalent of a two-month stretch of games. When you put together any two-month stretch from 2019, Merrifield’s lowest hit total was 66 (July and August: 53 games), with his highest (72 hits) coming in May and June.

Merrifield managed to play in every game in 2019 and I expect the 2020 season to be no different. Batting at the top of the line-up will also play to his advantage at capturing another hit crown.

Merrifield will also get the advantage of playing the majority of his games against AL Central rivals, which he torched last year. Merrifield punished his interdivisional rivals with 108 hits with a .335 batting average over 76 games in 2019.

In the 60-game 2020 season, Merrifield could end the season with 77 hits which will put him right at the top of the league leaderboard.