We discuss MLB.com prediction the Royals to win the division in 2025 and if it truly makes sense. Next, should Kansas City look into a reunion with Tommy Pham or Paul DeJong. Lastly, does Nicky Lopez fit a bench role for the Royals?
Host Jack Johnson talks about it all next on “Locked On Royals”!
0:00 – MLB.com
12:11 – Pham/DeJong
21:59 – Lopez
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6 Comments
I hope they just go with loftin as the bench guy. He hit well in Omaha last year. Couldn’t do much worse that Frazier and he somehow got 300 abs last year.
KC will not win the division with the offense as is and with Harvey as a setup guy. He'll no to bringing back DeJong or Pham. Why the hell do people always want to bring back ex Royals? They are ex Royals for a reason and you want to go forward not backwards (screw nostalgia)
With a young power bat and a full year of Vinnie this team is set. Getting Lorenzen back would be huge. I do think the kid from the Mets at 3rd base is the guy to get. Young and has tons of power and great Defense. And we need more left handed hitters in this lineup.
Our season will go where BWJ goes, if hes injured for a long period we are toast!
Your explanation of bringing back Nicky sounds logical enough; but to me, it's more of the same as we have now. The Royals need to upgrade if they're going to win the division and go farther into the playoffs than they did this year. Yes, I like Nicky too; but hitting for major league average is not enough of an upgrade if the Royals are going to win the division. I think I read somewhere that the major league batting average was somewhere around .241 (might have been a point or two higher), and Nicky batted .241.
We also need someone with a little more power. He's hit a total of 7 HRs in six years of pro ball for an average of 1.17 per year. He's hit 83 doubles for an average of only 13.8 per year. I'm not saying we need to get someone who can hit 30 HRs and 40 doubles per year, although that would be nice. Still, having Nicky come back, as much as I love him, would not be an upgrade at the plate by any stretch of the imagination.
All you have to do is remember the collapse of the Royals offense in the last month+, with two 7 game losing streaks and their run production tanking. It seems the way Bobby Jr. goes, the team goes. As David Lesky points out—Bobby Jr. is going to have slumps; everyone does. But when he does, there has to be others who can pick him up and keep the team rolling. And that just didn't happen. The same thing happened in the ALDS. While Bobby Jr. knocked in both winning runs in the Wild Card series, he was flat in the ALDS, as were the rest of the team for the most part. Nicky's plate performance just isn't going to make much, if any, difference.
He had that one good year at the plate in 2021 where he hit .300, had 2 HRs (28.6% of his career HRs) and 21 doubles ( 25.3% of his career doubles). After that, he batted .227/.231/.241, the last of which was the second highest BA of his career. His 2024 OBP of .312 (2021 was .365) just isn't going to cut it.
Sure, I also love his defense—he was flatly ignored for at least 2 years where he should have won a Gold Glove, in my opinion. But what you say about Kyle Isbel equally applies to Nicky. If you see an issue with Kyle at the plate, the same issue has persisted for Nicky his entire career, except for that one outlier year of 2021.
???? Is there a minor league player in organization that can be the middle of order bat . ?(?????