NOVEMBER 22: The Royals announced Monday afternoon that they’ve placed Zimmer on release waivers.
NOVEMBER 19: The Kansas City Royals have added six players to their 40-man roster, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. Making the move to the 40-man roster are some highly touted players, namely catcher MJ Melendez, first baseman Nick Pratto, shortstop Maikel Garcia, and right-handed pitchers Jonathan Bowlan, Collin Snider, and Nathan Webb. Right-handed pitcher Kyle Zimmer has been designated for assignment in order to accommodate these transactions, as the team’s 40-man roster is now full.
The 30-year-old Zimmer was a mainstay on top prospect lists for years following his fifth overall selection in the 2012 amateur draft. Frequent injuries ultimately dampened the hype surrounding the talented right-hander, but a very encouraging showing at the Major League level in 2020 gave some hope for optimism. A move to the bullpen yielded promising results in 2020 but that wasn’t true for the two seasons surrounding it, as Zimmer struggled to command the strike zone in the Major leagues either season. All told, Zimmer carries a 5.19 ERA through 95 innings at the game’s highest level. Teams will likely be lining up to take a flyer on a player who has shown flashes of brilliance when healthy enough to take the mound.
In one of the more obvious selections of the day, MJ Melendez finds himself on the 40-man squad after a monstrous showing in the minors. The 22-year-old catcher had only once seen his name appear on a Top 100 prospect list, back before a dismal 2019 season dimmed his star considerably. A .285/.372/.628 showing in Double-A this year turned into an even better .293/.413/.620 line at Triple-A however, putting him right back on the map as one of the more promising prospects in baseball. Positive reviews for his defense and 41 home runs in a minor league season should lead to a Major League promotion for Melendez soon.
The left-handed Pratto practically mimicked Melendez’s 2021 performance en route to a no-doubt 40-man roster selection. The fourteenth overall pick in the 2017 draft, Pratto struggled to live up to the hype in 2019 before the canceled 2020 minor league season allowed him to revamp his approach. Between Double-A and Triple-A Pratto hit a robust .265/.385/.602, with 36 home runs and 12 steals (in 17 tries).
By placing Maikel Garcia on their roster the Royals are protecting a more unheralded member of their organization. The 21-year-old has yet to show up on prospect lists or hit for much power, but the shortstop did show promise across two levels this past season. Garcia managed a solid .291/.380/.405 slash line across at the A and high-A levels, swiping 35 bags in 41 tries along the way.
Like the other Royals players listed here, 24-year-old Jonathan Bowlan found success in the 2021 season by pitching to a 1.59 ERA at the Double-A level. Unfortunately, that success came across just 17 innings before an elbow injury and subsequent Tommy John surgery wiped out his season. Bowlan’s second-round pedigree and strong 2019 season was clearly enough for the Royals to worry a rival team would pounce on a Rule 5 draft selection, even if Bowlan spends a portion of 2022 recovering from surgery.
A 26-year-old reliever, Collin Snider wasn’t listed among the Royals top 30 prospects in the eyes of MLB.com. After a solid Double-A showing looked to be upping his stock, Snider ran into Triple-A trouble. Across both levels and 66 innings Snider turned in a 4.48 ERA, with strong groundball rates but a strikeout rate that nosedived after the promotion. Kansas City likely views Snider as a player who more closely resembles the player he was in Double-A and may soon entrust him with a Major League gig with additional seasoning.
Nathan Webb is another relief prospect who showed enough in the minors this past season to warrant protection by the Royals. The 34th-rounder punched out 89 batters in just 59 innings, and saw both his command and groundball tendencies improve following a promotion to the High-A level. The resulting 3.94 is hardly elite, but rival teams may have been intrigued by a talented 24-year old who could pitch out of their bullpen for very little investment.
Yet Ryan O’Hearn remains…
He must have pictures of Matheny.
For now. I’d imagine he would be first gone once Witt Jr makes the roster. Or, a rule-5 guy.
It feels like Pratto and Melendez have been prospects forever.
it does, which is odd because both still look like pretty good ones too.
They’re both really young. There was another Pratto I believe in the Twins system maybe that’s who you’re thinking of.
For a while it looked like Zimmer would never make the big leagues. At least he can say he pitched in the show.
I saw Zimmer pitch in the Arizona Fall League years ago, before all of his injuries. He had electric stuff, nobody could touch him. Too bad the arm problems derailed his career.
Also no command.
Surprised no austin cox or zack haake. Both top 30 and is expected to make their debuts this yesr or next. I could see both being selected.
CJ: It does SEEM LIKE like Pratto and Melendez “have been prospects forever”. The ironic thing is Pratto turned 23 in October & Melendez turns 23 the end of this month.
Nick Hoverchair, Aaron Crowe, Christian Colon, Bubba Starling, Kyle Zimmer. Lots of top picks wasted. Royals window would’ve been a lot longer if they hit on these picks.
You mean Luke Hochevar* but yeah I agree at least one of these picks should’ve become at least a league average contributor. That’s either a problem with draft selection or a development issue somewhere in the farm system. Either way a terrible look for Dayton Mooron
I can see your point on Luke Hochevar but he did contribute to Royals winning it all in 2015. He was useful in the playoffs and World Series that year. Being a number 1 overall draft pick I can understand someone considering it a wasted pick. Royals could’ve done worse though. I would agree Christian Colon and Bubba Starling were disappointments, but teams miss on 1st round picks all the time.
Zimmer got hurt. Hochevar had three great seasons out of the bullpen and was a critical piece of the 2015 team. Christian Colon may not have justified his first round pick status but we don’t win the 2014 Wild. Card game without his walk and stolen base to set up Salvys game winning hit.
Also there’s Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas and the entire starting rotation next season and Bobby Witt and Nick Pratto and MJ Melendez.
If you actually knew anything about the Royals you’d be talking about Nolan Watson to make this argument.
why couldn’t it be O’Hearn released?
Yep some horrible picks in there. I bet several teams that haven’t won in forever, Anaheim, San Diego, Detroit , Texas , Seattle , Brewers , Mets , Yankees and several others would love to have a World Series in that time and pass on the “picks”
Not if we have to take the 100 loss seasons with them. Yeah, the response is “Flags fly forever”, but you don’t buy a ticket today, for what they did years ago.
I respect and admire Dayton Moore. My favorite MLB FO head.
No FO hits on all players in a rebuild. Dayton had his share of misses in the last rebuild, which ended in consecutive trips to the WS. Like playing the market, you buy a basket of securities, cut your losses on those not panning out, and let the winners run.
Dayton is old school, came from scouting as Mike Rizzo in DC. Both have tremendous patience with players they sign. But in they Royals current state, it’s time for his successful picks to begin running at the ML level. Not enough seem to be doing that. Unlike poor rebuilds such as the Phillies, he doesn’t have the financial resources to do a 180 and load up on expensive FA’s. Appears the Royals are at a tipping point.
Moore has had 3 winning teams in 17 seasons.
3/17! Ouch.
He caught lightning in a bottle which had great results. But he did a terrible job of extending their competitive window (see: Cleveland as an example of how to do that right) & completely fumbled the sell-off (see: many, many teams.)
& wasn’t it just a couple years ago he first started an analytics dept? & isn’t it painfully understaffed to this day (2 or 3 guys)?
KC desperately needs to make a change there.
They need to revamp their organization significantly. Every other team in the AL Central is passing them by.
Fun city, good fans, & a long tradition of good baseball down there. Hell, I remember a time when the Royals were more of a rival for the Yankees than the sox were!
But Moore seems content with putting his fan base through losing season after losing season, over some misguided “principle”. It isn’t working. Royals fans deserve much better.
I like how the example of how we should’ve done it is a team that hasn’t won the World Series since 1948.
I would point out that all of the players listed by amk1920 were top 10 picks. Some were top 5; Hochevar was the No. 1 pick, I believe. There is no way a team should completely whiff on top 10 picks, hence the horrible record except for the WS years. Even though the Royals likely have the highest average draft position of any team in the Dayton Moore era, the only one with a worse record during that time is Miami, which has intentionally tanked a few times. That has to fall on Moore’s shoulders, but, instead, he was promoted along with his entire staff. Go figure.
The next pitcher the Orioles will sign.