The Royals’ recent deal with Austin Nola gives them three catchers on the 40-man roster, and the organization has considered carrying all three to open the season, general manager J.J. Picollo suggested Friday (X link via Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star). Picollo voiced confidence that Freddy Fermin would break camp as the team’s backup to Salvador Perez but noted that “there’s a chance” all three of Perez, Fermin and Nola could be on the Opening Day club. Thompson notes that Kansas City pursued Nola earlier in the offseason before yesterday’s deal as well.
Carrying three catchers could make it easier for the Royals to get Perez some extra time at designated hitter. That’d be a boost to the team’s overall defense, as while Perez graded as a plus defender and won five Gold Gloves earlier in his career, he’s not the same defensive player now as he approaches his 34th birthday. Perez has long been one of the sport’s iron men behind the dish, working one of the largest workloads of any catcher in the game. It’s natural that such heavy usage would take its toll on his 6’3″, 255-pound frame, as would the Tommy John surgery that wiped out his 2019 season. Even with that missed season, Perez has caught more innings (9,071) than anyone other than Yadier Molina since the 2013 season.
Even post-Tommy John surgery, in 2021, Perez led the league with a massive 44% caught-stealing rate behind the dish. That number plummeted over the two subsequent seasons, however, bottoming out at a career-low 14% in 2023. Statcast still credits Perez with solid blocking skills on pitches in the dirt, but he’s also among the league’s least-effective backstops in terms of framing pitches by that same measure. Perez posted a combined 28 Defensive Runs Saved from 2012-16 and was roughly average from 2017-19, but he’s been below average in each of the past three seasons, including -11 DRS in just 738 innings this past season.
Fermin, meanwhile, posted strong defensive grades in 2023 and delivered a surprisingly solid .281/.321/.461 slash as a 28-year-old rookie. There’s an argument to be made that based on defense alone, he deserves a larger share of playing time than a traditional backup. Nola’s defensive grades have waned as he’s entered his mid-30s, but rostering him would make it easier for the Royals to DH Perez, start Fermin behind the dish and still have another catching option. He’s also spent time at first base and second base, with more sparse appearances at third base and in the outfield corners. Nola does have a minor league option remaining, so it’s also possible he heads to Triple-A Omaha as a more conventional depth option.
Turning to the Kansas City bullpen, right-hander Carlos Hernandez has been slowed by injury to this point in camp, Picollo announced (X link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com). The flamethrowing 26-year-old (27 next month) hasn’t thrown off a mound in two weeks due to soreness in his right shoulder, but the team anticipates he’ll have enough time to make six to seven spring appearances. That’s position him to be ready for Opening Day, assuming there are no setbacks with that ailing shoulder.
Hernandez is coming off an unsightly 5.27 ERA in 70 innings last season, although a poor finish to the year torpedoed what had been solid numbers for much of the ’23 campaign. Through the first four months of the year, Hernandez pitched 53 innings with a 3.57 ERA, 30% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate. Everything trended in the wrong direction over the final two months, however; Hernandez’s strikeout rate nearly halved, clocking in at 15.6%, and his walk rate exploded to 17.8%. Six of the ten homers he surrendered last year came over his final 17 innings, and he would up yielding a grisly 20 earned runs in that time.
Whether the shoulder was healthy to close out the season or was quietly bothering him, Hernandez showed for two-thirds of the season that he has the ability to be a key piece in the Kansas City bullpen. His health will be a notable factor for K.C. fans to track throughout spring training.
On the other end of the health spectrum, the Royals welcomed first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino back to the lineup Friday — his first game appearance in more than 250 days since undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. Pasquantino chatted with Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star about the rigors of the rehab process — not only the physical ones but also the mental difficulty of being sidelined.
The 26-year-old called his time away from the field “miserable,” particularly given some added guilt stemming from the fact that he elected to undergo surgery at a time when the Royals were in Baltimore, just a three-hour drive from his native Richmond, Va. Friends and family had flocked to Camden Yards to see Pasquantino play, only for him to instead opt for a season-ending surgical procedure. Pasquantino offered plenty of candid comments on the nature of his rehab and detailed the intense video work he underwent during his down time as he studied all aspects of the game and searched for ways to improve.
Pasquantino came roaring out of the gate in 2023, slashing .298/.383/.539 with seven homers and more walks (11.7%) than strikeouts (11%) in his first 163 trips to the plate. He fell into a deep slump thereafter, hitting just .167/.227/.278 in his next 97 trips to the plate before undergoing surgery.
A healthy Pasquantino would be a boon for a Royals team that has spent aggressively this offseason in an effort to turn the page on a series of losing seasons. Kansas City signed Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Will Smith, Chris Stratton, Hunter Renfroe, Adam Frazier and Garrett Hampson for a combined $109.5MM and traded for relievers John Schreiber and Nick Anderson in an effort to assemble a better club. There’s a massive gap to close after finishing the 2023 season with 106 losses, but there’s little doubting that Kansas City will be an improved club in 2024.
I mean, Nola isn’t strictly a catcher. He can play some INF too.
True and given that Pasquantino/Pratto at 1B and Massey/Frazier at 2B all hit left handed that could open the door for Nola to break camp as a third catcher/utility infielder
It’s PASQUATCH SZN.
Love what KC did this offseason. They didn’t necessarily go all in, but they did aggressively improve their roster in all facets. Witt is a star, but they really need one of the other young guys to break out and be a second anchor in the lineup.
Very unlikely, but it would be cool to see them sign Bellinger. His more contact-oriented approach would work well in that cavernous stadium. Witt and Belli as the 1-2 punch would be very dynamic.
I agree with most of that. I think the Royals are probably the most improved team from last year to this year. But part of the reason why is they were so bad last year.
The team is still a bit of a mess. Carrying 3 catchers would be silly with Melendez around who can still technically catch he’s a better third catcher than Fermin or Nola. Melendez and Oliveras are both really bad defensively in a park where you need good defense. The pen got 4 new guys and still probably isn’t very good. The rotation has upside but there is a lot of risk there. They need a better defense behind them.
Olivares is no longer with the team but in Melendez’ defense he was literally tasked with learning the OF at the Major League level while still serving as Perez’ backup as a rookie in ’21.
Edward oliveras is on the pirates now. And saying melendez is a better third catcher than fermin is ridiculous, considering fermin had a pretty decent year, and no reason to doubt he can’t at the least be a decent backup, melendez was moved to the outfield for a reason, he can catch in a pinch, but to be a backup/starter over fermin would be stupid.
I missed Oliveras being traded that helps with the logjam of DH type players.
You can’t carry 3 catchers and have a decent bench. And my point which you didn’t seem to understand is Melendez can catch so he’s a defacto third catcher without using the roster spot for one. So of any team were to carry 3 catchers it shouldn’t be the Royals.
Trust me, Perez would be happy for more days off his knees and at DH now that he is 34. I thought he was older, actually.
The only positive to carrying Nola is that he calls a better game than Perez or Fermin. That said he seems like an injury replacement to stash in AAA. At some point he’ll be needed . When he is his handling of pitcher’s could be helpful. Still seems like a weird signing for a team with 2 playable guys at every spot.
This is a team that was in-dire need of roster turnover, and they have done. The six new mlb pitchers mentioned in the last paragraph certainly will bring experience to the hill so that they can stay in games till the bats come thru. I can’t say as much about the additions to the position player roster ( Nola, Renfroe, Tellez, Frazier) tho I like Hampson and would love him to thrive with regular time. The real excitement may be to see the improvement come from within: Fermin, return of a healthy Pasquantino, and continued development of Bobby Witt Jr.
At least this year it is not the same sell of the same message to wait for the kids to arrive.
We didn’t sign Tellez. Otherwise you are having spot on. If Hampson can play 2nd there might be room for him. Maikel Garcia did a pretty good job 2of claiming 3rd last year. He hit over .270 stole bases and plays gold glove defense like you’d expect a shortstop to. Garcia won’t see short unless Witt is injured. The lineup did well the last 2 months. Hence the emphasis on pitching. Nelson Velazquez hit 17 Homer’s after the trade deadline. A healthy Pasquantino should also help. The outfield other than Velazquez needs to come through. 75 to 85 wins looks like the goal this year. Whether they get there, well, I’m not Nostradamus.
Sorry for My mistake about Tellez. Brain burb. But i do agree that the Royals finally acted like they want to make a move forward. No more hoping Salvador Perez carries the weight of the whole team on his shoulders.
So good luck to the pitching and the continued development of the team. It is a grind to the end of the season. And it would be nice to be in it at the trade deadline, and have some guts to pull one off and get better after it, ala Donn Clendenon and the 1969 Mets. Worst to first…… well, shoot for 82-80 and I’d be happy.
We all make mistakes. I’d have had to check if I hadn’t read that he signed somewhere else recently. I think the Pirates but I am unsure. Sadly this team invested a lot of capital in the 2018 draft picking almost exclusively pitcher’s. To this point all they have from that was one good year from Brady Singer. This is the first year the brand new owner John Sherman is trying to put his own stamp on the team. After a 56-106 record .500 sounds nice.
“That’s position him?” Please proofread, for crying out loud. “Meanwhile” needs to be at the start of the sentence, NOT the middle.
Don’t look now but Perez is climbing the hone run list for catchers. Ill bet this year he will sell out for power and hit 30 out. Also the Royals owned the AL for 2 years while he’s been there. Suck it “Guardians” Sox and Twins. Tigers couldn’t finish with Verlander and Scherzer so I can’t feel anything but sorry 🙂