- Michael Wacha is slated to make a rehab start with the Royals’ Arizona Complex League team tomorrow, manager Matt Quatraro told MLB.com’s Anne Rogers and other reporters. This might be Wacha’s only rehab outing, as Quatraro indicated that the Royals are planning to have the veteran righty back in their rotation next weekend. Wacha signed a two-year, $32MM contract (with an opt-out after this season) with Kansas City this past winter, and delivered a 4.24 ERA over his first 68 innings as a Royal before a non-displaced fracture in his left foot resulted in an IL stint. June 1 was the retroactive start date of that IL visit, so returning by next weekend makes for a relatively quick return for Wacha, which is good news considering the tricky nature of such injuries.
Royals Rumors
Giants Acquire Logan Porter From Royals
The Royals announced via their player development account on X that they have traded catcher Logan Porter to the Giants for cash considerations or a player to be named later. Porter was not on the Royals’ 40-man roster and won’t need to be added to that of the Giants.
Porter, now 28, has a small amount of major league experience. He got into 11 games for the Royals last year while both Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin were battling injuries. Porter hit just .194/.324/.323 in his 38 plate appearances. He was non-tendered after the season and re-signed on a minor league deal.
He has generally performed well in the minor leagues but slumped last year, though he now seems to be back in good form here in 2024. From 2018 to 2022, he hit .293/.428/.497 across various minor league levels, drawing walks 16.6% of the time while being struck out at just a 21.9% rate.
Last year, his batting line fell to .232/.339/.377 in 110 Triple-A contests, but he’s cranked that up to .319/.428/.575 in 32 games this year. He isn’t going to maintain a .400 batting average on balls in play forever but he has six home runs and is drawing walks at a 15.9% clip. His overall production this year translates to a 157 wRC+, indicating he’s been 57% above league average.
Porter would have had a hard time making it back to the majors with the Royals this year, with Fermin and Perez healthy. The club also has Austin Nola on the 40-man roster and on optional assignment, as well as having Brian O’Keefe around as non-roster depth. It seems they decided to give Porter a path to playing time elsewhere while perhaps pocketing a bit of cash.
For the Giants, they have been playing a bit of musical chairs at the catcher position this year. Offseason signee Tom Murphy has a significant knee sprain and an uncertain future. It was about six weeks ago that a timeline of four to six weeks was provided but there hasn’t been an update since then and he hasn’t started a rehab assignment. Patrick Bailey missed some time on the concussion injured list but has been back for about three weeks now. Curt Casali has replaced Murphy as Bailey’s backup but is hitting just .161/.297/.161 this year. Blake Sabol is on optional assignment but plays other positions. Jakson Reetz got a brief look while both Bailey and Murphy were hurt but has since been removed from the 40-man.
There are a lot of moving parts in that group but it’s possible Porter will be the next man up if there’s an injury or if Casali keeps struggling. If Porter gets a roster spot, he has a full slate of options and won’t be able to get to one-year of service time this year.
Michael Kopech Drawing Interest From Several Teams
The White Sox are one of the game’s few clear sellers with the trade deadline still six weeks out, and teams have been showing recent interest in closer Michael Kopech, reports Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. Among the interested clubs are the Royals, Phillies and Yankees, each of whom has sent scouts to watch the hard-throwing righty in the past few weeks. Levine adds that rival clubs believe the Sox are seeking controllable pitching in return.
Kopech, 28, is in his first season as a full-time reliever after making a combined 52 starts with the ChiSox in 2022-23. He’s taken up the role of the team’s primary closer, though given Chicago’s dismal results this season, he’s only picked up five saves on the year. Kopech’s bullpen tenure got out to a strong start, but he’s hit a rough patch of late, yielding eight earned runs over his past 6 1/3 frames. That rocky stretch has ballooned his ERA from 3.18 to 4.91.
Despite that lackluster mark, there’s plenty to like about Kopech. Once touted as one of the game’s elite pitching prospects — he and Yoan Moncada headlined the White Sox’ return for Chris Sale during their last rebuild — Kopech boasts a power arsenal that helps him miss bats in droves. He’s averaged a blazing 98.7 mph on his heater this season and punched out a gaudy 32.3% of his opponents. Kopech’s 14.1% swinging-strike rate is well north of the league average. That power arsenal, as is often the case, comes with notable command issues; Kopech has walked 13.5% of his opponents in 2024 and sports an unsightly 13.6% mark dating back to 2022.
Beyond his bat-missing ability, Kopech is both affordable and controllable. He’s earning $3MM in 2024 and would be arbitration-eligible once more this winter before reaching free agency following the 2025 season. Adding Kopech for a pair of pennant chases would give any contending club a power arm with an often triple-digit heater, bat-missing slider and a newly implemented cutter that’s been a plus pitch thus far.
With regard to the interested parties, none of the three teams listed by Levine comes as a surprise. The Royals have already been canvassing the bullpen market in early June, though their status as a division rival to the White Sox might make it tougher to complete a deal with Kansas City than with Philadelphia, New York or any of the surely yet-unnamed clubs who have interest in prying Kopech from the South Siders. That said, the Royals rank 22nd in the majors with a 4.32 ERA from their relievers. Their bullpen’s collective 93.5 mph average fastball velocity (per Statcast) is 27th in the majors, while its 17.7% strikeout rate is the worst in MLB. Kopech would add the type of power, bat-missing repertoire the Royals currently lack.
The Phillies (3.55, ninth) and Yankees (3.19, third) both rank among MLB’s ten best teams in terms of bullpen earned run average. They’ve gotten there in slightly different ways, with the Phillies focusing on strikeouts (26.5%, third in MLB) while the Yankees have a below-average 21.9% strikeout rate but also possess the third-best ground-ball rate of any team (46.8%). Both teams are among the three best in baseball at limiting home runs, with the Philly bullpen sitting at 0.68 HR/9 and the Yankees narrowly trailing at 0.74 HR/9. Both clubs are luxury-tax payors in 2024, making Kopech’s relatively modest $3MM salary all the more appealing.
It stands to reason that the Royals, Phillies and Yankees are just three of many clubs looking at Kopech as the trade deadline looms next month. Bullpen help is on every postseason hopeful’s deadline wishlist every summer, and Kopech is the type of power arm that any team would love to try to maximize. While velocity is up throughout the game, and triple-digit fastballs are no longer the rarities they once were, that doesn’t take away from Kopech’s impressive repertoire. The only pitchers in MLB (min. 10 innings) who throw harder on average are Oakland’s Mason Miller, Minnesota’s Jhoan Duran, Milwaukee’s Abner Uribe, Arizona’s Justin Martinez and St. Louis’ Ryan Helsley. Kopech’s bottom-line run prevention numbers may not stand out, but other teams surely covet the upside and feel there’s a potentially elite reliever to be unlocked with a few tweaks.
Royals Place Hunter Renfroe On Injured List
June 12: Further testing revealed that there is no fracture in Renfroe’s foot, tweets Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star. The issue appears to be a bone bruise. Renfroe will not require surgery.
June 11: The Royals announced they’ve placed Hunter Renfroe on the 10-day injured list. The veteran outfielder fractured his left big toe in last night’s loss to the Yankees. Kansas City also placed Adam Frazier on the bereavement list, recalling Nick Pratto and Drew Waters to take the vacated active roster spots.
Renfroe went for imaging today that’ll determine his recovery timeline, manager Matt Quatraro told reporters (X link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com). He’ll at least need a week and a half before he’s ready to return to MLB action. Renfroe had finally begun to find a groove, picking up seven hits (including two doubles and homers apiece) in six games this month. The 32-year-old still has a subpar .200/.273/.365 line over 187 plate appearances thanks to a frigid start to the season.
Despite the mediocre production, Renfroe has started 49 of the team’s 67 games in right field. Waters draws in there tonight against Marcus Stroman. The Royals haven’t gotten much out of any of their outfielders. Kyle Isbel (.219/.263/.338) and MJ Melendez (.162/.225/.341) have produced even less offensively than Renfroe has mustered.
The 25-year-old Waters is up for the first time this season. He has solid numbers for Triple-A Omaha, where he’s hitting .277/.350/.484 with seven homers through 214 plate appearances. That’s with a slightly elevated 26.6% strikeout rate, a problem for Waters throughout his career. The former second-round pick has punched out in nearly a third of his 446 MLB plate appearances. He owns a .231/.306/.402 line at the highest level.
Kansas City is 11 games over .500 and in possession of the American League’s second Wild Card spot despite the outfield. General manager J.J. Picollo acknowledged last week that the team could look outside the organization before the trade deadline. Jazz Chisholm Jr., Taylor Ward, Tommy Pham, Brent Rooker and Jesse Winker are among the likeliest outfielders to move by the end of next month.
Salvador Perez’s Resurgent Showing
The 39-27 Royals remain one of the most surprising stories of the season’s first couple months. While Kansas City certainly expected to be better than they were last year, they’ve played well enough to have a chance to top last season’s 56 wins by the All-Star Break.
Any turnaround that drastic is going to have multiple causes. Among the biggest (and perhaps least anticipated) developments for Kansas City is a massive first half from their franchise catcher. Salvador Perez’s career looked to be on the decline heading into his age-34 season. He has turned back the clock with his best start in at least three years.
Perez heads into this week’s matchup with the AL-leading Yankees carrying a .299/.372/.491 batting line across 261 plate appearances. He has connected on 10 homers and already picked up 15 doubles after hitting between 21 and 24 two-baggers in each of the last five full seasons. While he’s dipped into a 3-25 slump to this point in June, Perez turned in well above-average production in both April and May. Among catchers with 100+ plate appearances, he ranks fifth in on-base percentage and fourth in slugging. He’s fourth at the position in overall offensive output after accounting for the difficulty of hitting in K.C.’s spacious Kauffman Stadium.
The OBP is particularly impressive. Perez has always had big power, particularly relative to his counterparts behind the plate. He hasn’t excelled at consistently getting on base, though. Perez is an extremely aggressive hitter who has never been keen on waiting out free passes. He has only finished six of his 13 career seasons with an on-base percentage north of .300. He’s not only comfortably above that pace, he’s on track for what’ll be the best OBP of his career (and by a wide margin, if one excludes his 39-game rookie season in 2011 and the 37 games he played in 2020).
Perez hasn’t suddenly become a selective hitter a decade and a half into his MLB career. Among batters with 100+ PAs, only the recently designated Harold Ramírez has chased pitches outside the strike zone more frequently. Perez is eighth in overall swing rate. He’s as aggressive as ever. Yet he’s been more locked in this season than he has for the last couple years. Perez has made contact on 75.3% of his swings, a nearly four-point jump relative to last year and his highest rate since 2020. It’s not a coincidence that he’s striking out less often than he has in nearly 10 years.
It’s a strong rebound for a player who looked to be on the downswing. Perez had arguably the worst season of his career in 2023. While he played in 140 games and hit 23 homers, his .422 slugging percentage was his second lowest. He hit .255 while reaching base at a .292 clip that were both below his career norms. FanGraphs graded Perez as a sub-replacement player in 2023; Baseball Reference had him marginally better than replacement level but with a personal-low 0.5 wins.
That’s a reflection not only in his down work at the plate but a longstanding decline in his defensive metrics. Pitch framing metrics have never been keen on Perez’s receiving skills. He’d typically done an excellent job at controlling the running game, but that evaporated last season. Perez threw out only nine of 63 attempted basestealers, a 14.3% rate that was well south of the 20% league mark.
There are crucial aspects of catcher defense (game-calling, managing a pitching staff) that can’t be captured by public metrics. Perez has always been highly-regarded for those qualities. That said, his 2023 performance in the quantifiable parts of catching was not impressive. It looked in line with an overall declining career trajectory.
Perez has rebounded on that side of the ball as well. Statcast has rated him as an average pitch framer in 321 innings. He’s 6-19 in cutting down stolen base attempts. Perez was behind the plate for 39 wild pitches over 738 1/3 frames last season; that’s down to seven wild pitches in more than 40% of the innings this year. It’s tough to fully separate that from the team’s much improved pitching staff — the Royals brought in Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo and are getting a full season from Cole Ragans — but Perez’s defensive production has improved.
The Royals have slightly reduced Perez’s responsibilities. They’re mixing him in at first base a little more often than they did last season, a luxury afforded by having a quality #2 catcher in Freddy Fermin. Perhaps that’s also playing a part in Perez’s resurgent production.
In any case, the former World Series MVP’s huge first couple months should send him to the All-Star Game for the ninth time in his career. It’s a key reason the Royals are within four games of the Guardians for the AL Central lead and sit firmly in the second Wild Card position.
Perez’s return to form is also a welcome boost for a front office that made what was then a franchise-record investment three seasons ago. Kansas City signed him to a four-year, $82MM extension in Spring Training 2021 that preemptively covered the 2022-26 campaigns. Perez made $18MM in ’22, $20MM for the following two seasons, and is set for a $22MM salary next year. There’s also a $2MM buyout on a $13.5MM team option for 2026. That contract seemed well underwater as recently as a few months ago, but it’s a reasonable sum for this level of production.
The Royals don’t need to concern themselves with Perez’s long-term future, though it’s hard to envision him playing anywhere else at this point of his career. The immediate focus is on getting to the postseason for the first time since their 2015 championship. Perez is the only remaining player from that team and, even in his mid-30s, is playing a key role in trying to get Kansas City back to the playoffs nearly a decade later.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Royals Select Dan Altavilla
The Royals announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Dan Altavilla. The club already had a 40-man vacancy. Right-hander Will Klein was optioned to open an active roster spot.
Altavilla, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Royals in the offseason. He has since made 24 appearances for Triple-A Omaha, allowing 2.63 earned runs per nine innings. That’s at least partially luck, as he has been giving out walks at a 12.8% clip and can’t continue stranding 91.8% of baserunners forever. But his 27.5% strikeout rate with the Storm Chasers was quite strong and he’s also been getting grounders on 44.6% of balls in play.
That performance will get Altavilla back to the big leagues for the first time since 2021. He made 119 appearances in the majors from 2016 to 2021 with a 4.03 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate, 12.1% walk rate and 38.8% ground ball rate. But he underwent Tommy John surgery in June of 2021 and hasn’t made it back to the majors until now.
He signed a two-year minor league deal with the Red Sox and didn’t pitch in any official capacity in 2022. He returned to the mound last year but struggled to get back in form right away. He tossed 12 innings on the farm last year with an ERA of 3.00, but he was helped by a tiny .194 batting average on balls in play as he only struck out 14.3% of opponents while giving out walks at a 10.2% clip.
The Sox released him in August but his new deal with the Royals seems to have allowed him to get back on track. It was reported last week that the Royals are looking for bullpen help, with some more swing-and-miss a specific target area. Altavilla could perhaps give the club an internal source of that upgrade they are looking for, based on his strikeout numbers this year and earlier in his career.
If Altavilla clicks, perhaps that will alter the club’s approach prior to the July 30 trade deadline. If it doesn’t work out, he’s likely to end up designated for assignment since he is out of options. But if he manages to hang onto his roster spot through the end of the schedule, he can be retained for next year via arbitration since he has less than five years of major league service time.
Royals Sign Kevin Padlo To Minor League Deal
The Royals signed Kevin Padlo to a minor league contract. The deal was announced by Kansas City’s Double-A team in Northwest Arkansas, where the infielder will report in his new organization.
It’s a bit of a step down for Padlo, who had been in Triple-A after signing an offseason minor league deal with the Dodgers. Los Angeles released him last week following a middling .216/.340/.380 start to the season. The 27-year-old has had better Triple-A numbers in prior years. He went into 2024 with a career .251/.348/.461 line at the level.
Padlo has played in the majors for five different teams over parts of three seasons. His high in games played for any individual team is nine; he has appeared in 26 contests overall. He’s a .111/.158/.167 hitter in an exceedingly small sample of 57 MLB plate appearances. Padlo has shown a patient approach and decent raw power in the minors, though that’s always come with a fair number of strikeouts. He has fanned in 26.6% of his more than 1500 Triple-A plate appearances.
Royals Exploring Bullpen Market
The Royals have been perhaps the most surprising contender of 2024. Kansas City’s 36-26 record is fourth-best in the American League. They’re five games behind the Guardians in a suddenly competitive AL Central and occupy the second Wild Card spot.
One year removed from a 106-loss season, K.C. should find themselves in position to add MLB help at the deadline. ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote this morning that the Royals are already exploring the trade market for potential bullpen upgrades. General manager J.J. Picollo suggested similarly in an appearance on the New York Post’s The Show podcast with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman. The second-year baseball operations leader indicated that adding swing-and-miss to the late innings would be ideal.
“In the back end of our bullpen, we’re not striking a lot of guys out, so that’s an area that we have to look at for sure,” Picollo said. The GM also pointed to the outfield as “an area we (may) have to address” if they don’t get improved production in the coming weeks.
Relief pitching and the outfield have been Kansas City’s biggest weaknesses. While the Royals’ rotation has arguably been among the three best in MLB, the bullpen entered play tonight ranked 25th with a 4.44 ERA. As Picollo observed, they’ve been particularly lacking in terms of strikeout stuff. Kansas City relievers are last in both strikeout rate (17.4%) and swinging strike percentage (8.5%). The only Royal reliever who has thrown at least five innings with an above-average strikeout rate, Tyler Duffey, was outrighted off the 40-man roster last week.
Kansas City made some modest upgrades to the bullpen over the winter. They inked Chris Stratton and Will Smith to lower-cost free agent deals and acquired John Schreiber and Nick Anderson in trade. Schreiber is the only member of that group who has pitched well thus far. He owns a 2.88 ERA while keeping half his batted balls on the ground over 25 innings. Stratton, Smith and Anderson have all allowed more than five earned runs per nine.
A’s star closer Mason Miller would be the prize of the reliever market, but the asking price will be astronomical. Marlins left-hander Tanner Scott, an impending free agent with a power arm and closing experience, is almost certain to be dealt. The White Sox are likely to trade former starter Michael Kopech, who is missing bats but showing worrisome control in relief. Oakland could dangle journeyman setup man Austin Adams for a much lesser return than they’d demand for Miller. The Mets will probably shop Adam Ottavino, former Royal Jake Diekman, and potentially waiver claim turned temporary closer Reed Garrett. Washington could move Hunter Harvey.
Those are just a handful of the many names who could be available. Virtually every playoff hopeful will at least poke around the relief market at the deadline, but the Royals seem to have a more acute need for bullpen help than most.
The outfield, meanwhile, carried a collective .204/.271/.324 batting line into tonight’s game. They’re last in average and on-base percentage and above only the White Sox in slugging output. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored in a post for Front Office subscribers last month, the Royals have had a staggeringly poor outfield since the departures of Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon. It has been more of the same this season, with none of Hunter Renfroe, MJ Melendez, Kyle Isbel nor designated hitter/outfielder Nelson Velázquez hitting well.
Picollo expressed some confidence in the in-house outfielders to turn things around, noting that they’ve had a few players “clearly underperforming” based on their previous track records. Neither Melendez nor Isbel have ever hit much at the major league level, though. Renfroe has been a productive player in the past, but he’s following up a mediocre .233/.297/.416 season with a career-worst .179/.256/.327 line over his first 51 games.
There’s probably the most optimism with regards to Velázquez, who drilled 14 homers in 40 games after being acquired from the Cubs at the 2023 deadline. Yet the Royals have used him more often at DH than in the outfield, and his subpar strikeout and walk profile was a cause for concern even amidst last year’s home run barrage.
Even with some clear areas of need, it’s an encouraging time for the Royals and their fanbase. Kansas City has a realistic path to their first postseason berth since their 2015 championship. While they’ll need to continue playing well over the next six-to-eight weeks, Picollo told Heyman and Sherman the front office is prepared to “be aggressive” if they remain in contention as the deadline gets nearer.
Royals Place Michael Wacha On 15-Day Injured List
The Royals placed right-hander Michael Wacha on the 15-day injured list earlier today due to what manager Matt Quatraro described to reporters (including MLB.com’s Anne Rogers) as a “small, non-displaced” fracture in his left foot. Kansas City recalled left-hander Daniel Lynch IV to take Wacha’s place both on the active roster and in the starting rotation. A timetable for Wacha’s return to action was not immediately available, as Quatraro indicated that it will primarily depend on when the soreness if Wacha’s foot subsides. Fortunately, Wacha will be able to stay somewhat active while he nurses his ailing foot, as Rogers adds that Wacha will play catch on his knee in order to keep his arm warmed up.
It’s an unfortunate turn of events for the Royals, as the 32-year-old veteran has mostly looked good since signing with the club on a two-year, $32MM deal with the club back in December. While Wacha’s 4.24 ERA through 12 starts is actually slightly below the league average (97 ERA+), he’s posted solid peripheral numbers and been plagued by a below average strand rate of just 68.7%. While Wacha’s 19.8% strikeout rate is slightly down from his solid season with the Padres last year, he’s walked just 7.1% of batters faced while limiting hard contact very effectively. Opposing hitters have barreled up just 4.8% of their batted balls against Wacha, and his 24.9% hard contact rate is by far the lowest of his career. All that has left Wacha with not only a solid 3.62 FIP but also a 3.54 xERA.
Fortunately for the Royals, they’ve received more than strong enough production from the rest of their rotation to manage without Wacha while he’s unavailable. The club’s starters have collectively posted a 3.13 ERA entering play today, good for third in the majors behind only the Yankees and Phillies. Veteran right-hander Seth Lugo has been a revelation for the club at the front of the rotation in his first year with the club, with an incredible 1.72 ERA and a 3.22 FIP in 78 1/3 innings of work. Meanwhile, lefty Cole Ragans has continued to build on his strong debut with the Royals last year in 2024 as the club’s #2 starter while right-hander Brady Singer has rebounded to the form he flashed in 2022 as the staff ace. Rounding out the club’s rotation mix is Alec Marsh, who has posted solid mid-to-back of the rotation results on par with those of Wacha.
Joining that quartet in Wacha’s place is Lynch, who the club selected 34th overall in the 2018 draft. Lynch was once a consensus top-30 prospect in the entire sport but has generally struggled in parts of three seasons at the big league level, with a career 5.18 ERA and 4.79 FIP in 51 starts entering this year. He’s made just three appearances at the big league level for the Royals this season, posting a 1.50 ERA in 12 innings of work. Those strong results have come in spite of shaky peripherals; he’s struck out just 17.4% of batters faced in the majors this year while benefiting from a microscopic .152 BABIP. Nonetheless, he’ll attempt to keep that production going in the fifth starter spot for a Royals club that has enjoyed a surprisingly excellent season to this point as they’ve gone 35-25 to place themselves firmly in the second of three AL Wild Card spots, five games back of the Guardians for the AL Central lead.
Royals Outright Tyler Duffey
The Royals have sent right-hander Tyler Duffey outright to Triple-A Omaha, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. The righty has the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency, as a player with more than five years of major league service time, though it’s not yet clear if he’s chosen to do so.
Duffey, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Royals in the offseason. He was only able to log two innings of official Spring Training action, telling reporters in March that he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous mole from his left shoulder. He added that post-surgery testing came back negative but that he would have to undergo further check-ups in the months to come.
He reported to Omaha for some work at Triple-A to start the season. He had a 3.24 earned run average in 8 1/3 innings there, striking out ten opponents but also issuing five walks and throwing a wild pitch. He was selected to the big league club on April 22 and spent roughly a month with the Royals, getting put into nine games and logging nine innings, allowing five earned runs. He struck out ten opponents but also gave out eight walks and hit a batter.
That’s a small sample but the lack of control nonetheless got Duffey nudged off the roster last week and the other 29 clubs passed on the chance to grab him off waivers. His next move is likely to get some work at Triple-A. That could come with Omaha if he accepts his assignment or perhaps another club if he heads to the open market and signs elsewhere.
It’s obviously been a challenging year for Duffey with the health scare and also the shaky control so far on the season, but he has been a solid major league reliever in the past. He had a strong three-year run with the Twins from 2019 to 2021, throwing 144 innings with a 2.69 ERA, 29.8% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate.
