- The Royals outrighted Joe Barlow to Triple-A after clearing waivers, two days after the right-hander was designated for assignment. Barlow has a 4.66 ERA over 13 games and 9 2/3 innings with the Rangers this season, as he has spent most of 2023 pitching at the Triple-A level. Kansas City claimed Barlow off waivers in early August but he didn’t receive and big league action for K.C., instead just pitching at Triple-A Omaha. Barlow posted a 2.81 ERA and 24 saves over 64 innings for the Rangers in 2021-22, even if his secondary metrics hinted that some regression was coming.
Royals Rumors
Royals Designate Joe Barlow For Assignment
The Royals announced their moves for today’s roster expansion, including the previously-reported selection of utility player Nick Loftin. They also recalled right-hander James McArthur and outfielder Edward Olivares, with right-hander Brady Singer going on the paternity list. To open a spot on the 40-man for Loftin, right-hander Joe Barlow was designated for assignment.
Barlow, 27, was claimed off waivers from the Rangers less than a month ago and was immediately optioned to Triple-A Omaha. He’s tossed 12 1/2 innings for the Storm Chasers since then but allowed 13 earned runs in that time, which will seemingly prompt the Royals to quickly move on.
His major league career began with a strong 1.55 ERA in 2021, though that was at least partially fuelled by a tiny .143 batting average on balls in play. His ERA jumped to 3.86 last year and 4.66 this year, as his strikeout rate also dropped year over year from 24.3% to 19.2% to 13.6%.
The Royals will now put Barlow back on waivers in the coming days. His results haven’t been great lately, but he’s not too far removed from having the closer’s role in Texas. He racked up 13 saves for the Rangers last year and 11 the year before. He still has two more option seasons after this one and has yet to reach arbitration. It’s possible he could interest clubs around the league who have a roster spot available and an idea of how to get him back on track.
Royals To Promote Nick Loftin
The Royals are calling up infield prospect Nick Loftin tomorrow, reports Anne Rogers of MLB.com. He will take one of the two extra spots when active rosters grow from 26 to 28 tomorrow, but he’s not yet on the 40-man roster and will need a corresponding move to get a spot there. He’ll be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.
Loftin, 24, was selected with the 32nd overall pick in the 2020 draft. Though he was primarily a shortstop at Baylor prior to being drafted, the Royals have pushed him towards a utility role by bouncing him around the diamond throughout his minor league career, having spent some time at all four infield positions and in the outfield as well.
He began his professional career in High-A in 2021, hitting 10 home runs and stealing 11 bases in 90 games. His .289/.373/.463 battling line amounted to a wRC+ of 130, indicating he was 30% better than league average. Last year, he got into 128 games between Double-A and Triple-A, adding another 17 homers and 29 steals. However, his overall batting line of .254/.333/.403 amounted to a wRC+ of just 91. This year, he’s primarily been in Triple-A, hitting .270/.344/.444 for a wRC+ of 95.
He is currently considered the club’s #5 prospect at Baseball America and MLB Pipeline, while FanGraphs has him at #1. The general profile on Loftin is that he may not have a standout tool but does lots of things well. He can play multiple positions while providing a bit of speed and power without striking out too much.
He would have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft in a few months and was likely going to get a roster spot at that point anyway, but the Royals will give it to him now and use the final months of the seasons to get him some big league experience. How they get him into the lineup remains to be seen. Though he’s played all over, his primary positions this year have been second and third base. Michael Massey and Maikel Garcia have been getting the bulk of the playing time at those positions lately. But with Loftin’s versatility and the Royals being well out of contention at 41-94, they should be able to spread some playing time around.
Royals Select Steven Cruz
The Royals have selected the contract of right-handed pitcher Steven Cruz, the team announced. Left-handed pitcher Taylor Hearn has been optioned to Triple-A to make room on the 26-man roster. Kansas City already had a free spot on the 40-man roster, which has now been filled.
Kansas City acquired Cruz in January as part of the trade that sent Michael A. Taylor to Minnesota. Earlier this summer, FanGraphs ranked him as the no. 39 prospect in the Royals organization, praising his elite fastball that touches triple digits. However, both FanGraphs and Baseball America have pointed out his shaky command, which has remained a problem in 2023; Cruz has walked 30 batters in 49 2/3 innings between Double- and Triple-A. The tall right-hander has also had trouble keeping runs off the board since his midseason promotion to Triple-A, pitching to a 6.88 ERA in 14 games. Nevertheless, now is as good a time as any for the Royals to see what they have in the young fireballer. They sit in the basement of the AL Central, but they still have plenty of innings to fill before the year is up.
Hearn has struggled since joining the Royals at the trade deadline. In eight games, the southpaw has given up seven earned runs on twelve hits and two home runs. He made 31 appearances (13 starts) for the Rangers last season, posting a high 5.13 ERA but a more palatable 4.18 SIERA and 0.9 FanGraphs WAR. However, he failed to make the big league club out of spring training this year, and despite his 3.66 ERA at Triple-A, the Rangers designated him for assignment in mid-July. The Braves swooped in and acquired Hearn for cash considerations before flipping him to the Royals for Nicky Lopez a few days later. He made three appearances for Triple-A Omaha before he was recalled to replace an injured Zack Greinke. Kansas City can retain Hearn through arbitration next season, but he will be out of minor league options.
Bobby Witt Jr. Is Reaching His Potential
There hasn’t been much positive to say about the Royals this season. They’ve posted a brutal 41-90 record to this point in the season that places them a whopping 26.5 games back even in the extraordinarily weak AL Central, saved from sporting the worst record in baseball only by an abysmal A’s team. To make matters worse, they’re one of just two organizations without a top-100 prospect on MLB.com’s most recent rankings, joined only by the Astros, an organization that not only was stripped of its first- and second-round picks during the 2020 and 2021 drafts but also had a prospect in the top 100 until they dealt him to the Mets to reacquire Justin Verlander.
With a terrible record and a barren farm system, it’s been a difficult year for fans in Kansas City. While they entered the 2023 campaign with an interesting core of young position players, most of them have battled either injury or ineffectiveness this year- first basemen Vinnie Pasquantino and Nick Pratto are currently on the injured list, while MJ Melendez hasn’t turned out to be the successor to Salvador Perez behind the plate many thought he could become. On the pitching side of things, last year’s impressive season from right-hander Brady Singer now appears to have been a mirage and an exciting start to the season from lefty Kris Bubic was cut short by Tommy John surgery after just three starts.
Despite all the disappointments of the 2023 campaign for the Royals, there’s been one undeniable bright spot for this organization in 2023. Bobby Witt Jr. was the club’s pick with the second overall selection in the 2019 draft and tore through the minor leagues, eventually becoming the top-rated prospect in all of baseball according to both MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus ahead of the 2022 campaign. He ultimately had a respectable first season in the major leagues, playing in 150 games while slashing .254/.294/.498, an offensive performance that clocked in just below league average with a 98 wRC+.
While he managed to swipe 30 bags in 37 attempts, brutal defense at both third base and shortstop combined with an uninspiring performance on offense saw the AL Rookie of the Year favorite coming into the season slide to fourth place when all was said and done, finishing behind not only fellow exciting youngsters Julio Rodriguez and Adley Rutschman, but a relative unknown in Steven Kwan of the club’s division rival Guardians. Unfair as it may be to expect top prospects to immediately reach their projected excellence upon reaching the major leagues, Witt’s debut season was disappointing relative to the sky-high expectations in place for the 22-year-old rookie.
Early in the 2023 campaign, it appeared Witt was on base for moderate improvements, but nothing particularly eye-catching. Through the first half of the season, Witt’s defense had improved substantially as he settled in as the Royals’ everyday shortstop and he was already on his way to beating 2022’s stolen base total with 23 bags swiped in 29 attempts, but his bat was lagging behind the rest of the package. In his first 351 trips to the plate this season, Witt slashed just .244/.288/.415 with a strikeout rate just over 20%, an eerily similar slash line to the one he had posted the previous season.
Things changed dramatically for Witt once the calendar flipped to July, however. In nine games prior to the All Star break, he slashed .382/.410/.782 in 40 trips to the plate. While his strikeout rate remained elevated during this stretch, at 22.5%, his six extra base hits in so few games were virtually unheard of for him to that point in his major league career. Witt stayed hot following the break, and ended the month with an impressive July slash line of .327/.346/.633.
As impressive as Witt’s July was, he’s been even better in August. In 100 plate appearances this month, Witt has slashed a sensational .359/.410/.707 with a strikeout rate of just 11%. He has more extra base hits (15) than strikeouts (11) this month, has gone 8-for-9 on the basepaths to bring his stolen base total this year to 37. Even his walk rate, which sits at just 5% for his career, has ticked up to 8% this month. In all, Witt has slashed .347/.378/.668 with 14 homers, 14 stolen bases, and a 15.1% strikeout rate since the beginning of July.
Of course, the past two months account for just 205 plate appearances, just over a third of his total trips to the plate this year. Even so, his season-long numbers are looking mighty impressive at this point. At the plate, he’s slashed .280/.321/.508 overall this season, with a 119 wRC+ that’s a substantial improvement over last year’s below-average mark. By season’s end, he appears to be a veritable lock for at least 30 home runs and 40 stolen bases. Those offensive numbers leave out his incredible glovework this season, as well. Witt’s +13 Outs Above Average in 2023 trail only Dansby Swanson among all major leaguers. While DRS isn’t quite as enamored with Witt’s glovework this season, giving him a figure of just -2, that’s still an incredible improvement from last season, when his -22 DRS was second-worst in the majors.
Between his recent offensive explosion and season-long excellence with the glove, Witt has accumulated 5.1 fWAR through 127 games this season. That phenomenal figure places him behind only Shohei Ohtani among AL players, ahead of players in the midst of phenomenal seasons such as Rodriguez, Marcus Semien, and Luis Robert Jr. By the numbers, Witt has been virtually the same player as Mets star Francisco Lindor in terms of value, with Lindor boasting slightly better offense (124 wRC+) in exchange for slightly weaker fielding and baserunning numbers.
Perhaps most exciting of all for Royals fans is that Witt, still just 23 years old, is under team control through the end of the 2027 season. With four more seasons of their budding superstar in a Royals uniform to look forward to, the Royals still have several years to build a contender around their budding superstar and make a run at their first playoff appearance since winning the World Series in 2015 before his team control runs out and he has the option to depart in free agency.
Kansas City’s odds are particularly good considering the weak division they play in; after all, the Twins have a commanding lead for the AL Central crown this year despite a mediocre 67-63 record, and the division’s biggest spenders in the White Sox are clearly trending in the wrong direction at the moment. Despite the 2023 team’s brutal record and a farm system without clear impact talent on the way, all is not lost for the Royals going forward, and their franchise shortstop is perhaps the primary reason why.
Royals’ Jake Brentz Likely Out For Season Following Lat Strain
The Royals have been without reliever Jake Brentz for the entire season. The southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery last July and has been on the 60-day injured list since Opening Day. Brentz started a minor league rehab assignment last week, but the club announced this afternoon they were pulling him off that stint.
Anne Rogers of MLB.com reports that Brentz recently sustained a lat strain (Twitter link). He’s expected to miss the rest of the year. It’ll go down as a complete lost season, as he threw all of 2 2/3 minor league innings.
Brentz, 29 next month, pitched 5 1/3 frames before last season’s elbow injury. He’d had a decent rookie campaign two years ago, tossing 64 innings of 3.66 ERA ball. He fanned an above-average 27.3% of batters faced while averaging 97 MPH on his heater. Brentz’s control was wobbly — he walked over 13% of opponents — but he boasted one of the better power arsenals among left-handed relievers.
The Royals non-tendered him last offseason but circled back in Spring Training on a guaranteed two-year contract. Kansas City is paying him $850K this season and will owe him $1.05MM next year. Locking in a salary a few hundred thousand dollars north of the league minimum could give him a leg up on a roster spot, but Brentz won’t have any 2023 work to carry into the offseason. Kansas City will have to reinstate him back onto the 40-man roster once the offseason begins.
Phillies Acquire Brewer Hicklen From Royals
The Royals announced that outfielder Brewer Hicklen has been traded to the Phillies. The return on the deal wasn’t listed, though trades of this nature usually see cash considerations going the other way. Hicklen was eligible to be traded after the deadline because he wasn’t on a 40-man roster or major league injured list at any point this season.
[Related: How to Acquire Players After the Trade Deadline]
Hicklen, 27, will join a new organization for the first time in his career, as he was drafted by the Royals in 2017 and has been with them ever since. He has climbed to the upper levels of the minors and even got to make his major league debut in 2022, getting into six games as a COVID replacement player but striking out in all four of his plate appearances.
He has occasionally been considered one of the Royals’ top 30 prospects, with his best attribute being his speed. He’s racked up double-digit steals in each of his professional seasons, often getting into the 30-40 range. He also has notable power at the plate but has often paired home runs with big strikeout totals.
He spent most of last year at Triple-A, getting into 130 games there. He hit 28 homers and swiped 35 bags but was also punched out in 36.1% of his plate appearances. His .248/.348/.502 batting line still amounted to a wRC+ of 122, despite the strikeout concerns. Here in 2023, he’s been back in Triple-A, getting into 61 contests. He’s reduced his strikeout rate to 24.6% but with diminished production overall. His .233/.338/.451 line translates to a wRC+ of 93, though he’s added another 15 steals in that time.
Rosters are set to expand from 26 to 28 players in September, a time when many clubs like to add a speedy player to the bench for pinch running purposes, a role that Hicklen would certainly be a good candidate for. By acquiring him prior to September 1, he will also be eligible to join the Phils in the postseason. He will qualify for minor league free agency at season’s end if not added to the 40-man roster. For now, he’ll add some minor league depth behind the club’s regular outfield of Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber, Johan Rojas and Jake Cave.
Reds Targeted Brady Singer at Trade Deadline
The Reds reportedly targeted Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer at the trade deadline, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Needless to say, their efforts were unsuccessful, as Cincinnati’s only move at the deadline was to trade for Athletics reliever Sam Moll.
It’s no surprise that the Reds were searching for starting pitching. Entering the deadline, their starters had a 5.21 ERA, and four-fifths of their Opening Day rotation was either on the injured list or had already been released. According to a report from Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, the Reds were even willing to trade Jonathan India, once thought to be an untouchable piece of their core, to acquire young, controllable pitching. They were also linked to Eduardo Rodriguez and were said to be scouting the Mets, possibly with interest in Max Scherzer or Justin Verlander.
The 27-year-old Singer meets the young and controllable criteria better than any of those veterans; he is under team control through 2026. Furthermore, unlike Rodriguez, Scherzer, and Verlander, he doesn’t have any no-trade protection in his contract, so he couldn’t have vetoed a deal to the borderline-contending Reds. In other words, he made good sense as a target for Cincinnati on a relatively thin trade market.
Singer looked like a solid, mid-rotation starter right out of the gate in 2020, pitching to a 4.06 ERA in 12 starts. However, he ran into trouble down the stretch in 2021, posting a 5.70 ERA in the second half. The Royals moved him to the bullpen to open the 2022 season but quickly changed their minds, sending him to Triple-A to ramp back up into a starting role. Upon his return from the minors, he looked better than ever, putting up a 3.11 ERA and 3.43 SIERA in 24 games.
Unfortunately, Singer ran into another rough patch at the start of the 2023 campaign. After 15 starts, he was sporting a 6.34 ERA and 4.67 SIERA in 76 2/3 innings pitched. Since that day, however, the right-hander has turned things around once again. In nine outings, he has a 3.05 ERA and 3.90 SIERA while averaging nearly 6 2/3 innings per game. He cut his walk rate without sacrificing strikeouts, and he’s allowing far less hard contact, too. That’s exactly the kind of pitcher he looked like last season.
Ultimately the Royals were not compelled to trade Singer. He had only just begun to reverse his fortunes by the deadline, and Kansas City had little reason to sell low on such a promising arm. He still has three years of arbitration eligibility ahead of him, and it’s possible the Royals could be competitive in the AL Central within that time. If not, they still have ample opportunity to find a trade.
Similarly, the Reds weren’t facing any pressure to make a major deal. With so many talented young players under team control for the next several years, their competitive window is just beginning to open. They could have used another starter for the stretch run, but surely they were hesitant to add a pitcher who had struggled most of the season.
If Singer continues to succeed over the next six weeks, the Reds might be inclined to check back in with the Royals this winter. Cincinnati has several promising arms on the roster, including Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott, Graham Ashcraft, and Lyon Richardson, but this team could certainly use a more established starter to anchor the rotation. The Reds have one of the better farm systems in the game (N0. 12 at Baseball America, No. 5 at MLB Pipeline), while the Royals have one of the worst (No. 29 at BA and MLB Pipeline), so Cincinnati should have all the necessary pieces if they decide to make a deal.
Nick Wittgren Elects Free Agency
Aug. 17: Wittgren has now formally elected free agency, the Royals announced.
Aug. 16: Royals reliever Nick Wittgren is expected to elect free agency, reports Anne Rogers of MLB.com (Twitter link). He was optioned to Triple-A Omaha this afternoon when Kansas City selected John McMillon onto the big league club.
An optional assignment doesn’t typically allow a player to become a free agent. Players with over five years of major league service, however, have to consent to being optioned. Wittgren has between five and six years of service time, so he’ll have the ability to look elsewhere rather than head back to Omaha. Assuming he indeed chooses free agency, the Royals’ 40-man roster count will drop to 39.
Wittgren signed a non-roster pact with K.C. last December. He worked to a 1.25 ERA over 21 2/3 frames with Omaha, leading the Royals to select his contract at the end of May. The right-hander has since made 27 appearances, working 29 innings in generally low-leverage situations. He owns a 4.97 ERA in that stretch.
That’s marginally better than Witttgren’s run prevention marks of the past two seasons, though it’s quite a bit worse than the combined 2.97 ERA he posted in 112 appearances from 2018-20. Wittgren posted solid strikeout numbers during that peak but has seen the whiffs drop off significantly of late. He fanned a below-average 14.1% of opposing hitters with Kansas City on the heels of a 12.7% strikeout rate with the Cardinals a season ago.
Still, Wittgren should at least find minor league interest elsewhere on the strength of his early-season Triple-A production. He fanned over 24% of batters faced in Omaha, where he kept his walks to a modest 7.6% clip. Wittgren has been a solid strike-thrower throughout his career, walking 7% of opponents through 329 1/3 MLB innings.
Should he sign elsewhere by September 1, Wittgren would be eligible for postseason play. He’d have reached free agency at season’s end if the Royals had kept him on the major league roster. With the club clearly in evaluation mode, it’s sensible they’d prefer to give some innings to the hard-throwing McMillon down the stretch.
Royals Select John McMillon
The Royals announced that they have selected right-hander John McMillon. In corresponding moves, right-hander Nick Wittgren was optioned to Triple-A while righty Brad Keller was transferred to the 60-day injured list.
McMillon, 25, was signed by the Royals in 2020 as an undrafted free agent. Since then, he’s climbed the minor league ranks by racking up huge strikeout totals, but also demonstrating a clear lack of control. He spent last year in Single-A, tossing 31 innings at that level with a 6.10 earned run average. He struck out 30.8% of batters faced but also walked an eye-popping 26%.
Here in 2023, he’s already covered three levels, going from Single-A to High-A and Double-A. He’s thrown a combined 51 1/3 frames between those stops with a 2.10 ERA. The 12.4% walk rate is still on the high side but a massive improvement over last year. He hasn’t lost any strikeout stuff either, punching out 45.3% of opponents.
With those extremes in his performance, there’s naturally some variation in the evaluations on his abilities. FanGraphs ranked him the #11 prospect in the system last month while Baseball America recently pegged him at #29. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs highlights McMillon’s fastball and slider, giving both pitches a 70 grade on the 20-80 scouting scale, adding that the righty could be an elite reliever right now with better control.
The Royals are well out of contention with a record of 39-82, second-worst in baseball with only the A’s beneath them. They can use the remainder of the season to give McMillon a shot at getting big league hitters out, skipping him over Triple-A, at least for the time being.
As for Keller, his transfer is largely a formality since he’s already been on the IL longer than 60 days, landing there back on May 19 due to right shoulder impingement syndrome. He started a rehab assignment in June but his discomfort eventually returned, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. He started another rehab assignment earlier this week but will have to ramp up and stay healthy before he’s likely to be activated. He’s set to become a free agent at the end of the season.
