With MLB Opening Day only 19 days away and spring training games steadily underway, baseball season is right around the corner. Over the next month, we will preview all 30 MLB teams for the 2020 season leading up to Opening Day on March 26th. Next up, the Kansas City Royals 2020 preview. Check out the preview for the Houston Astros here.
The Kansas City Royal finished 2019 with an abysmal 59-103 record, good for the fourth-worst record in the league. 2019 was their second straight 100 loss season and their fourth straight non-winning season after winning the World Series in 2015. Ned Yost retired after nine seasons as the manager of the Royals and they replaced him with former St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. Matheny inherits a team that is deep into a rebuild, making the future more important than the 2020 season.
2019 got off to a bad start for the Royals as star catcher Salvador Perez underwent Tommy John surgery and missed the entire season. Perez is expected to be ready for Opening Day and will provide a veteran backstop for a young pitching staff. In parts of five MLB season prior to 2019, everyone in the MLB was expecting Jorge Soler to be a transcendent player for years to come. The Royals finally got that outburst that everyone was expecting in 2019 when Soler slugged 48 home runs and played in over 110 games for the first time in his career.
While Alex Gordon is not the three-time all-star that led the Royals to back-to-back World Series appearances, he remains a key cog in the lineup and a leader in the clubhouse. Whit Merrifield made his first all-star game in 2019 at the age of 30 and his contract is looking more team-friendly by the day. Adalberto Mondesi was living up to the hype that surrounded him heading into 2019 until a shoulder injury derailed his season. That injury has kept Mondesi from playing so far this spring but the Royals are still optimistic he will be ready for Opening Day.
The Royals pitching staff was devoid of any consistent production outside of young righty Brad Keller in 2019, and even his season was somewhat of a disappointment. Keller had a 4.19 ERA in 2019 after pitching to a 3.08 ERA in 2018 both starting and coming out of the bullpen. Keller is expected to be joined in the 2020 rotation by top prospects Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar. Singer and Kowar are both big righties from the University of Florida but they attack you in different ways.
Singer uses a sinker-slider combo that causes weak contact while he attempts to develop a change-up to further his arsenal. Kowar uses a mid 90’s fastball to set up his best offering, a change-up that is effective to both right-handed and left-handed hitters. Singer and Kowar, along with Keller form the backbone of the Royals rebuilding efforts in the starting rotation.
The expected debut’s of both Singer and Kowar, along with healthy seasons from Mondesi and Perez give the Royals something to look forward to in 2020. While wins may not be aplenty, Matheny and the young Royals will give their fans plenty of intriguing baseball next season.
Follow me on Twitter @DanDamico14. For all things baseball follow @BellyUpBaseball on Twitter.
Check out all my other work for Belly Up Sports here!
