That wave of young Kansas City Royals prospects who’ve been forecast and anticipated for several years may have finally crested.
The last few seasons served to bridge the gap between the last wave of young talent to this one, represented by position players like shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., catcher/outfielder MJ Melendez, first baseman/designated hitter Vinnie Pasquantino, first baseman/outfielder Nick Pratto and infielder Michael Massey as well as starting pitchers Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic, Jonathan Heasley, Jackson Kowar and Carlos Hernandez.
While the turnover certainly didn’t happen in a blink of an eye, the youth movement is now the present.
That gap was bridged on the backs of veterans. But the past five and a half weeks have been about swapping those veterans to get younger and deeper.
“It’s starting to come together,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo said less than two hours after the MLB trade deadline passed on Tuesday. “I think a lot of the pieces are there on the field right now, from a pitching staff perspective and from our lineup. There were some holes that I feel like maybe we’ve addressed throughout a few of these acquisitions”
Going back to June 27, the Royals traded Carlos Santana, Andrew Benintendi, Emmanuel Rivera, Whit Merrifield, Cam Gallagher and a competitive-balance round draft pick (35th overall).
Four of those five players traded were veterans with Rivera, who made his debut last season, the lone exception.
In return, the Royals acquired 12 players. They also acquired a 13th player in exchange for cash considerations.
The Royals added a potential center fielder of the future in Drew Waters via the draft pick trade with the Atlanta Braves.
They targeted a right-handed hitting power bat in Brent Rooker in the trade that sent Cam Gallagher to the San Diego Padres, and they also added pitching in deals with the Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays and the Braves.
The trade acquisitions coupled with the newcomers brought in through last month’s MLB Draft led Picollo to comment that the organization looks “quite different” than it did a few weeks ago, and he added that he’s “pretty excited” about that different look.
At the same time, Picollo acknowledged that this high level of turnover raises pertinent questions about leadership and club chemistry that will have to be answered particularly with Merrifield’s departure.
Merrifield had been not just one of the public faces and voices for the club, but also a prominent figure internally.
“Now, it’s time for some other guys to step up and take that role,” Picollo said. “It will evolve over time.”
Infielder Nicky Lopez falls somewhere between veteran and youngster being 27 and having more than two big-league seasons under his belt.
Lopez acknowledged that the Royals have become a different club with a significantly different roster in the matter of weeks.
With that comes a bit of a new start in terms of establishing a clubhouse dynamic and setting the tone for what expectations will be for this new Royals core.
“I think most important is just building relationships,” Lopez said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys coming and we have a mix of guys who have been here and a mix of older veterans. So it’s going to be pretty cool to see how it kind of unfolds. …
“It’s kind of like we’ve got to build a culture around here again and get back to playoff baseball. Ultimately, the goal is to get back to the World Series and win a World Series for Kansas City.”
Royals manager Mike Matheny spent parts of 13 seasons in the majors as a player prior to his now 10 seasons as a manager.
Matheny has been a proponent of the idea that leadership can’t be forced nor can it be artificially rushed.
“Where do we go now? We go forward and someone else is going to have to take advantage of the opportunities, whether that’s more of a veteran presence — because (Merrifield) was certainly a voice — but also on the field and in the lineup, offensively, defensively, there’s going to be more opportunity.”
New additions
Royals trade acquisitions since June 27:
C.J. Alexander, infielder (from the Braves)
Max Castillo, RHP (Blue Jays)
Chandler Champlain, pitcher (Yankees)
Williams Fleming, pitcher (Mariners)
Andrew Hoffman, pitcher (Braves)
Wyatt Mills, pitcher (Mariners)
Anthony Misiewicz, pitcher (Mariners)
Brent Rooker, OF (Padres)
T.J. Sikkema, pitcher (Yankees)
Samad Taylor, INF (Blue Jays)
Drew Waters OF (Braves)
Beck Way, pitcher (Yankees)
Luke Weaver, pitcher (Diamondbacks)
