SURPRISE, Ariz. — The best-laid plans of the front office, coaching staff and players are no match for the winds of fate. Kansas City Royals fans need look no further back than last spring training to appreciate that cruel fact.
A double play combination of shortstop Adalberto Mondesi and second baseman Nicky Lopez certainly seemed preordained going into spring training 2021.
Then Lopez’s offensive struggles in the spring forced the Royals to reevaluate their plan at second base. As if those previous plans hadn’t already been thoroughly shredded, Mondesi strained an oblique on the last day of the Cactus League exhibition schedule.
Now, the Royals head into a new season once again eyeing a Mondesi-Lopez combination with Mondesi anchoring the infield at shortstop and Lopez, who proved himself a top-caliber defender at shortstop last year, bumping back to second base.
“Right now, it’s early enough in spring that everybody is talking about the best-case scenario,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “We want Mondi at shortstop. How often? We’ll see. We’ll watch.
“We’re going to try to protect him, but he’s a grown man. He has aspirations and dreams. It’s his career. Those aren’t things that we take lightly. So we’ll keep them in the conversation, but we’ll be honest with what we think and try to do the right thing day-to-day.”
Mondesi missed 94 of the first 104 games last season because of a pair of oblique injuries and a hamstring injury.
Mondesi, a 26-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, hasn’t played in more than 102 games in any season in the majors.
Injuries have plagued him, but when healthy has shown flashes of enormous potential as a switch-hitting all-around standout blending hitting ability, speed, power, fielding and arm strength.
He simply hasn’t been able to stay healthy for extended periods.
A fresh, healthy start
Mondesi said he primarily spent the offseason in the Dominican Republic, though he found a trainer in the Tampa area who came with him to implement a training program designed for him.
“We started with studying my body, seeing what’s going to work for me or not, and we go from there,” Mondesi said.
Prior to the lockout, the Royals had expressed interest in Mondesi training in Florida for at least part of the offseason so he’d be able to get some work in with Miami-based special assignment hitting coach Mike Tosar.
Of course, the lockout barred the players from having any contact with members of the coaching staff.
Mondesi’s main focus this offseason was his body and being ready for spring training. Now that he’s in camp and feeling good, that will also be a focus for the Royals.
“We have to also learn from what we’ve seen and how can we help him,” Matheny said. “How can we help keep him on the field?”
The Royals hope part of those answers come from monitoring his workload in spring training with K-Motion wearable technology that tracks everything from steps taken to heart rate and including swings, rotational movement and explosive movements.
They’ll adjust Mondesi’s workload if needed, but Matheny stressed multiple times they don’t feel it’s wise or necessary to place limits on him right now.
The only quasi-limitation Matheny acknowledged was that they’re not looking at him moving around the infield.
They’re just planning to have him at shortstop for now.
The ripple effect of Mondesi and shortstop and Lopez at second base likely puts All-Star Whit Merrifield, who was a candidate for Gold Glove at second base, in right field and paves the way for top prospect Bobby Witt Jr., also a talented shortstop, to play third base after making his major-league debut.
Mondesi said he’s “open” to whatever the Royals want to do as far as him playing different positions.
“I just want to play,” Mondesi said. “I just want to feel good and help the team win. Whatever they do, I just want to play.”
