Friday Notes — Royals News for March 29, 2019

It was cold, it was rainy, it was a long day. But in the end, the Royals found themselves over .500 for the first time since August 25, 2017 when they were 64–63. They have at least a share of the AL Central lead for the first time since June 3, 2016. Of course, it’s 1–0, so it means basically nothing, but it’s nice to see all of that for the first time in awhile. It didn’t come nearly as easy as it should have (we’ll get to that), but a win is a win and it’s always nice for the Royals to win one before an off day because there’s not much worse as a fan than that off day after the first game and thinking about a loss as the only data point of the season.

• I don’t know how we can start with anyone but Brad Keller who had just a a magnificent start to the season with seven shutout innings. He gave up just two hits, walked just one, struck out five and was in control from the very beginning. He got a ton of grounders and just looked fantastic. If you’re reading this, you probably saw it, so I won’t get deeper into the performance just yet, but one thing that stuck out was Ned Yost in the postgame press conference talking about how he believes Keller will be their ace for years to come. That then made me think of something I heard in the offseason that the two extension candidates the Royals know they have right now are Adalberto Mondesi and Keller. And so then that started me thinking of what they might do to extend Keller. While I think it’s probably a little premature, it’s hard to argue with the results so far. In a season and a day, he’s carrying a sub-3.00 ERA with a better than 50% ground ball rate and looks like he’s developing and getting even better. He has five years of team control left, and as a pitcher it’s risky to project out six or seven seasons, but I wouldn’t mind a six year deal for something like $25-$30 million. That has a chance to be a massive value, but even if he regresses and he has to go back to the bullpen, a big dude running it up there at 95 MPH+ and getting tons of grounders is well worth that contract. Of course, he might bet on himself and say no, but it’s interesting at least.
• On the subject of the bullpen, though, yikes. I’m going to take a look at Dayton Moore’s free agent reliever signings at some point because, off the top of my head, it seems like he does a really bad job of finding free agent relievers (Juan Cruz and Travis Wood come to mind). Where he seems to excel is the bargain finds like Ryan Madson and shifting starters to the bullpen like Luke Hochevar and Wade Davis. And yesterday’s best reliever outside of Brad Boxberger getting the one man he faced was Ian Kennedy, a guy moved from the rotation. But all that said, I don’t think it’s fair to condemn them just yet for a number of reasons. The biggest is sample size, but the other reasons are pretty big too. Opening Day is weird in general. Strange things happen. Also, it was a long ass delay to start the game. Then it started raining again. It was just some odd circumstances. That’s not to say that I think this unit will be lockdown once the weather straightens out and the schedule gets less wonky, but I do think it’s fair to wait at least a couple weeks before we call this 2018 redux and go gray every time the starter leaves the game. We might be at that point, but I’d like to see them get a chance in more normal circumstances first.
• How about Adalberto Mondesi, man? Two triples? I’ve never see…oh wait, another shortstop did it too, but still, pretty incredible. He’s just so unbelievably fast that, as Whit Merrifield said in postgame, if he gets the ball into the gap at that stadium, it’ll almost always be a triple. I love that he got one right-handed too because before last season, the right side of the plate was the one that we all figured would give him more trouble in the big leagues. He hit well from that side last year, so maybe it’s concern for no reason, but it’s worth at least commending him for doing well from that side of the plate. He did expand the zone a little yesterday, but he also worked the count a little bit too before he did that, so maybe there’s even some progress there, building on what we saw in spring training. The one thing I can say for certain after one game is something we all said before. If the Royals want to get where they’re going, Mondesi has to drive that bus. His lack of on base skills is going to be a hindrance, but the power/speed combination plus his ability to play plus defense at the most important position on the field is what is going to allow the Royals to expedite the rebuild. And after one game to follow up his breakout last year, he’s showing that he’s up to the task. Just one game, but better the data is good than bad.
• And finally, just sort of a personal note. My season ticket seats are in the section next to where player family and friends often sit, so I get to see some cool moments, mostly in debuts. We got to see it with Brett Eibner’s family a couple seasons ago and I got to experience it yesterday with Frank Schwindel’s family and friends. Every time he came to the plate or did anything on the field, they were going absolutely nuts and it’s just really cool to get to be near that. I had a chance to talk with a couple of them and if you didn’t know already, everybody loves Frank. He’s an easy guy to root for. I have a fear that he’s going to be a casualty when the Royals need that fifth starter (probably Scott Barlow will be the casualty when Homer Bailey is needed), but in spite of some of his limitations, having been around his people was really fun and something I’m lucky to get to experience pretty regularly in my seats.