Though they may not be admitting it now, the Royals are, realistically, more than likely already looking ahead towards 2023. At the Memorial Day mark, Kansas City has one of the worst records (16-31) in baseball, along with one of the worst offenses as well. The one silver lining is their farm system, which has some exciting young prospects like Nick Pratto and Vinnie Pasquantino, both of which are hitting well at Triple-A Omaha. With the team's decision to promote MJ Melendez looking like a smart one, when can Royals fans realistically expect the debuts of some of the team's other top young guys? 610's Royals Insider Josh Vernier joined Fescoe In The Morning to break it down.
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"Injury could change things, that's what happened with MJ Melendez," he said. "The issue right now is every day at-bats. You're not going to bring Vinnie Pasquantino up here – the saying is that [he's] not ready – but the truth is that [he] can't get every day at-bats. Because, again, MJ Melendez statistically wasn't ready, but Cam Gallagher goes down, the offense was struggling, you could find a way to get him in the lineup just about every day, so you call him up. Right now, as you continue to prance Carlos Santana out there every single day, where does Vinnie Pasquantino get those every day opportunities? If you're not going to platoon [Santana], not going to start him, and if you're not going to write him a check for him to go away, I don't think it changes any time soon. But when it does, if it's not injury-related, and it is, 'here's seven million dollars Carlos, enjoy the next few months of vacation,' if and when that happens, I don't know how much credit I'm giving to the team, but I will give a fair amount to ownership for writing another check that's going down the drain.'
You can listen to the entire interview (24:00) in the embedded player below:
