Don’t have time for a lot of explaining, but obviously the first half was so awful that things have to change in the second half. Here are 10 things that I think have got to happen for KC in the second half of the season if we’re supposed to feel better about the future of the club heading into 2024.

#1: Scott Barlow, Edward Olivares, Matt Duffy, and one more veteran have to go

This is pretty self-explanatory, I think. Relievers are ticking time bombs on bad ball clubs and the Royals are a bad ball club. Edward Olivares is a good bat but he’s such an awful defender that you can’t really expect him to be a part of the future. If someone sees value in him coming off of the bench as they make a push towards the playoffs, great, take what you can get and move on. I’d also extend the “gotta go” mentality to Amir Garrett, Brad Keller, Taylor Clarke, and Nick Wittgren, but I acknowledge that you likely can’t trade ALL of them and someone has to stay behind and get outs, so pick one of them and trade them when you can. Get those three off the roster and you can keep getting younger and more forward thinking.

#2: Alec Marsh and Austin Cox both need to be in the rotation until the wheels fall off

I’m not saying they are both big league starters long-term, because it’s not about that, we just need to find out for sure. They should both be given the opportunity to start until their performance says they can’t. If that means Jordan Lyles has to move to the bullpen, fine, but the rotation HAS to include Marsh, Cox, Brady Singer, and Daniel Lynch for the rest of the season. This is an evaluation season. Evaluate. Do you have something with these four? How many starters do we need to go get this offseason? These are questions we have to get answers to and Jordan Lyles damn sure shouldn’t be in the way of that evaluation.

#3: MJ Melendez has got to get right, if not in Kansas City, then in Omaha

The Royals desperately need MJ Melendez to be good again. He looks totally lost at the plate and nothing suggests that this is getting better any time soon. There’s not really a single metric you can point to and say, “Hey, see, he’s making progress.” We know MJ can hit. He hit at a level we legitimately have not seen in a long time in 2021. He was a league average hitter in the big leagues last year as a 23-year old rookie. Here is a list of every 22-year old with at least 150 PA in AAA to post a 170 wRC+ since 2014:

• Trent Grisham
• Gavin Lux
• Eloy Jimenez
• Yordan Alvarez
• MJ Melendez

It’s only productive big league hitters. I believe in the talent. I believe in his eye at the plate. I believe in the power. I believe in his hands. He’s just GOT to get back to an approach at the plate that works for him, and right now he could not be further from that. He needs a trip down I-29 to find some confidence where there’s no pressure on him. Give him that, and then give him 150 big league PA to close out the season and see where we’re at. He is too talented to be hitting as poorly as he is right now and the Royals desperately need him to hit like he’s capable if they want this rebuild to work in a timely manner.

#4: Gavin Cross has got to get back on track

The Royals had two top-100 prospects coming into the season. Maikel Garcia (yes I know he was taken off the only list he was actually on) and Gavin Cross. Maikel Garcia is currently playing like a Rookie of the Year candidate and Gavin Cross has a wRC+ of 96 with a 30% K%. We knew the strikeouts could be a bit problematic for Cross coming out of Virginia Tech last year, but he was hitting for SO much power that it was easy to look past them. In hindsight, a college kid with a K% over 25% in Low-A should have been more of a red flag than I originally gave credit.

Since May 30th, Cross has his K% down to 24%, which is survivable long-term, but the ISO in that time is down to .111. He’s sacrificing almost all of his power in order to strikeout 24% of the time…that’s a bad combination. Cross is immensely talented and there’s still plenty of time for him to make the proper adjustments, but I would feel much better about the Royals future if I knew Cross had already made them heading into the offseason. The Royals have to have Gavin Cross be good. They cannot afford for him to be a bust. It does not have to happen this year, I’d just feel a lot better if it started this year.

#5: Figure out the long-term plan at catcher

Salvador Perez is my favorite player to ever dawn a Royals uniform. I wish he could play forever. I will cry legitimate tears the day he is no longer wearing a Royal Blue. With that said…the Royals need to identify whether his current slump is fixable or if this is the beginning of his decline. Salvy is a 33-year old catcher. If you sort MLB catchers by fWAR this season, the top nine are all under 29 years old. It is really hard to sustain greatness at the position at Salvy’s age and everything about his game has gotten progressively worse as this season has gone on. I’m not saying he’s NOT the long-term answer, but he’s only under contract for two more seasons and they passed on the obvious option for his replacement on Sunday. Maybe Freddy Fermin and Luca Tresh can tag team the position until a more permanent solution is ready (Jensen/Mitchell) but I struggle to see the current solution in-house for 2026 and beyond. Maybe it’s Salvy, but they need to start planning for the inevitable.

#6: The Royals need to find out if Brady Singer is willing to adjust or not

Watching Brady Singer pitch this season has legitimately pissed me off more than once. I don’t really recall someone so mediocre being so openly stubborn about adjusting to big league hitters. It’s sort of epidemic in the Royals franchise right now, thinking that for some reason we can do things differently than literally everyone else and somehow be better for it. There’s a reason people do things certain ways and trying to be a big league starter with two pitches is something beyond stupid. The Royals have Singer under control through his age-29 season. He’ll be 30 years old before he’s eligible for free agency. If he continues to refuse to throw a changeup or curveball or what the hell ever, they have two options in my mind:
– trade him this offseason for as much as you can get for him
– send him to the bullpen and see how he likes it

Like I said, I can’t recall watching anything like this. Singer can’t seemingly get anything going for him on a consistent basis yet makes no adjustments to his arsenal. I don’t know how much longer the Royals can afford to wait for him to fiddle around like this as a starter.

#7: The Royals need to find out if Michael Massey can be a part of the long-term future

Michael Massey certainly looks the part of a big league second baseman. He’s a fantastic defender and has improved his approach tremendously this season, lowering his Chase% over 1.5% from 2022 and his Swing% over 2%. He’s still swinging too much, but he’s doing better and showing a legitimate willingness to adapt. The concerning part is that his in-zone contact rates are way up yet his K% is also way up. His power has also been almost completely neutralized this year and so, despite all the things he’s improving, he’s gone from a nearly league average bat to one of the worst “every day” hitters in baseball. I don’t think this is who Massey is, but he HAS to hit at a league average clip to overcome not being an *elite* defender at second base. Whatever he is, whatever he will be, the Royals have Nick Loftin hot on his tail and they need to find out if Massey is worth prioritizing this season.

#8: Dylan Coleman, Will Klein, Carlos Hernandez, and Jonathan Heasley need to dominate the late bullpen innings

Let me just set one thing straight really quick:

I. Do. Not. Give. A. Single. Eff. If. Coleman. And. Klein. Have. Command. Issues.

This baseball team is on pace to be one of the worst teams in the history of Major League Baseball. Coleman and Klein objectively have some of the best stuff in the entire organization. You have absolutely NOTHING to lose by letting them figure out how to get big league hitters out. Let them go try. Let them get used to the pressure. Let them get used to big league approaches and game plans and game flow. You can’t learn the big league game in AAA. Give the guys with the best chance at being a long-term solution a chance to prove that they can or can’t. At least it’s something to evaluate.

#9: Identify one cost-controlled asset that you would be okay trading this offseason…

I’m sure this will be popular. I don’t care if it’s Nick Loftin, Angel Zerpa, Daniel Lynch, Brady Singer, Maikel Garcia, or freaking Freddy Fermin. The Royals have a ton of holes on their roster and you’re not going to fill them all in-house. You’re certainly not going to fill them all by drafting 18-year olds. So, how do we fill two holes on the roster? By trading one established piece for three maybes. If the Royals can lose 115 games with Maikel Garcia, they can lose 119 without him. You’ve got to identify one of your valuable pieces that can go out and get you several valuable pieces. I don’t care who it is, and maybe you don’t get an offer worth taking!, but you have to identify pieces worth talking to other teams about.

#10: For the love of all that is holy, find a guy or two to extend long term

I’ve been begging the Royals to do this for over a year now. Vinnie, Garcia, Bobby…find someone to put in a Royals uniform for the next eight years and give fans a clear idea of what the foundation will look like. I get that there’s no rush, but you could create a lot of cost certainty for yourself and maybe even get a discount over the course of two to three seasons as well by giving out some cash up front. I truly believe this is a big step in the right direction for a team rebuilding as heavily as the Royals will be. Find a player or two you can lock up through the first few years of your new stadium and start printing the banners you’ll fly on Opening Day. Give the team, and the fanbase, something to build/hope on.