It’s been one of those years for the Royals, hasn’t it? With the news prior to Wednesday’s game that Lorenzo Cain would be going on the disabled list, it just felt like a continuation of the same story we’ve been hearing all season. It actually began during the first game in spring training when Jarrod Dyson was injured and had to miss all of spring and the start of the season.
Then Mike Moustakas was placed on the disabled list with his hand injury that occurred when it was slid into.
Then the Royals then made two disabled list moves on the same day when they placed both Chris Young and Kris Medlen on there with what we thought might be a phantom injury for each. It turned out that Medlen’s injury was real enough to warrant him still being out.
After activating Moustakas from the disabled list, it was just his second game back when he and Alex Gordon collided. That injury ended Moose’s season and put Gordon on the shelf for a month.
Next, Brett Eibner, called up to replace Moustakas, got hurt chasing a fly ball against the Rays that landed him on the disabled list for a couple weeks.
And now Cain.
Oh yeah, somewhere in the middle there, Salvador Perez had a deep quad contusion from a collision with Cuthbert and Kendrys Morales needed a few days off with a sore finger.
Boy, it might be easier to go through who hasn’t been hurt.
But, as a credit to the resiliency of the Royals, they’ve pushed through and are still part of the playoff picture in the American League. To most teams, losing 40 percent of your starting rotation for a stretch and so much of your lineup to injury would be enough to fall out of the race, but the Royals haven’t done that, and it’s partially because some of the young guys have really stepped up.
Here are the Royals records with various injured players out of the lineup this season (it includes standard days off, too):
Lorenzo Cain: 3-1
Alex Gordon: 16-15
Mike Moustakas: 28-23
Salvador Perez: 6-5
Kendrys Morales: 3-5
So it’s not all sunshine and rainbows and puppies and other happy things that you like, but the Royals have made do without their stars this season at various times. The one that gets me is the Royals are actually now 43-24 over the last three seasons when Cain doesn’t make the start, whether that’s just standard days off or when he’s out for injury-related issues.
The point of this isn’t to say that the Royals don’t need these guys. I’d wager their record would be a great deal better if they were playing their full complement of All-Stars every single night. But the point is that they’ve overcome to this point in the season and found a way to stay relevant in the postseason chase.
Right now, a big key for the Royals is for Eibner to make adjustments. When he came back from the disabled list prior to being sent down for Gordon’s return, a big issue I saw was that he was being attacked by sliders and was struggling mightily. He has just two hits off a slider this season and has struck out almost half the time it’s been the deciding pitch in an at bat. And that’s really been his issue. He’s hit .344 with a .563 slugging percentage against fastballs, sinkers and cutters but just .167 with a .222 slugging percentage against everything else.
He’s going to strike out. The key is how he adjusts to the off-speed stuff that pitchers will undoubtedly attack him with. And I’m assuming here that he will be spending a lot of time in the lineup given that when he was sent down, one of the reasons was so he could play every day. They could have easily called up Reymond Fuentes if they wanted a guy to play the role of fourth outfielder.
To date, Cuthbert has stepped up and been huge in keeping the Royals afloat. Whit Merrifield hasn’t replaced an injured player (though he has played some left in Gordon’s absence), but he’s been a huge key. The Royals simply need to keep plugging holes with what they have for now.
And if it turns out that Cain’s injury will take a little longer to heal than they hope and/or expect, they can always look to the trade market to shore up their outfield, though that’s an easier said than done task.
No matter what they do, it won’t be anything new for a team that’s dealt with just about everything this season. They just have to find a way to keep in it, like they’ve done all season.