When the Twins demoted Miguel Sano last week, it got me thinking about how maybe the lack of times the Royals and Twins have faced off this season is partially to blame for the slugger’s struggles this season. It’s not hard to come to that conclusion. Look at last season when Sano hit a robust .264/.352/.507. For a 24-year old, that’s a nice season to build on. Of course, take the Royals out of the equation and his season line falls to a much less impressive .246/.335/.468. For a guy without a ton of defensive value, that line plays, but he has his .413/.491/.826 to thank for his solid 2017.
As you know, the Royals haven’t exactly had the best season in 2018. They don’t score runs and they allow too many. It’s sort of a recipe for disaster. So which players are the Royals helping the most this season? Let’s take a gander.
Shin-Soo Choo
After another huge game against the Royals last night, Choo has continued his assault on Royals pitching. A big factor in his resurgence has been the fact that he’s absolutely destroyed the Royals.
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | |
| vs. Royals | 23 | .429 | .652 | 1.214 | 3 | 3 |
| vs. The Rest | 302 | .271 | .374 | .438 | 10 | 29 |
Matt Davidson
And now it’s time for the obvious. If the Royals had played the White Sox as few times as they’ve played the Twins, Davidson might have been designated for assignment. But they haven’t and he isn’t. Here are the numbers:
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | |
| vs. Royals | 32 | .462 | .563 | 1.308 | 7 | 12 |
| vs. The Rest | 192 | .205 | .323 | .373 | 6 | 19 |
Adam Engel
Sticking with the White Sox, Engel has proven to be, we’ll say, less than as a hitter in the big leagues. But don’t tell Royals pitching that. He’s somehow carved up the Royals. With him, I’m going to show how he’s done this season against the Royals:
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | |
| vs. Royals | 19 | .313 | .389 | .500 | 0 | 2 |
| vs. The Rest | 186 | .201 | .261 | .278 | 2 | 12 |
But also his career numbers, which are really just this year and last year. It’s not so much that he was actually that great against the Royals last year, but he’s just SO bad against everyone else:
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | |
| vs. Royals | 66 | .254 | .323 | .492 | 1 | 11 |
| vs. The Rest | 475 | .173 | .239 | .260 | 7 | 24 |
Marwin Gonzalez
Gonzalez was a huge piece of the 2017 championship run for the Astros, but this season hasn’t exactly gotten off to a great start. He’s not a liability necessarily because he can play multiple positions, but he just hasn’t been exceptional for them. We’ll see if this weekend was a blip or if the Royals are responsible for getting him going.
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | |
| vs. Royals | 12 | .500 | .583 | .700 | 0 | 2 |
| vs. The Rest | 243 | .248 | .321 | .388 | 5 | 31 |
Francisco Lindor
Lindor is a heck of a player and is an All-Star no matter how many time he faces the Royals, but the numbers are just so jarring that I had to include him in this list. The 26 plate appearances against the Royals raise his average by 15 points, his OBP by 17 and his SLG by 33. That’s impressive.
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | |
| vs. Royals | 26 | .476 | .560 | .952 | 2 | 3 |
| vs. The Rest | 306 | .272 | .344 | .496 | 14 | 35 |
Yoan Moncada
Do you sense a bit of a theme here? The White Sox are not good, but boy do they love seeing the Royals. Moncada is insanely talented, but he hasn’t shown a ton in the big leagues to this point. That doesn’t mean he won’t, but let’s just say he’s very thankful for the Royals this season.
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | |
| vs. Royals | 35 | .303 | .343 | .545 | 2 | 4 |
| vs. The Rest | 241 | .215 | .296 | .379 | 7 | 19 |
Matt Olson
Olson had one fantastic rookie year for Oakland in 2017 hitting 24 home runs in just 59 games. He looked the part of a big time slugger for years to come. And even this season when he’s struggled, he’s absolutely mauled some home runs, routinely going 450+. Against the Royals, though, it’s been a different level for him.
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | |
| vs. Royals | 29 | .292 | .414 | .792 | 4 | 9 |
| vs. The Rest | 262 | .226 | .302 | .404 | 10 | 26 |
Albert Pujols
Man he’s had a great career, and he’s punished the team that played mere miles from where he played college ball. This year is no different. As The Machine is no longer capable of much, he continues to make the Royals miserable.
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | |
| vs. Royals | 19 | .389 | .421 | .667 | 1 | 5 |
| vs. The Rest | 265 | .239 | .275 | .402 | 11 | 35 |
Justin Upton
Upton has been a very good player for the vast majority of his career and after a nice half-season with the Angels, he signed a new deal with them rather than opting out of the deal he signed with the Tigers. Things haven’t gone well for him on his new deal…other than when the Angels take on the Royals.
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | |
| vs. Royals | 27 | .538 | .556 | .885 | 3 | 7 |
| vs. The Rest | 278 | .224 | .320 | .422 | 13 | 39 |
There are others that maybe aren’t quite as dramatic. And yes, there are actually some who the Royals have handled so well that they actually make their overall numbers worse. Jose Abreu is the rare example of a White Sox player who hasn’t benefited greatly from facing Royals pitching. He’s hit .284/.339/.504 this season but just .174/.321/.348 against the Royals. Every team has those players who are just thorns in their sides throughout the season. Bad teams with bad pitching tend to have more. There’s still plenty of baseball left to add to this list too, so watch out for more batters to be Raised Royal as 2018 goes on.