• The biggest news of the week is that the Royals finally recognized the sunk cost that was Omar Infante. I guess they recognized it earlier with leaving him out of the lineup for so long, but they officially ended the relationship by designating him for assignment on Wednesday. In doing so, the Royals decided to eat roughly $14.7 million, which I believe is more money than they’ve ever eaten before. As a side note, why did that phrase come into existence? Eating money? Come on. As I said on Twitter, it’s nice that the new Royals continue to make moves that make sense on the field rather than in the checkbook. You could argue that the Royals are paying Infante’s contract whether he’s on the team or off, but by DFAing him, they are paying out a little extra money because that roster spot isn’t filled for free. Plus, the Royals of old would have likely run him out there to see if he could get hot and garner some trade value, which wouldn’t have happened and then we’d have all ended up right back here but probably having lost an extra game or two because of his presence. There were a couple great highlights for Infante in his short, but too long, tenure with the Royals, but ultimately this was the right decision and anyone who would argue that is a little bit on the crazy side.
• There was a slideshow in the Sporting News ranking the worst fielders at every position in 2016. At first base was a familiar name – Eric Hosmer. Yes, that same Eric Hosmer who has won three straight Gold Gloves (as stupid as they can be, they’ve gotten a little better) and who is touted as one of the best defensive first basemen in baseball by all who watch the game. Personally, I thought Hosmer was overrated for awhile, but I felt like his defense caught up to his reputation last season. Forgive my language here, but to say Hosmer is the worst first baseman in the game is bull honky. The slideshow states that his UZR/150 is low as is his DRS. Fair criticisms. But here’s the problem with defensive metrics – there’s far too much noise this early in a season to use them as gospel when determining who is and isn’t good. I will say that I’ve seen Hosmer not make a couple plays he usually makes over there at first, but he’s definitely not the worst. It’s actually been discussed on the broadcasts that he’s been trying to break in a new glove, so maybe that’s one of his issues, but heading into last night’s game, he trailed only Chris Davis in scoops by a first baseman in all of baseball. Saving infielders errors has to count for something, right? Not in UZR/150. If you click that slideshow, you have my permission to think it’s a load of you know what.
• I wrote about the Royals roster getting interesting with decisions to make with Brett Eibner and Alex Gordon coming back. As expected, Reymond Fuentes was demoted to make room for Eibner prior to last night’s game, but now we wonder who goes for Gordon since Infante isn’t there to DFA anymore. I really don’t think this makes the possibility of a Kendrys Morales DFA any stronger. Rather I think the Royals would be likely to demote one of Brian Flynn or Peter Moylan when Gordon returns. They’re currently working with 13 pitchers and don’t need to keep that many up all season long. The real question now becomes what they do with Kris Medlen, who made his first rehab start on Wednesday night and went two innings without walking a batter. The easy answer is that he comes back just after the break and replaces whichever pitcher doesn’t go for Gordon, but by then, we could be talking about Morales watch, so stay tuned.
• It was inevitable that Danny Duffy would finally have a start that wasn’t all that great, but I was actually encouraged by what he did last night, even with subpar results. It was pretty clear after the first inning that Duffy didn’t have the same command he’s had for most of his starts this season. And that’s okay. Pitchers fight their command and their stuff in more starts than many of us even realize. What was encouraging to me was that he still threw strikes (with the exception of to James McCann) and was still effective. He got hurt by the home run ball, which is common these days for Royals starters, but even with that, he allowed just three runs on four hits while walking two. If that’s what Duffy brings to the table when he doesn’t have it, I’ll definitely take that.
• I usually keep things about the Royals here, but with Father’s Day on Sunday, I wanted to share a quick couple memories that I’ve been lucky enough to share with my dad. They’re Royals-related, so it’ll work out well. My dad and I go to a lot of games together, but I’ve shared two of the coolest memories in Royals history with him. I’ve been lucky enough to see the Royals win the American League pennant with him in the seat next to me for each of the last two seasons. We’ve seen Mike Moustakas fire to Eric Hosmer to cement that pennant two years in a row, which I think is pretty darn cool. If you’ve been reading me for awhile, you know that I never really stood a chance. I was always going to be a baseball fan, and that’s because of both of my parents, but I just think it’s really cool that I’ve gotten to share that with my dad the last two. Hopefully we can make it three years in a row this season. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there and happy…umm…weekend to those who aren’t.

After a tumultuous week and an awful losing skid during the road trip, the Royals bounced back with some strong pitching and a couple wins heading into a homestand.

On top of that, they made a big change to the roster, committing to Whit Merrifield full time and designating Omar Infante for assignment.

We discussed the pitching of Danny Duffy and Yordano Ventura, plus the approaches of Merrifield and Cheslor Cuthbert. Finally, we looked at the implications of the Royals stark home and road splits, as inspired by Darin Watson at BP Kansas City.

Follow the Vault at @KCBaseballVault. Follow host Jeff Herr at @TheJeffReport, co-host Michael Engel at @michaelengel. You can also email feedback to KansasCityBaseballVault@gmail.com. Email us a question and if we answer it on the air, we’ll send you a gift certificate to our friends at Kelly’s Westport Inn.

Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and BlogTalkRadio. You can also download this episode here (mp3).

Facts are facts. The Royals now feel they have at least two better options that Infante on their 25-man roster. In the Royals last 20 games, Infante has made four starts at second. Whit Merrifield has registered 13 starts. And when the White Sox rolled out three consecutive left-handed starters over the last weekend, Christian Colon started all three while Merrifield took his versatile glove to left.

At the moment, it looks like the Royals are going with Merrifield at second and a double-barrel platoon on the outfield corners. Against lefties, Merrifield and Paulo Orlando will get the starts. When a right-hander is on the mound, Jarrod Dyson will get the nod with an occasional start by Reymond Fuentes. This will become even more pronounced in the next few days as I agree with my colleague that the most likely move when Brett Eibner is eligible to come off the DL is the demotion of Fuentes.

Infante’s last good season was 2013. Unfortunately he made his debut with the Royals in 2014, signing with the Royals as a free agent in December of 2013. His contract was for four years at just over $30 million. Naturally, it includes a mutual option for a fifth year.

As it stands, the Royals owe Infante around $4 million for the remainder of this season, along with $8 million in 2017 and $2 million to buyout his $10 million option for 2018. That’s a nifty sum of $14 million committed to a second baseman who has yet to provide any value whatsoever.

In exchange for a four year contract, here’s the production they have received.

These are some ugly, nasty numbers. There’s no way to sugarcoat this. The Royals, as they are wont to do when they make mistakes, attempted to justify Infante by citing his defense at second. While at times, it’s been passable, it’s never been otherworldly. The Fielding Bible is kinder than FRAA, but not by much.

The Fielding Bible numbers pass my personal eye test. The ocular nerves tell me that he’s a worse defender this year than at any time in his Royals tenure. As mentioned above, he’s been passable at second up until this season. Now? A defensive disaster.

Infante’s last start came on June 2, which is the date of the infamous collapse in Cleveland. You know the game. The one that ended a seven-game winning streak and kickstarted an eight-game losing streak. In that game, Kelvin Herrera gave up a single to Mike Napoli in the eighth with the Royals holding a two run lead. After a strikeout and a walk, Yan Gomes bounced one to Alcides Escobar at short. It was a double play ball. As Uncle Hud says, “First man sure, second man quick.” Well, Escobar was sure, delivering a strike to Infante at second. The quick part? Not so much. Infante spiked the throw and kept the inning alive.

An extreme example to be sure, but Infante’s double play rate at second has dropped in each of his three years in Kansas City.

The defensive decline is not that surprising. Age and injury conspire against all athletes. In Infante’s case, the intersection has been especially unforgiving. His elbow still isn’t right, meaning he can’t make a strong throw to first off his back leg when necessary. Then, just the normal age-related decline in range and it’s easy to understand how his defense value has plummeted. What we’re seeing in the first third of the 2016 season is really a worse-case scenario.

Offensive, I don’t have to tell you…he’s not good. Over the last three seasons, his swing rate has increased while his contact rate has declined.

Perhaps you could understand the Royals keeping Infante around if he could still make contact. But what I’m looking at above is akin to a starting pitcher who has lost about five mph off his fastball. An almost 8% decline in contact rate? Going back to 2008, his career contact rate is just above 84 percent. He provided that in 2014, but since then…not so much. Again, we’re looking at a player who is in a complete decline.

Infante is a sunk cost. The Royals can continue to hope they can squeeze some value out of their aging and injured second baseman, but as the tables above illustrate, that’s highly unlikely. These are not the old Royals in that they’re desperate to get something, anything, from a player. Despite the highs and lows of the current season, this team is very much in the thick of the pennant race. They need to be serious about their chances, which means they need to identify the players who can best advance their opportunity. Infante no longer fits on this team. It’s time for the Royals to move on.

I think the Royals will use the return of Eibner as an opportunity to finally cut ties with their sunk cost at second base. Clearly, Infante is not providing value nor is he improving to the point where you can even hope he can provide value. In fact, as we saw last week in Cleveland, his presence is costing the Royals games. Tangible losses, not an esoteric formula that says he’s worth so many wins fewer than an average player. His inability to hit and to field is a liability. The Royals realize this. They also realize that while Merrifield and Colon may not be long term solutions to the ongoing second base problem, they are, in the short term, better than anything they can hope to receive from Infante.

The Royals are going to embark on the rest of the season with Danny Duffy as their most reliable starting pitcher.  He was simply outstanding on Saturday before being pulled after six innings and just 88 pitches. I don’t begrudge the move by Yost. He has a tremendous bullpen that has been wasted by a string of games the team was never in. Use your tools, get your win.

The Royals have also hit six home runs in the last two games.  We can view that as a product of the weather and ballpark in Chicago, or a sign of at last a rekindling of a dormant offense. I will not hold my breath waiting for the next Cheslor Cuthbert two home run game and, sadly, will also not anticipate Kendrys Morales hitting a home run any time soon again, either. Therein lies the issue with the offense: it needs last year’s Morales, not the guy we have been watching the past few months.

To be honest, we all know Cheslor Cuthbert is not Mike Moustakas. We love what Whit Merrifield has given the team thus far, but would be wise to be skeptical.  Better than Infante?  Oh, yes. Good enough to be a regular on a playoff team?  The jury is out. You want to bank on an Orlando-Dyson-Fuentes-Eibner conglomeration at the corners? Well, okay, give it a try. If you really want to jumpstart the Royals’ offense, however, feels like a hot Kendrys Morales is the quickest route.

Of course, one home run gives one zero reason to hope the old Morales is back. Speaking of old….

Omar Infante has not played since June 6th. He has not batted since the 2nd and has not gotten a hit since the day before that. He has managed more than one hit in a game just twice since you paid your taxes. All that, and his defense has dropped off a cliff. What exactly is he doing on the roster?

We are at least two roster moves deep into thinking THIS is the one that results in the anticipated, but expensive, release of Infante, but truthfully he is not taking up space that anyone else needs. If you drop Infante right now, who would you put in his place? I really don’t think it has much to do with finance, but more to do with simply not having to deal with it right now.

While it is rightfully annoying that the Royals are paying millions for what amounts to Whit Merrifield insurance, there really is not any reason for them to cut ties just yet. Of course, the time is coming and, NO, no one wants to trade for anything for him! In a rather backwards way, doesn’t the fact that releasing Omar Infante can wait point to the fact of how much the Royals have been forced to tap into their organizational depth?

Anyway, here we sit on a Sunday morning with the Royals one game over .500 and a lineup we certainly did not expect back in April. Oh yeah, and Yordano Ventura starts on Sunday afternoon.

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I used to look forward to Yordano Ventura starts.

Baseball can be such a cruel game to follow. One week, your team is coming back from deficits in three consecutive games, dealing a division rival crushing losses in rapid succession. Then, your team follows that up with a thorough curb-stomping against good competition. Six wins in six games. You’re not necessarily staking out your position along Grand Avenue at this point, but you’re feeling pretty good about the state of the franchise, injuries be damned.

Then, Cleveland happens.

By any baseballing measure, last weekend sucked. The lock-down bullpen wasn’t so lock-down without Wade Davis and lost a late lead. Then, the bats turtled up and went completely missing in action. After setting a franchise record of 10 consecutive games with a double-digit hit attack, the offense banged out only 13 hits over their next three games. Jeepers. A trip to Baltimore hasn’t gotten off any kind of a better start. On Monday, the Royals were held in check by a guy who was demoted a few days ago because he was gifting home runs.

The projections still frown up on the Royals. PECOTA has upped the win total, but barely. The circuit and wire gang has them at 79 wins and a 16 percent chance to qualify for the postseason. Their 3rd Order winning percentage stands at .454 with 25 expected wins against the current reality of 30 wins and .536. This will come as no comfort, but the deeper statistics indicate the Royals have had a fair amount of fortune on their side to even be above .500 at this point.

We’ve played just over a third of the season. Enough time has passed we can look at some numbers to identify some trends. Most disturbing is the Royals offensive production. Kansas City is plating 3.96 runs per game, well under league average of 4.44 R/G. Their collective .318 on base percentage is close enough to league average (.320) that reaching base isn’t so much a concern. However, hitting for power is. Their team slugging percentage of .401 is 10th out of 15 clubs, while their team .133 ISO is dead last. Some of the blame for the power outage can fall on the absence of Mike Moustakas, the dreadful slow start and subsequent injury to Alex Gordon, and the season long disappearing act of Kendrys Morales.

Alone, a team could weather the loss if one of these guys went down. Patch it together like they did last year when Alex Gordon went down with the groin injury. Or the year before when Eric Hosmer was lost for a month with a broken wrist. Together, that’s one-third of a lineup that is missing some potency. There’s not enough depth in baseball that can stand up to this kind of lineup adversity.

This isn’t to offer excuses for the Royals. The offense stinks at the moment.

Raw numbers say they have had a grand total of 1,202 batters reach base this year. AL average is 1,265. A deeper dive into the numbers shows the Royals are scoring 29 percent of those baserunners; just a touch below league average of 30 percent. Not only do the Royals lack the power to produce runs on a consistent basis, they are reaching base less frequently than the “average” team. Fewer opportunities plus less production equals a lack of run support. We saw it again on Monday night in Baltimore. The Royals turned a pitcher named Mike Wright, who has been worth 0.1 WARP in his 49 innings, a pitcher who was farmed out just a week prior with a 5.88 ERA and 111 cFIP, into the year 2000 version of Pedro Martinez. It was depressing to watch, yet predictable. The Royals themselves are less than a week removed from running out a lineup that featured Omar Infante batting fifth. That didn’t happen because Ned Yost is some sabermetric genius who stumbled upon the latest batting order inefficiency. It happened because the Royals lineup is void of quality bats.

True Average, which is our metric for total offensive value scaled to batting average (a .260 mark is always league average), tells the same story as all the other team stats I’ve listed above. Through a third of the season, the Royals team TAv is .257. The offense isn’t near as good as last year (they finished with a .262 TAv), but they can best be described as “a little below average.”

Of course, it doesn’t feel that way at the moment.

What is it with this offense where it’s not one or two players who are slumping, it’s the whole damn lineup? It can seem like the team (Yost especially) can lean on this as a frequent excuse, but it sure seems there’s a nugget of truth to the statement. How else do you explain what we’ve seen the last four-plus games?

Problems, but no obvious solution.

One thing that is clear at this point is there will be no 2015 style romp through the AL Central again. Last season was special from start to finish. Each year takes its own personality and the 2016 season is all about grinding out the wins. The division is decidedly mediocre, with contending teams all with deep flaws. There are arguments to be made for any of the four non-Twins teams in favor of them winning the division and there are equally persuasive points that can be made for those teams not making it through the season.

Baseball would be boring if it was easy. And this year is shaping up as anything but easy.

With Wade Davis unavailable after throwing three consecutive games, Ned Yost turned to Joakim Soria to close out a one run contest in the ninth. Soria was betrayed by his defense. A grounder past a statuesque Omar Infante where Paulo Orlando fell, allowing Carlos Santana to advance to second. A bunt. A sinking line drive to right where Orlando made the bonehead play of the night in leaving his feet to dive for the ball. That’s just poor baseball IQ. The run is going to score, the game is going to be tied. You need to be aware of the situation, which dictates you keep the ball in front of you, limit the advance of the hitter and try to get them in extras. Instead, Orlando dived, missed, and played the ball into a three base hit.

Instead of a double play opportunity to close out the inning, now there’s a runner on third with one out. It’s a team game, but oftentimes an individual mistake can kill you.

The Butcher At Second

At this point, it’s simply indefensible to have Infante in the lineup. The money he is owed is a sunk cost. It’s time to give him his walking papers. He can’t hit. He has limited range. He can’t throw. It was all on display on Thursday.

I’m still not sure what happened on the line drive in the fifth. I was listening to the game on the radio at that point. All I know is Steve Physioc was critical of Infante’s play for the ball. That’s enough for me. If Physioc is killing you for a mistake, it had to have been egregious.

In the eighth, with runners on first and second and one out, Yan Gomes hits a room service double play ball to Alcides Escobar. Quick throw to second, Infante can’t complete the pivot. He literally had all the time in the world, and bounced a throw wide of the bag to Hosmer’s right. Infante has no arm. It’s limiting his range to his backhand because he knows he can’t make the throw. How a team with championship aspirations continues to run the corpse of Infante at second is one of the great unanswered questions of the season.

As bad as the Infante display was, and as poor as Orlando was in the ninth, this was truly a brutal team defensive effort. The boys were throwing the ball all over the field. In the box score the runs off the bullpen were earned, but there were miscues all around. Just a brutal night with the leather.

Another confounding night from Yordano Ventura. The velocity was fine, but he continued his trend of not missing bats. Of his 99 pitches, he only got four swing and misses. He had innings where he was highly efficient, then went all wobbly and racked up the pitch count. Seriously a head scratcher. Typical Ventura.

After opening the game with 10 pitches in the first, he needs 28 in the second and 32 in the third. Then, for the next nine outs, he threw just 28. I’d say that third inning took a toll, but he certainly rallied. Yet his velocity took a noticeable hit around pitch number 50.

He got a little stronger in his last couple of innings, but that’s a concerning velocity chart.

I haven’t taken a close look at his arm slot from game to game, but there’s a noticeable pattern. Here is his release point from tonight, plotted by types of pitches.

Compare that to a start from August 11, 2015, which was one of his better starts of last season.

He had a higher release point with much less horizontal spread. He seems to be overthrowing his fastball and opening up, which could explain the elevated release point. That could also explain why he was all over the freaking place with his fastball.

At this point, I’m not sure there’s anything the Royals can do with Ventura, except to have him work out his mechanics between starts and hope it translates to games. Good luck with that.

Wasted Effort

Another night, another double-digit hit attack from the Royals. Twelve was the magic number tonight, marking the 10th consecutive game where the Royals have collected more than 10 base knocks. They’re the first team to accomplish this feat of hitting strength since 2010. Show of hands, who expected this kind of offensive output a month ago? Put your hands down. You’re lying.

Up Next

The Royals try to get back on track Friday in the second game of this four-game set. Edinson Volquez takes the mound at 6:10. And it’s the weekend. Everything is better on the weekend.

Players on the 60-day disabled list do not count against the 40-man limit. That means Tim Collins, Mike Minor, and Jason Vargas are on the roster, but not ON the roster. Also, Raul Mondesi is on the restricted list while he serves his 50-game suspension for taking a banned substance.

Now, Collins and Vargas are going to be on the DL for a long time. Collins is done for the year; Vargas might—might!—be back in September. But probably not.

Minor, on the other hand, is currently working on his rehab assignment in Triple-A Omaha. He began that assignment on May 10 with Double-A Northwest Arkansas. Major league rules allow 30 days for a rehab assignment for pitchers (20 for position players). So the Royals are going to have some decisions to make in the next two weeks, if not sooner—Minor may be ready after another start or two, despite a rough outing on Wednesday.

Whenever he is activated, a 40-man roster spot will have to be cleared. That’s going to be tough. The players who are on the 40-man roster and not the 25-man roster are: Miguel Almonte, Jorge Bonifacio, Christian Colon, Tony Cruz, Brett Eibner, Reymond Fuentes, Terrance Gore, Alec Mills, Bubba Starling, Matt Strahm, Ramon Torres, and Kyle Zimmer, plus the three guys on the 15-day disabled list: Alex Gordon, Kris Medlen, and Chris Young.

The Royals seem to like the four minor-league pitchers in that list (Almonte, Mills, Strahm, and Zimmer).  Cruz is the only catcher on there, so he’s safe. Colon is a safe bet to stay. We know the Royals would like to keep Gore around for more postseason/September use. The Royals aren’t going to give up on Starling yet. Gordon’s not going anywhere; Young and Medlen probably aren’t, either. That leaves Torres and the outfield logjam of Bonifacio/Eibner/Fuentes. Would the team that thought highly enough of Fuentes to put him on the Opening Day roster cut him two months later? I have my doubts. Bonifacio and Eibner both are having really nice seasons for Omaha and probably should get a look at the major-league level at some point this year. That leaves Torres. The Royals must have seen something that led them to add a 22-year-old middle infielder to the 40-man roster. But they may have to hope they can designate him for assignment, then keep him if he clears waivers.

Or they could lose someone from the active roster. Actually, there are a few candidates. First up, Brian Flynn. He’s a left-handed pitcher, which teams tend to value. He’s shown some ability at Class AAA, but hasn’t had much of a chance in the majors. It would be nice to keep him. Next, Chien-Ming Wang, who has pitched well this year. Losing Wang wouldn’t be a big loss—mostly he’s been in a mop-up role that could be filled by anyone—but I think it would be unfortunate.

And then, there’s Omar Infante. You may have suspected I was leading up to this. I’m sure Infante is a likable clubhouse guy and a leader and all that. But he simply can’t hit anymore. Yes, he’s hitting better than he did last year, an incredibly low bar that frankly I would expect the 2005 Royals to use. But his .248/.281/.336 line is probably as good as we can expect from him. And while his range might still be acceptable, his arm strength is clearly gone. At this point, I feel Colon or Whit Merrifield could play defense just as well, and outhit Infante. And moving the incumbent would also give them a chance to check out Mondesi at second later this season. It’s probable that the only thing keeping Infante on the roster is the fact that the Royals would have to eat the $5 million and change left on his contract this year. Oh, and the $10 million he’s owed next year. Oh, and presumably the $2 million buyout they would have to pay him for 2018 (rather than the $10 million he would have received if the Royals picked up their option on him). So yeah, saying goodbye to Infante is going to require a large check.

But it is time. Barring a trade that clears up a roster spot, there really doesn’t seem to be room to keep Infante. It’s unfortunate, but this is a business. And businesses sometimes have to understand (and suffer through) sunk costs. Infante’s contract might be the last bad move Dayton Moore has made. It might be painful, but he can at least partially fix it by moving on from Infante.

Editor’s Note: This article was written and published prior to learning the news about Mike Moustakas and his torn ACL putting him out for the season. Obviously, that’s a very easy move to free up roster space on the 40-man, but there are still many other questions coming beyond just that. -DL

Still, not all is lost. We’re talking about four consecutive series wins. That’s something. Yet you couldn’t help but think this was a winnable game against the worst team in the American League.

Bombs Away

Dillon Gee didn’t get off to the best start. It’s possible I’m understating that. Four pitches and two home runs.

The first one was the stuff hitters dream of. They quite literally dream of seeing an 87 mph fastball in the middle of the plate.

An alternate dream would be a 75 mph hanging curve in this location:

Gee never really found his footing. The Twins ran into some outs. The Royals defense gave away a run. The game was played in slop. That kind of afternoon. The Twins offense was on everything Gee had to offer. After 86 torturous pitches in four innings, Ned Yost sent Gee back out for the fifth.

That was a mistake.

WPA Play Of The Game

Speaking of home runs (yes, we still need to speak of them), with the Royals nursing a one run lead in the fifth, and a scuffling Gee on the mound, Joe Mauer led off with a single. The next batter was Miguel Sano, who frankly had been having a putrid series up to that moment. Gee fed him a curve ball down and away. Then, he spun a 84 mph cutter that was right in Sano’s kitchen. Fire up that stove.

That was worth 24 percent to the Twins Win Expectancy. I’ve been writing these recaps for most of the season, searching for the WPA play of the game and that’s probably the one that broke the needle. If there’s been one higher in a game at that moment, I don’t remember it.

Dose Of Thunder

The Royals offense continued to roll, racking up 11 hits, including three doubles and a triple by Omar Infante.

Although they were facing an early 3-0 deficit, the way the bats have been going, combined with the combustibility of the Twins pitching, you had to have liked the Royals chances to claw back into this one. They did in the fourth. Whit Merrifield got the scoring party started with a single. A walk to Lorenzo Cain followed by an opposite field Eric Hosmer double scored the first two. The most hated man in Minnesota, Sal Perez tied it with a double of his own. The empanadas in the Twin Cities must be special.

After the early barrage, the Twins probably thought they were out of it after recording two quick outs. However,  Infante found the seam in left-center for his run-scoring triple. He scored on a wild pitch. Just like that, the Royals had all their runs on the afternoon.

They could’ve used a couple more.

Up Next

The slumping White Sox come to Kansas City for a four game set. Thursday features a rematch of Saturday’s 2-1 Royals victory as Miguel Gonzalez takes the ball for the Sox while Danny Duffy gets the opportunity for the Royals. First pitch is at 7:15.

And if you just raised your hand, I call bull.

After all, Colon had started five of seven games on a recent road trip and gone 7 for 21 over that span. He was playing in place of Omar Infante who is slashing .245/.276/.309 and is a shell of whatever you thought he might once have been in the field. While I doubt anyone saw the second coming of, well, anyone who you might wish to see the second coming of, in Christian Colon, I would think there was enough shown to think Colon was at least a viable alternative to Infante.

With the ability to play third and backup at short, keeping Colon around to share time with Infante and be the backup utility infielder seemed an almost certainty.

Yet, here we are.

By no means is this an indictment on the promotion of Merrifield, who brings versatility and athleticism to the table and, quite frankly, I advocating being promoted a week ago, anyway. My thought at the time of that writing was that Omar Infante would be the one to go.

Yet, here we are.

Has Paulo Orlando’s recent hot streak (really just a few good games strung together) persuaded the Royals to ponder using Dyson more often as a pinch runner? Under that scenario, the versatility of Merrifield to pair with a Dyson pinch running appearance would be an asset. Still, Colon instead of Infante?

Well, one could very astutely point out there are $16 million reasons to keep Omar around.  Even in an era where the Royals spend real money, that is still a ton of money to just cast away. Truthfully, I think it might well be, even after all that has happened the last three seasons, very simply be the reason.

Of course, we could play the inventory card as well.  The Royals can move Colon down and not lose him. If or when the time comes to get Infante off the roster, it is good-bye for good. One wonders, however, why make the move at all if that is the case (unless I’m a genius and Dyson is going to pinch-run five times a week for just about anyone not named Escobar or Cain). While Merrifield has played well in Omaha, he has not played to the level of ‘we can’t keep this guy down there anymore.’

Yet, here we are.

Do the Royals truly believe there is a resurgence somewhere in Omar Infante? Is he so beloved in the clubhouse that the organization is worried about the impact of a DFA? Is Colon so disliked? Does Dayton Moore have some shred of hope of trading Infante to someone for anything?

Maybe it is all about the money and, if so, I thought maybe the Kansas City Royals had grown out of that.

Over their next 16 games, they won just six, scoring a total of 43 runs. Yikes. That’s an average of 2.7 runs per game. That’s futility.

The offensive malaise has infected nearly the entire bat rack. The Royals, as has been noted, aren’t a power hitting club. Their run production is dependent upon sequencing and the stringing together of base hits. The singles train doesn’t run if you’re not getting the knocks to fall. And right now, the singles train is off the tracks, broken down in some rail yard somewhere.

Here, by batting order, is how your Royals offense is performing over this stretch.

Alcides Escobar
.246/.296/.292 in his last 16 games.

For the season, the Royals leadoff hitter owns a .206 TAv and a -0.2 WARP. We’ve discussed his approach at the plate and how he’s not suited for the role Ned Yost believes he can handle.

Mike Moustakas
.268/.317/.554 in his last 16 games.

New Moustakas continues to blow my mind. Not only has he emerged as a consistent power threat, he’s showing some unbelievable plate discipline. During this 16 game stretch, he’s walked four times and whiffed four times. And he’s hit four home runs. He’s not a Three True Outcomes player by any stretch, but that’s some nice symmetry.

For the season, Moustakas has a .314 TAv and has been worth 0.8 WARP. He’s not the problem. But you already knew that.

Lorenzo Cain
.228/.290/.297 over his last 16 games.

One year after posting a .301 TAv with 6.7 WARP, Cain is driving the struggle bus. Through his first 100 plate appearances, the center fielder has a .225 TAv and has been worth 0.4 WARP. All of that value has come on defense, which has been generally rock solid. Yet we’ve seen lapses in concentration of late in the field. This is troubling. Cain’s last extra base hit was on April 12. That was only his second extra base hit of the season. He has yet to hit a double or a triple. I’m not sure how that happens, but I don’t like it.

Eric Hosmer
.333/.385/.600 over his last 16 games

He’s fine. His .333 TAv and 0.8 WARP lead the team.

The only thing to note here is the fact that he’s hit four home runs over this 16 game stretch and driven in only five. That’s what happens when the three hitters in front of you aren’t getting on base.

Kendrys Morales
.237/.308/.271 over his last 16 games.

What happened to Morales? Silver Slugger award winner at DH last year, his .224 TAv is the worst on the Royals. (Non-Escobar Division.) Last year, he was an anchor in the middle of the lineup. This year, he’s dead weight.

Alex Gordon
.170/.302/.302 over his last 16 games.

His bat is just late. To everything. Take Monday night as an example. As noted in the recap, facing Jonathan Papelbon, Gordon could not square up middle-cut 91 mph fastballs. And when he got a fat pitch middle-middle, he hit a harmless, shallow fly ball.

Good Gordon turns on at least four of those and probably drives two more. Bad Gordon makes another out. With a .241 TAv and a meager 0.1 WARP, I miss Good Gordon.

As an addendum to our lineup discussion from last week, if you wanted to make the case for Gordon hitting leadoff, I guess you could use the above line as your basis. He’s not hitting at all at the moment, but he’s still kind of getting on base. Relatively speaking, of course.

Salvador Perez
.250/.291/.500 over his last 16 games.

As you look at these numbers from the last 16 games, you see plenty of underachievement. And then you see Perez. His slash line above is kind of in line with what we would expect from a full season. PECOTA projects a .272/.302/.424 for the Royals backstop with a .265 TAv. Yep. That’s what we have. And we’re good with that. The tradeoff in OBP and chasing sliders out of the strike zone is the occasional pop and the arm that cuts down would-be base stealers.

On the plus side, he should be better rested now, considering he’s having to forego the nightly Gatorade dump.

Omar Infante
.224/.283/.306 over his last 16 games.

I mean, this is who Infante is, too.

It’s pretty clear watching him hit, that the ability to drive the ball has left Infante’s bat. Not that there was a lot of juice to start. But it’s all gone now. That elbow injury is the gift that keeps giving. Or maybe as the Royals insist, the elbow is fine. He’s just old.

Jarrod Dyson
.278/.333/.350 over his last 16 games.

The de facto “second leadoff hitter” is better than the first one. I get the push to move Dyson to the leadoff spot, and it sure seems like unlike some other hitters, he goes up with at least a semblance of a plan. (Well, Escobar has a plan, but we know that’s basically to swing at the first pitch.) Dyson has walked three times and whiffed just once in this span, so he’s making that contact the Royals value, and with his speed, you know he’s a threat to beat out some of those balls in play. Maybe there’s something there.

Still, a .247 TAv isn’t much to hang your hat on at the top of the order. But considering your options, it may not be so bad.

Slumps happen. They happened last year, but a hot start and a season-long run atop the AL Central masked most struggles. September was a unique animal as they had all but sewn up the division by the start of the month. The bad thing about this one, is it comes at an inopportune time. The pitching is doing quite well, thank you very much, holding opponents to just 3.7 runs per game in this 16 game stretch. Obviously, there’s never a good time for bats to hibernate, but you get the point. If the Royals had just mustered a league-average offense, given the pitching, they’d be in a better position. If it’s any consolation, the Royals are outplaying their Pythag by about a game.

It’s still early. I refuse to believe the offense that performed so well last year at times could be this bad. We have a month’s worth of data parsed into a two week nugget. Isolate any player’s worst two week stretch during the 162 game season and I suspect it would look like some of the players above.

It will get better.