Alex Gordon’s Health May Be the Key to the Season

Alex Gordon has been the Kansas City Royals best player this season. A Gold Glove left fielder and one of the better hitters on the team, few players may mean more to their teams success than Gordon does to the Royals. Add in the fact that Gordon can slot virtually anywhere in the lineup and be effective, and it is easy to see why Gordon would be one of the Royals representatives in the All-Star Game.

Unfortunately for us Royals fans, we will not get to see Gordon play as he is dealing with a sprained wrist. That same injury is keeping him out of the Royals series with the Detroit Tigers, a series that may be extremely important for the Royals hopes to take the American League Central this season. It may not be a coincidence that the Royals have lost the first two games of this series with Gordon out of the lineup.

As it stands, including those two aforementioned games, Alex Gordon has missed four games this season. The Royals have lost every single one of them, scoring a total of seven runs. Three of the four losses saw the Royals score only one run. In those games, Royals left fielders have gone a combined 0-14 with a walk and a strikeout, hardly the production that they would hope for.

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Yes, four games is a small sample size. However, three of these games have been against the Detroit Tigers, two of which have resulted in one run losses. While it is difficult to say that Gordon would be the difference in either game, having his production in the lineup would likely have helped. If nothing else, having Gordon in the lineup may have kept either Nori Aoki or Raul Ibanez on the bench.

Alex Gordon is one of the more important pieces to the Royals hopes for a playoff berth this season. While it may be difficult to think that the playoff hopes of a team rest upon the health of one or two players, Gordon and Salvador Perez may be the most indispensable parts of the lineup. Should either player be lost for an extended period of time, the Royals would be hard pressed to find that production elsewhere. With the Tigers slipping further away, the Royals need Gordon to be healthy.

Hopefully, Alex Gordon is only out of the lineup through the All-Star Break. Otherwise, the Royals may be in serious trouble.