KC Royals: Time To Bench Omar Infante

By John Viril | Jun 1, 2015

The KC Royals offense has fallen back to earth. Scoring only 101 runs in the last 30 days, the Kansas City Royals can no longer afford to keep playing struggling second baseman Omar Infante with former number four overall draft pick Christian Colon hitting .286/.348/.333 as a part-time player.

The KC Royals offense started off the season on a roll. Through the first month of the season, the Royals scored 123 runs and posted a 15-7 record. Since then, the KC Royals have cooled off with a 14-12 month of May.

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In large part, the slowdown is due to the Kansas City Royals offense cooling off. In the month of May, KC’s offense has wallowed with .251/.295/.391 triple slash. Manager Ned Yost needs to do something to help his team score more runs.

One obvious move would be to sit down struggling second baseman Omar Infante, who is batting a terrible .231/.241/.327 for an unacceptable adjusted on base plus slugging (OPS+) of 56 (44 percent worse than a league-average hitter).

The fact is, the 33-year-old Infante simply has not gotten going at the plate through the first two months of the season.

MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan reported that Omar Infante was considering getting elbow surgery to shave down a troublesome bone spur during spring training. Infante indicated that he would take care of the problem after the season, but he simply hasn’t been effective at the plate in 2015.

In the meantime, Omar Infante has been dealing with his inflamed elbow by getting cortisone shots. In March, Infante told Flanagan that his elbow did not cause him pain while at the plate, but it’s possible that physical issues have caused him to make adjustments that are hurting his performance.

Whatever the reason, a .568 OPS just isn’t getting it done. As Royals Review writer Josh Duggan pointed out a few days ago, that’s Chris Getz and Tony Pena Jr. offensive territory.

KC Royals manager Ned Yost could afford to wait for Infante to get going with his offense scoring plenty of runs early in the season. With his offense going stone cold, Omar Infante’s trouble at the dish is becoming a problem the team can’t tolerate.

Perhaps the solution would be to get Omar Infante’s body right by getting elbow surgery. While it would cost Infante six to twelve weeks in recovery time, he’s not really helping the team in the lineup.

There is yet some hope that Alex Rios’ return will provide a jolt to the KC Royals offense. The Kansas City Royals should also give 26-year-old Christian Colon the chance to show what he can do with regular at bats.

Next: Royals Should Consider Trading Kyle Zimmer

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