Mike Moustakas Gives the Royals Yet Another Glimmer of Hope

For the past few years, the Kansas City Royals have been waiting for Mike Moustakas to become they player that they hoped he would be. He has tantalized with his potential in the last two Spring Training games, looking as though he had put everything together. Then, once the regular season begins, Mike Moustakas proves his Mr. March moniker to be accurate, providing fruitless at bats by the bushel.

Occasionally, there are flashes of hope, such as the four home runs he hit in a week earlier in the season. Of course, as we are all intimately aware of, that week marked the vast majority of Moustakas’s production at the major league level before his demotion to Omaha. While the Royals could point out that Moustakas was seeing more pitches per at bat this season, the fact remained that he was doing virtually nothing with those pitches.

Back up to the majors with Danny Valencia on the disabled list, Mike Moustakas is once again beginning to tantalize. On Tuesday, Moustakas crushed a home run off the right field foul pole, an absolutely monstrous shot that was the embodiment of the power that he possesses. Then, yesterday, Moustakas drilled another ball for a double to deep right. This continued a trend where Moustakas has been hitting the ball hard as of late.

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Is this just another false glimmer of hope for Moustakas? Is his modest four game hitting streak a sign that Moustakas is finally tapping into that ability, or is it much ado about nothing? Perhaps that brief trek to the minors was the wakeup call that Moustakas needed. Or, given how he struggled all season, perhaps Moustakas is more comfortable knowing that Valencia is injured, and will not be taking over at the first sign of trouble. After all, Pedro Ciriaco is hardly a threat to get regular playing time over one of the favorites.

Chances are, this latest run is nothing more than another false sign of hope. Until Mike Moustakas can prove that this streak is for real, and he rips off a long hitting streak with the power that he has flashed recently, he simply cannot be given the benefit of the doubt. However, we can all hope that maybe, just maybe, this is the time that Moustakas has everything figured out, and is going to be the player that we all hope he will be.

While this recent stretch will likely be trumpeted by the Royals braintrust as a sign that Mike Moustakas is coming around and ready for the majors, we will have to wait and see. Hopefully, this time, Moustakas can prove the naysayers wrong, and become that cornerstone third baseman.