Triple Play Podcast: Royals Bench, Call-Ups, Injured Contenders, Castillo

This week’s episode of the Triple Play Podcast kicks off with discussion of a couple major injuries involving AL division leaders in Los Angeles and Baltimore. Garrett Richards and Manny Machado both are out for the season with knee injuries, but the Angels will probably be impacted the most. That rotation could be in some serious trouble, and it will be difficult to stay ahead of the A’s and out of the Wild Card game. Richards was having a fantastic season, and it seems unlikely that they’ll be able to add any impact pitcher during the waiver period.

As for Machado, he’ll be missed this year, but the Orioles have also built up a big lead over the rest of the AL East – which is an admittedly low bar at this point – so they should be fine this season. However, a young player having surgeries on both knees already certainly doesn’t bode well for the future.

From there, we talk about the Tigers, who have been free falling for a few weeks now. The top 3 in their rotation is still very good, but beyond that, the team has been in a massive funk. Their offense isn’t playing all that well, their defense is struggling, and their bullpen just gave up 4 more runs in the time it took you to read this sentence. It’s perfect timing for the Royals, of course, because the Tigers’ poor play has coincided with the current stretch of excellence from the boys in blue.

More from KC Royals News

• KC Royals Rumors: Is a monster move in the cards?
• KC Royals Free Agent Hunt: 3 Tampa Bay pitchers
• Grading the 2022 KC Royals: The $25 million man
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Expectations met
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Day 3 update

Speaking of those Royals, we discussed Dayton Moore’s brilliant acquisition of Josh Willingham, and how he’s been a perfect addition to the club. His presence has also helped to transform the team’s bench, which was quite unimpressive, into a very solid part of the organization. The trade for Erik Kratz also helped this, as it brought Christian Colon back up, and he’s been surprisingly great in his first season as a big leauger, albeit in a tiny sample size.

With September quickly approaching, we break down a few of the options for the Royals to call up when rosters expand. Terrance Gore, Carlos Peguero, and Justin Maxwell are a few of the names we mentioned, even though the organization would need to clear spots on the 40-man roster for them.

Finally, we talk about the enormous pile of money the Red Sox just handed out to Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo, and how they will fit him into their future plans.

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Feel free to listen to the podcast with the player above, or at this link. To get in contact with the show, send us an email at KCTriplePlay@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Twitter here:

Aaron Reese
Matt Vernon
Hunter Samuels

Thanks for listening!