KC Royals: What To Do With Omar Infante?

Omar Infante has been a disappointment since signing with the KC Royals. What should the Royals do with the second baseman?

Omar Infante was signed to a four year contract, with a team option for a fifth year, to solidify the revolving door that second base has been since Frank White retired. Instead, due to injuries and just poor performance, Infante has disappointed, producing a .238/.268/.329 batting line in his two seasons with the KC Royals.

Yet, as Infante is signed for two more years and is due another $17.75 Million during that time, the Royals options would seem to be limited. They could keep him as the starter at second and hope that hie health and production improve. They could use him as a utility player, much the way the Braves did during his All-Star season in 2010. Or, as it seems highly unlikely that the Royals would find someone willing to trade for Infante, they could consider him to be a sunk cost and simply release him, handing the job to Christian Colon.

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All three options have drawbacks. Infante has not given the Royals any reason to expect that he can be the every day second baseman and provide enough offense to even be close to adequate at the position. A utility role may keep him healthy, but that $17.75 Million price tag is quite the hefty sum for someone without a set position. Likewise, even with David Glass’ recent spending spree, it seems difficult to imagine that he would willingly light that sum of money on fire and let Infante be released.

So, with that being the case, we asked our Twitter followers what they would do if they were Dayton Moore. Would they start Infante, put him in that utility role, or just cut him outright. As it turns out, the results were fairly close across the board.

Even though there was less support to make Infante the starter, that option still carried over 25% of the vote. Meanwhile, the opinion was split as to whether or not he should be made into a super utility player or just released, as the idea of keeping him on the roster won out by just two percentage points. it just goes to show how little is expected of Infante going forward.

Next: Christian Colon missed chance to seize second base

Perhaps Omar Infante can surprise everyone, including KC Royals fans, and can once again become the player they thought they had signed. However, based on the votes, it does not seem as though anyone is really expecting anything from him.