Kansas City Royals: Five Most Disappointing Players in 2017

Alcides Escobar

Don’t let a few decent weeks at the dish disguise the fact that Alcides Escobar has had a rough season. He was never expected to be a .300 hitter, but it’s taken him hitting .375 in September just to pull his overall average up to .250. There are other factors at play, but Escobar is a fairly good barometer for how the Kansas City Royals are playing.

Escobar hit .171 in April and .197 in May. He turned things on as the team heated up in June, slugging .412 in the month. July saw Escobar hit two home runs and drive in 17 runs after entering the month with one homer and 20 RBI on the entire season. He swooned in August, and, as mentioned before, turned it on when the calendar flipped to September.

Escobar is one of the cheapest players on this list.

He will finish up a six-year, $21.75 million deal this season. It’s difficult to see the team re-signing him with Mondesi waiting in the wings. It could be argued Mondesi should have seen more playing time at the expense of Escobar. However, the streaky shortstop always seemed to go on a hot streak just as it looked he might be benched.

Even if the Kansas City Royals get eliminated in the coming days, Ned Yost might elect to keep Escobar in the starting lineup to preserve his consecutive starts streak. If he starts all 162 games, it will be for the third time in four years.

Unfortunately, Yost’s loyalty has led to Escobar being one of the primary scapegoats in 2017. All you need to know is Escobar has the second-worst OPS (.616) in baseball among qualified hitters. The worst OPS? Well …