Kansas City Royals: The First 2018 Projected Lineup

Question Marks (part 2):

Soler is probably the biggest wild card. Royals still do not know where his ceiling is, or what type of hitter he will become. While with the Royals last year he hit .144/.245/.258 and only two home runs. When he was sent back to Triple-A Omaha he did improve. He slashed a better .267/.388/.564 and 24 home runs. The hope is that he will build on his power potential that he started showing in Omaha. He just has to put it together when he gets called up.

Cuthbert is an interesting player. In 2016 he took over third base full time when Mike Moustakas tore his ACL. During that time he hit .274/.318/.413 with 12 home runs and 28 doubles. He seemed to be a potential solution at third base when Moustakas left for free agency. However, 2017 was less than desired. While hitting .231/.275/.322 and spending time in Omaha, doubt started creeping into the heads of fans. The major difference between the two years was the amount of playing time and consecutive days of playing time. In 2016 he played every day, but in 2017 it was more sporadic. So one question comes to mind, who is the real Cuthbert?

To round out the group we will look at Orlando. He has shown to be a great defensive player for the team, being the defensive replacement for Alex Rios during the 2015 World Series run. Orlando also pushed Jarrod Dyson into being the fifth outfielder on the depth chart. Then in 2016, he had a breakout year where he hit .302/.329/.405 over 128 games. Unfortunately, 2017 was a different story. After hitting .198/.225/.302 to start the year he was sent to Omaha, where he ended up breaking his leg. Similar to Cuthbert, we do not really know what type of player Orlando is. Is he a fourth outfielder? Is he more of a 2016 type player or a 2017 type player? Hopefully we can answer that question this year.