Kansas City Royals: 3 potential September call ups team should look at

September call ups provide an opportunity to get a look at some of the Kansas City Royals prospects. Here are three guys they should take a look at.

September 1 allows for all major league rosters to expand from the 25-man active roster to the entire 40-man roster. For the Kansas City Royals, those players must be on the 40-man roster by 11:59 PM on August 31 in order to qualify for the postseason. Obviously, that’s not a concern for the 2019 Royals squad but still should be mentioned.

The Royals are in the midst of their rebuild after being on top of the world in 2015. The team lost over 100 games last season and are pace to do so again this year. They definitely need to utilize the month of September to get a long look at some of their prospects that are close to being major league ready.

The current roster has a ton of holes all over the place. Whit Merrifield, Jorge Soler, and Hunter Dozier have been the three bright spots as far as offensive players go. Scott Barlow and Ian Kennedy have been pleasant surprises out of the bullpen as well. The Royals rotation has been a disaster this year, ranking 24th in team ERA entering Sunday.

They have several good looking pitching prospects that were drafted in 2018 but will not be ready for the big leagues for a couple more seasons. Both Jackson Kowar and Brady Singer could be up with the team next season but I really doubt that Dayton Moore wants to give them a look in September. Let’s take a look at three prospects who might be September call ups.

1. Kelvin Gutierrez, 3B

Kelvin Gutierrez has actually been up with the Kansas City Royals earlier this season and played sparingly from the end of April through the middle of May and then again in the beginning of June.

Gutierrez, 24, is currently ranked as the team’s 17th best prospect and slashed 0.260/0.304/0.356 with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run and 11 RBI’s in his brief stint with the Royals. He’s primarily spent the 2019 season with Triple-A Omaha and, over a much larger sample size, has slashed 0.287/0.367/0. 427 with 9 doubles, 2 triples, 9 home runs, and 43 RBI’s.

Cheslor Cuthbert has split time between third base and first base this season and has slashed 0.253/0.293/0.389 with 8 home runs and 31 RBI’s. Cuthbert recently snapped an 0-for-40 streak on Saturday with a double and has a -0.6 WAR on the season, so technically he’s hurting this team right now.

Cuthbert is not the answer long-term and Gutierrez is already on the 40-man roster. It makes a ton of sense to take the entire month to decide if Gutierrez should be in consideration for the permanent third base gig in the future.

3. Jake Kalish, LHP

Jake Kalish was drafted in the 32nd round in the 2015 MLB Draft out of George Mason University by the Kansas City Royals. He’s been relatively quiet progressing up through the farm system. The Royals rotation is a mess right now.

Glenn Sparkman and Jakob Junis do not appear to be long-term solutions. Brad Keller is on an innings limit and won’t be allowed to throw more than 100 pitches in a game the rest of the year.

It wouldn’t hurt to get a look at the 28-year old, who has yet to pitch in the major leagues. He’s made 8 starts (23 appearances) in Triple-A Omaha this season with a 7-7 record, 5.23 ERA. Kalish has tossed 106.2 innings while striking out 82 batters and walking just 24.

On paper, he looks like another Sparkman or Junis but it’s worth a look if the Royals would like to retain him. Kalish was named the organization’s best relief pitcher in 2016 while holding batters to a 0.192 average. He’s recently been utilized as a starting pitcher.

At the very least, I’d expect him to get a shot at earning a spot in the rotation but he could be extremely valuable as a reliever going forward where he has displayed a much better track record. Like Mejia, Kalish is not currently on the 40-man roster so a corresponding roster move would be needed.