Kansas City Royals: 3 top minor league players of the month

The Kansas City Royals are winding down their 2019 season but several of their prospects had a terrific August. Here are the top three players.

Just four years removed from their first World Series title since 1985, the Kansas City Royals are on the brink of losing 100 or more games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Several key players from the 2014 World Series appearance squad as well as the title winners have departed.

Royals’ current owner David Glass has reportedly agreed to sell the team to a group led by John Sherman for $1 billion. Change can often be a good thing and most people are encouraged that Sherman is from Kansas City and he received a major endorsement from former KC Mayor, Sly James.

This 2019 squad has been hard to watch at times, in what has looked like a Triple-A squad at times. It will be interesting to see what Sherman’s first moves are as the owner of the team and could provide some insight on how he plans to run this team.

The farm system was ranked in the bottom third of the league at the beginning of this season but should get a decent boost after seemingly all their top pitching prospects performed well this season. Both Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar could potentially find their way into the starting rotation next season at some point.

August has been a particularly interesting month for several prospects who saw their stock rise in a big way. Let’s look at the top three performers for the month.

2. Vinnie Pasquantino, 1B

Perhaps one of the most unknown prospects in the Royals farm system, Vinnie Pasquantino was an 11th round pick in this year’s draft. He played his college ball at Old Dominion and slashed 0.302/0.405/0.573 with 16 home runs and 55 RBI’s in his final season.

He’s your prototypical first baseman listed at 6’4″ and 225 pounds as a 21-year-old kid. Pasquantino has spent his time playing for the Burlington Royals since being drafted and has slashed 0.294/0.371/0.592 with 17 doubles, 2 triples, 14 home runs and 53 RBI’s.

The Richmond, Virginia native has already shown tremendous patience at the plate taking 27 walks in 57 games. He finished the season strong in August slashing an absurd 0.381/0.440/0.690 with 8 doubles, 5 home runs, and 22 RBI’s.

Most of his damage has come in the last 10 games, batting 0.324 with 3 home runs and 10 RBI’s. It’s still unclear what the Royals have in Ryan O’Hearn but he too has had a strong month of August. Nick Pratto is another first baseman in the Royals farm system and is ranked as the team’s 10th overall prospect.

However, Pasquantino surely got everyone’s attention and will most likely start next season at Single-A Lexington but could find himself in High-A Wilmington depending on what the Royals scouting and development department feels is best.

3. Brewer Hicklen, OF

Would it have been anyone else? Brewer Hicklen was a seventh-round pick in the 2017 draft out of UAB and has spent all of 2019 at High-A Wilmington. On the season, he’s slashed 0.265/0.367/0.431 with 12 doubles, 7 triples, 14 home runs, and 51 RBI’s.

He’s struck out a ton which is common with young sluggers and Hicklen will be participating in the Arizona Fall League. He’ll need to cut down on the strikeouts if he wants to continue moving up in the ranks. However, it’s hard to ignore the month of August he had.

In 24 games, Hicklen slashed 0.297/0.347/0.604 with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 8 home runs and 16 RBI’s. He had a three-game stretch last week in which he hit 5 home runs. Hicklen has primarily batted second or third in the batting order and could be a nice long-term fit there.

He’ll more than likely get a well-deserved promotion to Double-A NW Arkansas to start the 2020 season but could see Triple-A Omaha as well. The Royals outfield could use a bat like his in the future as Jorge Soler/Hunter Dozier appear to be long-term fits. However, they have two major question marks in both Bubba Starling and Brett Phillips.