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.

1. Charlie Neuweiler, RHP

Charlie Neuweiler was a fifth-round pick in the 2017 MLB draft for the Royals. Neuweiler, 20, played his high school ball at McClancy Memorial High School in Queens, New York. He spent the remainder of the 2017 season getting acclimated to life as a professional pitcher in the Arizona rookie league.

In 2018, Neuweiler started the year with the Burlington Royals before being promoted to Single-A Lexington and made 11 starts there. In those starts, he threw 50.0 innings and struck out 46 batters to 23 walks. He has remained in Single-A for all of this season as well.

He’s made 27 starts and threw 148.2 innings while striking out 153 batters to 63 walks. Neuwiler was susceptible to the long ball but he allowed batters to hit just 0.241 off him. However, he really came into his own in the month of August.

In 5 starts, he tossed 30.0 innings while striking out 43 batters and allowed batters to hit just 0.219 off him all to the tune of a 2.70 ERA. Neuwiler has been really good in the second half of this season with a 3.42 ERA in 13 starts. He’s likely due for a promotion to High-A Wilmington next season.

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.