Kansas City Royals: Mondesi has successful shoulder surgery

Adalberto Mondesi dislocated his shoulder for the second time this year. The Kansas City Royals shortstop had successful surgery on Wednesday.

On September 22, Kansas City Royals fans held their breath for the second time in roughly two months after Adalberto Mondesi dove to stop a ball, got up to throw, but went back down. The training staff was immediately on top of him and he would walk off under his own power. If you recall, Mondesi injured his shoulder on a much more violent diving play in mid-July.

The 24-year old shortstop attempted to catch a ball in foul territory, running at full speed, dove and remained to lie face down. He made his return to the team on September 1 after a brief rehab stint with the Triple-A squad. Mondesi underwent treatment without needing surgery; however, he was obviously more susceptible to repeating the injury.

The good news is that he had successful surgery this past Wednesday and seemed to be in good spirits. And while Ned Yost will not be heading the team next season, he was confident that Mondesi would be ready by Opening Day. His initial timetable indicated that it would take 5 to 6 months to recover, with 5 months making a premature return on or near March 1 which would give him an entire Spring Training to get ready.

That would obviously be the best-case scenario but the Royals need to plan accordingly, given Mondesi’s frequent injury history. Luckily, they have perhaps the most steady second baseman in baseball in Whit Merrifield and hopefully a new and improved Nicky Lopez next year. We’ve already discussed the idea of Mondesi moving to the outfield to potentially preserve his health so we’ll see what the team has planned for him long term.

Mondesi’s average exit velocity has gone up every year he’s been in the league but assuming he can remain mostly healthy next year, I’d like to see him work on his plate discipline as his 30 percent strikeout rate and 4 percent walk rate were in the bottom 6 and 4 percent of the league, respectively. He also had a career-high 38 percent whiff rate in general.

He took a slight step backward in 2019 with his slugging percentage on all pitches he saw drop with exception to offspeed pitches, which increased slightly from 0.306 to 0.320 in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Still, those are not exactly eye-popping numbers so we’ll just have to hope he’s a “go” for the season opener at the Chicago White Sox on March 26 and he can get to work.