Kansas City Royals: Michael Massey provides optimism for 2020

The Kansas City Royals fourth-round pick of the 2019 draft got off to a rough start but put together a strong month of August.

When the Kansas City Royals selected Michael Massey with their fourth-round pick of June’s draft, it was tough to determine what they were getting from the University of Illinois product. During his sophomore year in Champaign, Massey put up great numbers including a 0.326/0.369/0.514 line with 17 doubles, 3 triples, 6 home runs, and 46 RBI.

However, his numbers took a dip in his junior year, despite playing in the same number of games. Massey slashed 0.317/0.372/0.459 with 14 doubles, 1 triple, 5 home runs, and 28 RBI. He took more walks last season than he did as a sophomore but he also struck out more. The dip in production was likely due to lingering back problems and he began the year serving as the team’s designated hitter until he was well enough to play in the field.

MLB had him ranked as the 156th best prospect in the draft and noted that he is the definition of consistency. Massey participated in the Cape Cop Baseball League during the summer 2018 and batted 0.280 with 4 doubles, 1 home runs and 8 RBI’s in 23 games. Shortly after being drafted, Massey was assigned to finish the season with the Burlington Royals.

He got off to a slow start, albeit it was just 4 games in the month of June, but batted 0.143 nonetheless. In July, Massey slashed a much more respectable 0.265/0.321/0.378 with 5 doubles, 2 home runs, and 12 RBI in 23 games. And finally, he put it all together in the month of August.

Now ranked as the Royals’ 28th best prospect, Massey slashed an impressive 0.311/0.391/0.492 with 2 doubles, 3 home runs, and 11 RBI in 15 games. He played 27 games at second base for Burlington and had a 0.964 fielding percentage and committed 3 errors but turned 17 double plays.

He’ll likely start the 2020 season at Idaho Falls but his consistency could see him receive a promotion to Single-A Lexington as well. The Royals have a boatload of infield prospects and the big league roster already has a log-jam so it will be interesting to see how it plays out if he accelerates quickly.