Kansas City Royals: 3 most surprising players of 2019

Hunter Dozier finally came into his own in 2019, and he solidified his spot in the Kansas City Royals lineup moving forward.

Watching Hunter Dozier begin to mash baseballs in 2019 was a wonderful sight to see. Not only did he maintain a respectable .279 batting average he also crushed nearly everything he got his bat on. His soft hit rate was under 14 percent, which is basically the same percentage as Jorge Soler.

Dozier hit 26 home runs in 2019. That is more home runs than he ever hit at any level. And just to show how athletic the 6’4 third baseman is, he also managed to hit 10 triples. Dozier lowered his strikeout rate to 25 percent and raised his walk rate up to over 9%.

The best news about Hunter Dozier is that he actually first began to barrel up balls more often the year before, in 2018. His hard-hit percentage this season of 45% is almost identical to his number in 2018. That would seem to suggest that 2019 wasn’t just a lucky season for Hunter.

Dozier has some aspects of his game he can improve on. I would like to see his walk rate get up over 10%. He has shown the ability to take walks throughout his minor league career and this would not make his On Base Percentage as reliant on maintaining a high batting average.

Hunter also struggled at times, defensively, at third base. However, this was the first season he played more than 37 games at the position in the major leagues. And he has also shown a willingness to move around and play either first base or even a corner outfield spot, if necessary.

His overall athletic skill and his ability to barrel up baseballs should make Hunter Dozier a key player over the next few years. His willingness to be a team player should enable the franchise to bring in the best players possible and move Dozier to wherever the team needs him.

Ian Kennedy is no longer a valuable starting pitcher. But the Kansas City Royals did find a way to make him useful in 2019.

Ian Kennedy may seem like an unlikely pleasant surprise candidate. In 2016 he signed with the Kansas City Royals as a free agent starting pitcher. He made 16.5 million dollars last year and he failed to start 20 games for the first time since 2009. He was “demoted” to the bullpen.

Sometimes management is not just about creating opportunities for your highest performers. Much of good management is finding the right seat on the bus so that everyone possible can contribute to the team’s success. And in moving Ian Kennedy to the bullpen, the Royals did just that. They found the right job for Ian Kennedy at the right time in his career.

Entering his age 34 season in 2019, Ian Kennedy appeared to be on his last leg. He only made it through 119 innings in 2018. His FIP was 4.61 and his strikeouts per 9 were under 8 for the second season in a row. His WHIP was beginning to creep up near the 1.4 range. He had become a solidly below-average pitcher.

Moving Kennedy to the bullpen seemed to bring him back to life. Kennedy was excellent as a reliever for the Kansas City Royals in 2019. His strikeouts per 9 innings were the highest of his career. His FIP was under 3 for the first time in his career. His walks per 9 innings were the best it has been since 2012 and he did it all with the unluckiest BABIP of his career, at .343.

The downside to developing a closer at the end of his career for the 2019 Kansas City Royals is that it was almost completely worthless. Paying a pitcher over 14 million dollars to close out meaningless games is just about the worst investment a major league baseball franchise could make. In fact, there is even an argument to be made that without a good closer maybe the Royals would not have managed to lose so many games and still only get the 4th best pick in the next draft.

Kennedy should be moved. We should eat whatever salary is necessary to get the best return in an Ian Kennedy trade. He should have been moved last season. Unless the Royals are serious about signing some decent free-agent starting pitchers for 2020, trotting out a 35-year-old closer for another season where you lose more than 90 games makes no sense.

But none of that should take away from what Ian Kennedy achieved in 2019. He put together a wonderful bounce-back season. He has found a legitimate second act as a closer.

Scott Barlow may have found his role in 2019 and the Kansas City Royals should count on him as a reliable bullpen arm in 2020.

Scott Barlow was a nice addition from Dayton Moore in 2018. He was signed as a free agent after the Dodgers let him walk. In his final season with the Dodgers, he started 26 games and pitched to a 3.29 ERA.

Barlow has a very good fastball and an excellent slider. He has essentially become a two-pitch pitcher out of the bullpen but both of those pitches are very good. His velocity also for both pitches went up noticeably in 2019.

Signing a young man with the stuff that Barlow has and moving him to the bullpen was a great idea and the Royals deserve credit for pulling it off. Barlow can take a spot in this bullpen for the next several years. He pitched to an ERA of 2.12 over 34 innings in the second half of the season.

Barlow was consistently one of the best arms out of the bullpen for Kansas City this season. He threw over 70 innings. And he struck out 92 batters. His FIP was 3.41. And his BABIP still seems a little unlucky at .337.

He does need to throw more strikes. He cannot keep walking almost 5 batters per 9 innings. His stuff is more than good enough to consistently get major league hitters out, so there is no reason to be issuing so many free passes. If he can correct his issues with walks, he could become a closer someday.

Barlow is already a young bullpen arm that can get both left-handed and right-handed hitters out. He can also be used in a situation that needs a big strikeout. He was a nice surprise in 2019 and his continued improvement next season should not be.