Kansas City Royals: 3 most surprising players of 2019

The Kansas City Royals of 2019 were a team that struggled all season. But there were some surprising bright spots as well.

Surprises are not always good. Face planting after a trip and fall is a surprise. And even though the face-planting may seem like an apt analogy for the 2019 Kansas City Royals I am going to focus this story on the Royals surprises that made us feel good this season.

I wish I would have been more surprised by the performance of the Royals in 2019. Sadly, signing Lucas Duda as a third option at first base for no discernible reason is no longer surprising at all. Chris Owings being a waste of a free agent signing was also not surprising, even if it was somewhat amazing that he only achieved 18 more hits for the Royals last year than I did.

In fairness, there were also some good performances last season that I was not surprised by. I think it is reasonable to be a little caught off guard by how well Jorge Soler played in 2019, but the tools were always there. Considering how well he looked over 61 games in 2018 I think many of us were of the belief that he was due for a breakout season.

Alex Gordon putting together a bounce-back season was also something I did not see coming. He looked great, especially early in the season. But most of the surprise with Alex was because his last few seasons had been so hard to watch. Alex still has not had a Slugging Percentage over .400 since 2015. I also have a hard time being too pleasantly surprised when a left fielder making 20 million dollars finishes a season hitting league average.

The following players are the three that pleasantly surprised me the most in 2019. All three of them should also still contribute just as much, if not more, in 2020.

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.

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.