Royals: Positional battle, Salvador Perez needs a backup

The Kansas City Royals have another in-house option, but he hasn’t seen near the major league time as other players in the organization.

Nick Dini

Nick Dini is another option the Royals have in-house for the backup catcher role. While he has not had near as much major league time as the above two options, he deserves a spot on this list. Dini got the call to play in 2019, and though his time was short, he got to see time in 20 games.

Dini struggled with strikeouts, slashing .196/.270/.357 with but did manage to score 11 runs, and record 2 home runs and 6 RBIs over his short 20 game run. He needs to strengthen his discipline at the plate and learn some patience, but this is something that may come with more major league time.

Though the sample is small, Dini managed to put up decent numbers defensively as well. His .992 fielding percentage is a little lower than some of the others, but he managed a 40 percent caught-stealing rate, though this was over only 6 stolen bases.

Dini’s sample is too small to really know if he will be a viable option as the backup catcher in 2020, but it’s likely he will get a look in spring training, and it’s possible he will see some major league time if there are injuries next season.