Royals: Anyone besides Whit Merrifield to bat .300 in 2020?

In a season plagued with injuries, the Kansas City Royals shortstop might have faired much better at the plate if he could stay healthy.

Adalberto Mondesi might be a shot in the dark, planets must align kind of pick for this list, but his unlucky turn of events in 2019 might have caused him to have lower numbers at the plate than he should have had.

In 2019, Mondesi slashed .263/.291/.424 over 102 games with 20 doubles, 10 triples, 9 home runs, and 62 RBIs. The 10 triples tied with Dozier and Merrifield, as mentioned above, for the lead in the majors, which Mondesi managed to do in far fewer games than the others.

Mondesi ran into some unfortunate bad luck in 2019 that saw him out for a good portion of the season. To start the season, Mondesi was tearing up the plate, batting .333 in March, .282 in April, and .288 in May. For the first portion of the season, Mondesi floated around the .280-.290 batting average range.

Unfortunately, the injuries started in mid-June and didn’t stop the rest of the season. Though Mondesi got to see some playing time for a few short stints, he never really found his rhythm at the plate again.

Because of this, Mondesi makes the list in the, might have done it in 2019 if not for injury section (more so than Dozier at least). While Mondesi may have just continued to float around the .285 batting average range, all it would have taken was one good streak to send him over the edge.

While Mondesi, of course, is a bit of a dark horse candidate, he is full of potential and incredibly athletic. If he can continue to work, stay healthy, and cut down on the strikeouts, he might just pull off a .300 batting average in 2020.

Whether all of these players bat .300 or don’t in 2020, the team will still likely struggle to find themselves in the postseason just yet. Continued progress and growth among the entire offense, though, might just keep them out of the 100 loss club and put them back on the track to the postseason in the future.