KC Royals still looking for Frank White’s replacement

Frank White played his last game for the KC Royals 30 years ago, but the club is still searching for his replacement.

There’s a reason they called Frank White “Smooth.” The nickname fit like a glove, and it’s his glove that made the fit so perfect. White could hit, but defense was the first name of his game and why he’s the KC Royals’ best second baseman ever.

White, a five-time All-Star who played every one of his 18 big league seasons with Kansas City, played his last game 30 years ago, but the club’s search to replace him continues. The many who’ve tried to fill his shoes haven’t. The jury is still out on Nicky Lopez, whose glove work may someday warrant calling him “Smooth II,” but he probably won’t stick unless he learns to hit big league pitching.

White wasn’t perfect; no one is. While his defense (eight Gold Gloves) warrants Hall of Fame consideration, it’s his offensive numbers that probably keep him out of Cooperstown. He could hit in the clutch, and was the team’s choice to hit cleanup in the 1985 World Series (primarily because the American League team lost the DH in the National League’s park), but he exceeded .270 only four times in 18 seasons. (Whether that theory squares with the fact White’s offensive and defensive stats are so comparable to Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski‘s is a debate for another time).

What isn’t debatable is just how good White was, which helps explain why he’s been so hard to replace. The search has been long. When and with whom it might end is the question.

A trio of KC Royals were the most prominent candidates to fill the second base job in the 10 years before Whit Merrifield took over.

The Royals’ efforts to replace Frank White that spanned the seven year Carlos Febles-Ruben Gotay era ended with the December 2005 signing of free agent Mark Grudzielanek, a serviceable second-sacker who’d played for the Expos, Dodgers, Cubs and Cardinals before casting his lot with Kansas City.

“Grudz” was an accomplished hitter with occasional power, and hit .297, .302 and .299 (a cumulative .300) in his three Royal seasons. His defense met the club’s needs: he won his only career Gold Glove in his first season with the Royals. He split time at second with Alberto Callaspo in 2008 and departed for free agency after that campaign.

Callaspo took over second in 2009 and hit .300, but didn’t equal Grudzielanek as a fielder and was traded to the Angels in a 2010 midseason deal. Mike Aviles succeeded him until the club dealt him to Boston at the 2011 trade deadline.

Then it was Chris Getz’s turn. He was baseball savvy with heart and a good work ethic, but he wasn’t Frank White.

Getz played 110 games at second in 2011, then split time with Yuniesky Betancourt and Johnny Giavotella in 2012, and Betancourt, Giavotella and Elliot Johnson in 2013. Getz was adequate defensively but had no power and was, except for 2012 when he hit .275 in 64 games, questionable at the plate.

The Royals tried to end the revolving door that had become second base with the December 2013 signing of Omar Infante, an appealing free agent acquisition at the time as the club readied itself to contend in 2014. Infante was an established big league veteran coming off a sold season with Detroit (.318, 10 homers and 51 RBIs in 118 games), but the $30.25 million, four-year deal turned out to be a lot of money not well spent. Infante just couldn’t get it right in Kansas City. His defense was acceptable; his .238 average and .269 OBP over three seasons wasn’t.

With well over a season remaining on his overpriced contract, the KC Royals let him go before the 2016 campaign reached its midpoint.

By then, rookie Whit Merrifield was staking his claim to second.

Whit Merrifield seemed like the answer, but now the KC Royals are trying Nicky Lopez.

Whit Merrifield became the Royals’ second baseman in 2016 for two reasons. He was playing well, and Omar Infante, a major and continuing disappointment to the club, wasn’t.

Merrifield took the position by storm. He hasn’t won a Gold Glove there, or at any of their other positions the consummate utility man plays, but his glove is good and he’s better at the plate than any of Frank White’s would-be successors. Since taking over second five seasons ago, he’s led the major leagues in hits twice, stolen bases once (he paced the American League the year before that), triples another time, games played once, and at-bats twice.

That he’s no longer the KC Royals’ regular second baseman isn’t his fault. Instead, his move to the outfield is a function of two things: the team’s muddled and overcrowded picture there and the potential of present second baseman Nicky Lopez.

Lopez is a supremely talented infielder widely believed to be the club’s second baseman of the future and whose considerable time at second in 2019 foretold Merrifield’s full transition to the outfield, a move born of the need to stabilize things there while the Royals prepared for Alex Gordon’s predictable retirement and tried to sort out who among a plethora of promising youngsters might be suitable for the big leagues.

Merrifield, of course, was the outfielder the Royals trusted him to be in 2020. He was more than adequate defensively and hit nine homers, drove in 30 runs, hit .282 and stole 12 bases in the short 60-game campaign.

And Lopez’s defense was everything Kansas City expected it to be, and maybe more. He made just two errors in 211 chances at second (.991 fielding percentage) and, confirming predictions made all season long, is a Gold Glove finalist.

Lopez’s bat, though, could derail the Royals’ plans to pair him with shortstop Adalberto Mondesi for years to come. His .240/.276/.325 slash in 2019 was easy to write off to his rookie status, but this season’s .201/.286/.266 can’t be excused. Simply put, Lopez didn’t hit and didn’t get on base.

His .228/.279/.307 two-season slash isn’t good enough. He didn’t suffer such numbers at any minor league level—his career farm line is a respectable .296/.378/.403—which suggests he might not have a big league bat.

No one knows yet what the 2021 season will bring. But for Nicky Lopez, one thing is certain: all Royal eyes will focus on him the moment spring training begins. He must hit if he’s to end the club’s 30-year search for a long-term replacement for Frank White.

If he doesn’t, the search will continue.

The KC Royals’ quest for Frank White’s replacement is now decades long. Hopefully, Nicky Lopez will prove he can hit big league pitching and end the search.