KC Royals Prospects: Minor league clubs set to go

The KC Royals’ farm clubs start play Tuesday. Who’s playing where this year?

The wait is finally over. Minor league baseball, shut down since last spring, resumes play Tuesday, and the KC Royals’ four affiliate clubs will all be in action.

The Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers host St. Paul, the Double-A Northwest Arkansas Naturals travel to play the Arkansas Travelers, High-A Quad Cities play at South Bend, and Class A Columbia is at Augusta.

And with the hiatus about to end, the suspense of who’ll play where is over—the Royals announced their farm club rosters Thursday. Now known are the destinations of the organization’s top prospects and the fate of some long-term system fixtures:

But the names on the rosters tell only part of the story.

The big news, of course, is that top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. will open the season at Northwest Arkansas. Starting Witt at Double-A makes sense because he hadn’t played above Rookie ball before spending last season at the Alternate Training Site, this spring in the Royals’ big league camp, and the last few weeks back at the ATS.

So Omaha fans won’t see Witt immediately (or at all if he skips Triple-A and goes directly to KC at some point), but they’ll see some familiar faces. Headlining the Storm Chasers will be pitchers Daniel Lynch, second only to Witt on MLB Pipeline’s ranking of Kansas City’s Top 30 prospects, and Jackson Kowar, who ranks fourth. Lynch was 1-2 with a 7.71 ERA, and Kowar went 2-2, 10.80, for the Royals in spring training this year.

Also at Omaha will be No. 5 Pipeline prospect Kyle Isbel, recently demoted to the ATS after spending the first three weeks of the campaign with the Royals and hitting .265, but striking out too often.

To the continued wonderment of some, but probably no surprise to anyone, outfielder Bubba Starling returns to the Storm Chasers to resume his so-far unsuccessful quest to rejoin, and remain with, the big club. Starling’s struggle to hit major league pitching is all but legendary now, and a .222/.243/.444 spring didn’t help his cause.

Among other veterans headed for Omaha are pitchers Kris Bubic, Scott Blewett and Jake Newberry; catchers Meibrys Viloria, Sebastian Rivero and Nick Dini; infielder Kelvin Gutierrez; and outfielders Erick Mejia and Edward Olivares. Brain Poldberg will manage the club.

How do the other three KC affiliates look?

Bobby Witt Jr. is just one hot prospect playing at Double-A for the KC Royals.

A year ago found first baseman Nick Pratto on a mission when he reported to Kansas City’s spring camp. Pratto was Pipeline’s No. 10 KC prospect the season before, but a .191/.278/.310 2019 campaign at High-A Wilmington gave the organization considerable pause. Cactus League play didn’t help his cause; although he hit.500, it was a result built only on a 1-for-2 performance.

The Royals, choosing to work on Pratto’s hitting instead of leaving him on his own during last summer’s minor league shut down, assigned him to the Alternate Training Site. Something changed there, and he was sizzling along with a .364 average this spring when the Royals included him in their camp’s first roster cuts.

Those roster “cuts” didn’t matter much, especially for Pratto—with no formal minor league camp in session, he continued to play in big league games and finished the spring with a .345/.406/.862 line and four home runs.

Now, Pratto is back on Kansas City’s radar and, probably owing to his inexperience, will open at Springdale with the Naturals. Expect a fairly timely promotion to Omaha if his good plate work continues.

Among other top Pipeline prospects joining Pratto (9th) in Arkansas are pitchers Jonathan Bowlan (8th), Alec Marsh (12th) Jonathan Heasley (13th) and Yefri Del Rosario (30th), catcher MJ Melendez (14th), and outfielder Brewer Hicklen (25th).

The Royals also assigned pitcher Stephen A. Woods Jr., their 2019 Rule 5 selection, to Double-A. Fellow hurlers Peyton Gray and Carlos Sanabria, both acquired over the winter, will also be Naturals.

Scott Thorman will manage the team.