KC Royals: 3 big positives from a winning road trip

Andrew Benintendi is staking his claim to another season with the KC Royals.

That Andrew Benintendi was enjoying his best hitting of the season heading into Sunday’s game with the Twins was clear. He was slashing .341/.383/.682 in September and had already driven in 14 runs for the month. And he was 6-for-9 with a pair of home runs in the series’ first two games, extending the hot streak Kings of Kauffman’s Batoul Hammoud described so well in her Saturday story.

Benintendi didn’t let up Sunday. He went 2-for-4 with an RBI, raising his three-day average against Minnesota to .615 (8-for-13) and keeping his September torrid—he’s hitting .354 with three home runs and 15 RBIs in 12 games.

Those numbers solidify Benintendi’s Kansas City position for next season. Some may not realize he’s not a complete shoo-in to return: this is the final year of the two-year contract the Royals assumed when they traded for him last February, so Benintendi, ineligible for free agency until next season ends, is subject to arbitration this winter.

So, while he’s under club control, that control extends broadly. The KC Royals don’t have to bring him back—they can simply non-tender him, making him a free agent a year before he’d otherwise be eligible, or they could trade him.

The more likely scenario is that he stays in Kansas City. He is, after all, the decent left-handed bat General Manager Dayton Moore spend almost all last winter seeking, and has performed well much of this season. Look for Moore, famous for avoiding arbitration, to offer Benintendi an acceptable, yet lucrative, one-year deal; the parties might even find a satisfactory way to extend Benintendi.

Especially after the kind of September he’s having.

Scott Barlow has definitely established himself as the KC Royals’ closer.

In his first taste of the big leagues in 2018, reliever Scott Barlow pitched just six times for Kansas City. With 15 strikeouts and a 3.60 ERA in 15 innings, he wasn’t spectacular, but also wasn’t bad for a rookie.

Barlow became a steady bullpen piece for the Royals in 2019 with a 3-3 record in 61 appearances. He earned his first save and fanned almost 12 batters every nine innings.

He was the workhorse of the KC pen last season, leading the majors with 32 appearances, and again struck out nearly 12 batters per nine frames. Barlow showed closer stuff and a closer approach, but with Trevor Rosenthal and Greg Holland in the same bullpen, never became the closer.

And although Manager Mike Matheny typically doesn’t publicly proclaim any one of his hurlers as “closer,” that’s precisely what Barlow has become this season. It’s a status well-earned and well-deserved, and this seven-game road trip exemplifies it.

Barlow appeared in four of the Royals’ seven games. He didn’t give up a run in any of the five innings he pitched. He struck out seven, walked only one, and gave up just three hits. The two saves he earned gave him a club-leading 12 for the season, and he lowered his ERA to 2.37.

The one-week performance mirrors how well Barlow has been in the season’s second half. He’s surrendered only four runs in his 24 appearances since the All-Star Break, and is 3-0 with eight saves and a 1.42 ERA during that period.

Barlow is the KC Royals’ undisputed closer, and this week helped prove it.

The Royals had a decent road trip. They resume play at home Tuesday night against Oakland, play the A’s again Wednesday and Thursday, then host the Mariners for three before embarking on their last road trip of the season, a seven-day journey that will take them to Cleveland for four games (including a doubleheader) and Detroit for three.