KC Royals: 3 players we might not see next season

Edward Olivares is pretty popular, but may not fit the KC Royals’ plans.

The notion of Kansas City moving on from Edward Olivares is one based not so much on his .217/.277/.391 major league line this season, or on misplaced discounting of his 15 homers, 43 RBIs and .279 average in 47 Triple-A contests this year, as it is on reading between the Royals’ lines.

The feeling the club isn’t sold on, or entirely comfortable with, the speedy outfielder it received last summer from San Diego in the Trevor Rosenthal deal is hard to shake.

After all, the Royals have recalled him six times, and sent him down five, this season, a cycle hard to accept as merely some natural, unavoidable collective consequence of roster jams and numbers crunches, especially considering the maddening uncertainty plaguing right field and Kansas City’s continuing efforts to resolve it with infielders Ryan O’Hearn and Hunter Dozier.

And it’s unlikely his involvement in, and ultimate responsibility for, a muffed outfield play that cost the Royals two of the nine runs they simply handed to Baltimore during last Wednesday’s meltdown loss will be the moment his KC future ultimately turns on.

Perhaps it’s simply that the Royals just aren’t as committed to Olivares as they may have once been. But there have to be reasons for that.

Call it a feeling, a gut hunch…just don’t be shocked if Olivares, who’s become an object of the fans’ affection this year, plays elsewhere next season, or finds himself a more permanent fixture at Omaha.