KC Royals: What happened to all of these players?

The 2021 season will end late Sunday afternoon for the KC Royals. And before the sun sets, talk will turn to the offseason and what roster changes new General Manager J.J. Picollo might make before spring training.

This has been a season to be remembered not so much for the Royals’ losing record—that was expected—but instead for the extraordinary performance of MVP candidate Salvador Perez, the sudden emergence of Nicky Lopez as a bona fide big league player, the mixed-bag debuts of rookie pitchers Jackson Kowar and Daniel Lynch, the disappointments that were Hunter Dozier and Jorge Soler, and the departure of Danny Duffy.

And as so often happens with sub-.500 clubs like Kansas City, players came and went all season; forgetting who played when and where became unavoidable.

What happened to some of the players who won’t appear on Sunday’s active and 40-man rosters?

The KC Royals traded a couple of well-known infielders to other clubs.

The writing was probably on the wall for Kelvin Gutierrez before this season even started. Kansas City’s late January signing of established and versatile big league infielder Hanser Alberto, a better player than Gutierrez, clearly jeopardized the latter’s KC future. Gutierrez didn’t play in a big league game until mid-May, then hit .218 with a home run and eight RBIs in 38 games before the club DFA’d him in late June.

The Royals ended up sending Gutierrez to Baltimore in a player-for-cash deal. Little but scenery has changed for him—he’s hitting .229 with one homer and 11 RBIs in 42 Baltimore games.

The KC Royals indulged their passion for bringing back former players when they signed shortstop Alcides Escobar in early May and sent him to Omaha. Obviously designed to provide an alternative to Nicky Lopez at shortstop while Adalberto Mondesi was on the mend, the move paid surprising minor league dividends when Escobar caught fire as June neared.

It turned out, of course, that Lopez also caught fire, eliminating any need for Escobar. The Royals sent him to the Nationals for cash in early July. But unlike Gutierrez in nearby Baltimore, Esky is flourishing in Washington, where he’s become the regular shortstop with a .287 average, .335 OBP, and three homers in 71 games.

Two pitchers are working back from injuries. The KC Royals let another go.

Jesse Hahn, a veteran of parts of four major league seasons before Kansas City picked him up in an offseason trade with Oakland in 2018, seemed destined for a significant role with the Royals this year after posting a minuscule 0.52 ERA over 18 games in 2020’s short season.

Instead, early trouble found Hahn. In five games between Opening Day and April 11, he gave up five runs and walked four over 3.1 innings. That right shoulder impingement syndrome forced him to the Injured List April 12 may explain his woes.

The Royals sent him to Omaha on a rehab assignment a month later but, after only a week, transferred him to the 60-day IL. He’s been there since.

Ronald Bolanos, who came to KC from San Diego last summer in the Tim Hill deal, has also missed much of the season after going on the IL in mid-June with a right forearm strain. He rehabbed in the minors until the Royals activated him and optioned him to Omaha earlier this month; since then, he’s pitched three times for the Storm Chasers, but with little success—opponents battered him for 16 runs and four homers, and he walked nine, in 10.2 innings.

Kansas City won’t give up on Hahn or Bolanos. Expect to see them in spring training.

The same can’t be said for Anthony Swarzak, an utterly unremarkable journeyman reliever the club signed in May. Swarzak actually pitched decently (2.89 ERA) for a month before the Royals summoned him June 18, the day they transferred Bolanos from the 10-day to 60-day IL.

But Swarzak’s Kansas City stay didn’t last long. He posted a 9.39 ERA in seven games and was DFA’d July 17. He cleared waivers, rejected an outright assignment to Omaha, and is a free agent.

Players come and go. Some are easy to forget, other aren’t. The KC Royals have been through all of that this season.