Grading the 2021 KC Royals, Part 2: The outfielders

“Stunning” best describes the different outfield look the KC Royals presented on Opening Day this season. Gone to retirement and replaced by offseason trade acquisition Andrew Benintendi was perennial Gold Glover Alex Gordon, the winter signing of Michael A. Taylor foretold the ultimate retirement of Bubba Starling, and rookie Kyle Isbel’s good Cactus League performance unexpectedly gave him right field.

Injuries, days off, and other circumstances forced occasional changes to that cast as the campaign wore on. The Royals sent Isbel back to the minors for more work, Edward Olivares was up and down from Omaha, Hunter Dozier drifted around the outfield as the club searched for a position he could settle into, and Jorge Soler and Jarrod Dyson took their turns before leaving for other teams.

How should these various KC outfielders grade out for the season?

Two newcomers to the KC Royals get the best outfield grades for 2021.

We at Kings of Kauffman recently gave Andrew Benintendi and Michael A. Taylor the top grades (an A for Benintendi, a B+ for Taylor) for the handful of Royals who joined or rejoined the team in 2021. Naturally, nothing has changed to require reconsideration of those marks, but a recap is in order.

Benintendi, for whom Kansas City gave up Franchy Cordero and Khalil Lee in a February three-team trade, received the only A in the group. Despite a slow start and a fractured rib that cost him significant playing time, Benintendi finished the season with 17 homers, 73 RBIs, and a .276 average in 134 games. He was especially good from the beginning of September until the season’s October end when he drove in 29 runs in 31 games and slashed .342/.398/.570.

And his defense? Good enough to land him a Gold Glove nomination.

Taylor unsurprisingly joins Benintendi as a candidate for what could be his first Gold Glove. Center field became his in spring training and he proved worthy of the assignment, making only three errors all season. His 2.3 DWAR was the best among qualified American League center fielders and he paced the league with 19 Defensive Runs Saved.

His bat could be better, but Kansas City pays him more for his defense than his offense. He earned and retained a B+.

A pair of KC Royals outfielders were disappointments for the KC Royals.

Two Kansas City outfielders had miserable seasons for Kansas City. The Royals kept one at the trade deadline but dealt away the other, who looked nothing like he did two years ago.

That Hunter Dozier was the July trading frenzy survivor is due far more to the $25 million contract he signed during spring training than his performance. Although his power might have tempted a team or two despite the poor season he was having at the plate, the cost of assuming responsibility for his new deal was too steep a price to pay.

Dozier’s line alone tells the tale of his awful season—.216/.285/.394 isn’t big league stuff, much less the kind of slash worthy of a $6.25 million AAV contract. And his glove, while passable (.985 fielding percentage in the outfield), isn’t quite what the Royals need.

Give Dozier a D.

Jorge Soler bore no real resemblance to the player who shattered Mike Moustakas’ club home run record with 48 in 2019. He had 13 homers and a .192 average when the Royals traded him to Atlanta just minutes before the trade deadline expired; forced by the domino effect of Adalberto Mondesi’s injuries to play more in the field than KC probably preferred (Whit Merrifield had to play second base instead of right field), he managed a .985 fielding percentage.

Soler, of course, exploded when he hit Atlanta, slugging 14 homers and hitting .269 with a .358 OBP in 55 games. And after leading off the World Series with a home run, breaking a 2-2 tie with a pinch-hit homer that proved to be the difference in Game 4, and blasting a mammoth three-run, third inning homer that gave the Braves all the runs they needed in Game 7, he was named the Series MVP.

But his heroics for the Braves can’t boost his Kansas City grade. Like Dozier, Soler gets a D for his KC season.