3 important things the KC Royals should do right now

The KC Royals were uncharacteristically busy last offseason. They signed Michael A. Taylor a year ago Tuesday, Mike Minor the next day, and Carlos Santana less than a week later. By the end of December, Greg Holland had re-signed and Ervin Santana became a Royal for the second time. Wade Davis returned in January, and the club signed Hanser Alberto and traded for Andrew Benintendi before spring camp opened.

Now, though, the Royals are back to being the Royals. All is quiet at Kauffman Stadium—while the transaction world explodes around them, the Royals shows no obvious signs of making any major moves to improve through free agency or trades. But slow baseball winters are the norm for this club—Kansas City is a perennially conservative franchise seemingly content to win only occasionally because it can’t, or won’t, spend the kind of money required to win regularly.

Things may not change much, at least not in the near future. New President of Baseball Operations Dayton Moore is still in charge of the baseball side of the business; yes, he’s won two pennants and a World Series, but the Royals have had winning seasons only three times since he became General Manager in mid-2006. And looming on the horizon are an almost certain work stoppage and transaction freeze which will delay indefinitely any moves the Royals might be contemplating. That curtain could drop at Midnight Wednesday absent a new labor agreement.

There are three things the Royals can do before then to improve the club and show fans they mean business in 2022.

The KC Royals should pronounce Bobby Witt Jr. a major leaguer without delay.

Bobby Witt Jr. is a big league legacy, the son and namesake of an accomplished starting pitcher who enjoyed a 16-season career before retiring 20 years ago. The son, a can’t miss five-tool player Kansas City took with the second overall selection in the 2019 draft, promises to be better than the father.

Now, the time has come for Witt Jr. to step on the major league stage. He’s done everything he can in 160 minor league games and has nothing left to prove on the farm. After spending 2019 in Rookie ball and 2020 at Kansas City’s Alternate Training Site, Witt overcame a slow 2021 start at Double-A Northwest Arkansas by hitting 16 homers, driving in 51 runs, and slashing .295/.369/.570 in 61 games to earn a well-deserved promotion to Triple-A Omaha.

Witt didn’t miss a beat with the Storm Chasers, clubbing 17 more home runs and slashing .285/.352/.581 with 46 RBIs in 62 games.

The Royals haven’t publicly committed to including Witt in their Opening Day lineup next season, but even though it’s a bit unorthodox, they should so now. Waiting to see how he performs in spring training is irrelevant because he’ll frequently face the plethora of young, untested prospects big league teams utilize heavily in the spring.

The presence of Nicky Lopez at shortstop and probably Whit Merrifield at second means Witt, a shortstop by trade, may start his big league career at third base. But wherever he plays, his time needs to be now, and the Royals need to declare it so. That message is important.

The time has definitely come for the KC Royals to cut Ryan O’Hearn loose.

Kansas City faced a gaping hole at first base entering the 2018 season—gone with no truly suitable replacement was Gold Glove All-Star Eric Hosmer. Lucas Duda tried but didn’t measure up, and the Royals shipped him to Atlanta in late August.

But by the end of the season, the club had to think it might have found the answer to its first base problem. Young rookie Ryan O’Hearn, called up from Omaha July 31, hit 12 homers, drove in 30 runs and hit a respectable .262 before the campaign ended. And his .353 OBP proved he could get on base.

Disappointing, however, is the only way to describe O’Hearn since then. He hit .195 in both 2019 and 2020, then .225 this season; he seemed to recapture his form at the plate with a .324 average in June, but then hit .193 in July, .246 in August, and a combined .188 in September and October.

Unfortunately, O’Hearn shows few, if any, signs of figuring out major league pitching, rendering illogical the club’s insistence on keeping him in the lineup. It’s the kind of mistake the Royals made in 2019 with Duda, who they curiously brought back, and Chris Owings. Kansas City is known to hang on to players too long.

And that’s what they should avoid with O’Hearn. He hasn’t hit for three years and the club really doesn’t have a place for him. Letting him go now is the right move.