4 former KC Royals who’ve disappointed this season

Major league players come and go. Sooner or later, time wins its battles with them and they find themselves leaving the game on their own accord or by the unilateral choice of their employers. The departures are bittersweet affairs; take the final few days of KC Royals great George Brett’s career, for example.

Long before the prospect of imminent retirement rears its head, though, big league players have good years, bad years, and seasons that fall somewhere in the middle of the performance spectrum.

Unfortunately for four ex-Royals, the 2022 season is sizing up as closer to bad than good. Their performances have been disappointing.

Who are they?

At least for now, former KC Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain isn’t playing.

Saturday’s news that former KC Royals star center fielder and fan favorite Lorenzo Cain was designated for assignment by Milwaukee was expected. Although Cain still offered the Brewers valuable intangibles and a good glove, his bat had simply deteriorated too much.

Sadly, and in stark contrast to his career .283 average and .343 OBP, Cain’s line was .179/.231/.234 when he and Milwaukee, the club with whom he began his 13-season career, and he reportedly agreed it was time for him to go.

Whether Cain finds another big league club to join, or even pursues such an opportunity, remains to be seen.

Cain, though, isn’t the only former Royal who’s disappointed this season.

Two infielders and a pitcher who used to call Kansas City home are struggling with new clubs.

His season marred by injury, former KC Royals hurler Mike Minor struggles.

The move came suddenly and surprisingly. Entering the final year of the two-season deal he signed to reunite with Kansas City two Novembers ago, and expected to remain an important part of the Royals’ rotation this year, Mike Minor instead found himself traded to Cincinnati for reliever Amir Garrett before spring training ended.

The deal closed out Minor’s second stint with Kansas City. He spent the 2017 season with the Royals and, pitching exclusively out of the bullpen after missing two seasons recovering and rehabilitating from injuries, went 6-6 with a 2.55 ERA and six saves in 65 appearances.

Minor took advantage of free agency after the season and moved on to Texas, where he resumed the starter’s role he’d had for five years in Atlanta before joining the Royals. He won 26 games for the Rangers across 2018 and 2019, but none in 2020 before they shipped him to Oakland.

He returned to Kansas City last season and tied Brad Keller for club leads in wins (eight) and losses (12), and posted a grim 5.05 ERA. But on a team with a shaky rotation, his job for 2022 remained secure.

Until the Garrett deal, that is. Certain to immediately join a questionable Cincinnati rotation, Minor instead suffered a shoulder injury which forced him to the IL before the regular season even started.

Minor returned June 3, but the results haven’t been pretty. Washington roughed him up for five runs in four innings that night, Arizona dinged him for three in 4.1 frames five days later and another four in 6.1 innings five days after that, and Milwaukee scored four times in six innings against him Sunday. He’s 1-3 with a 6.97 ERA.

This infielder was good with the KC Royals but is slumping in Los Angeles.

Despite serving two seasons as Baltimore’s primary second baseman, Hanser Alberto came to Kansas City in 2021 as a utility infielder, a fair-hitting, decent-fielding proven player more than capable of filling in when regulars like Whit Merrifield, Adalberto Mondesi and Nicky Lopez needed time off.

But his role quickly expanded when Mondesi suffered the first of three injuries that sidelined him most of the season. Pressed into more action than the Royals probably anticipated when they signed him to the minor league deal he turned into a major league job, Alberto played in 103 games (probably fewer than he would have had Lopez not enjoyed such a good season) and hit .270 filling in at third, short and second. He was by all accounts popular with teammates and fans.

All that, and the uncertainty surrounding Mondesi’s health, seemed to make Alberto a logical choice to return in 2022. But the Royals had other ideas and released him in late October.

He caught on with the Dodgers in March and has played 34 times. He’s hitting only .242—32 points below his career average—with a .254 OBP, numbers that might not be sufficient to secure a spot on the postseason roster the National League West Division-leading Dodgers will undoubtedly need to assemble.

Four former Royals aren’t having good seasons.