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.

A former KC Royals star shortstop isn’t having a good season in Washington.

Over an eight-season span during which the Royals went from bad to best, then back to bad again, Alcides Escobar was a fixture at shortstop, an energetic player whose stellar defense and adequate bat helped the club recover from too many dreadful seasons to win two straight American league pennants and a World Series title.

And it was Escobar who was among four key players who decided to test free agency when Kansas City failed in 2017 to qualify for the postseason and suffered its first losing record since 2012.

Eric Hosmer (San Diego) and Lorenzo Cain (Milwaukee) landed the lucrative deals Mike Moustakas and Escobar didn’t find; both returned to the Royals for 2018.

Moustakas was gone via a midseason trade to the Brewers, but Escobar stayed, then went back on the market in the offseason. He signed with Baltimore, didn’t make it out of spring training, and soon signed with the White Sox, who kept him in the minors until releasing him in August.

Escobar came back to the Royals on a 2021 minor league contract and played well at Triple-A Omaha (.274 with five home runs and 16 RBIs in 35 games) until the club sold him to Washington in early July. He flourished with the Nationals, hitting .288 with a .340 OBP in 75 games.

This season, however, is different. Escobar has played in only half of Washington’s 70 games and his dismal .220/.264/.288 line could foretell a DFA when he’s finished recovering from a hamstring injury that’s kept him on the Injured List since June 1. Currently on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Rochester, he’s hitting .231 in 13 games.

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.