KC Royals: 3 reasons why July will be so uncertain

That the 2022 KC Royals have yet to enjoy a winning month helps explain why they’ll open a weekend series in Detroit Friday night 20 games under .500. The club went 7-12 in April, 9-20 in May, then beat Texas Wednesday to finish June 11-15.

Few probably believed these Royals would get markedly better in June, and they didn’t. Yes, they won two more games than they did in May, but credit much of that slight improvement to a recent 5-4 West Coast road trip, the memory of which they immediately tried to erase by losing four of their next six before winning Wednesday.

So, what might July hold for the Royals, who’ve been in the American League Central cellar for a one month and a day but can wrest fourth place from the Tigers, who they trail by two games, by sweeping them this weekend?

The answer to that question depends in large part on three things.

How will three critically important rookies play for the KC Royals in July?

Monday made Kansas City fans happy. That’s the day they traded Carlos Santana to make room for Vinnie Pasquantino, who arrived at Kauffman Stadium late in the day from Omaha and watched that night’s game from the dugout before playing Tuesday and Wednesday.

Pasquantino is a key to the Royals’ future—the organization’s third best prospect per MLB Pipeline, he’s the club’s next hope to fill the shoes of Eric Hosmer.

Pasquantino and two other KC rookies—Bobby Witt Jr. and MJ Melendez—are potentially capable of rivaling the championship core Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain formed to lead Kansas City to the AL pennant in 2014 and the World Series championship in 2015.

How they play in July will help determine how good a month the Royals have.