Former KC Royals top draft pick is running out of time to make Opening Day case

Almost eight full years ago, amid a mistake-riddled season 2017 season that slammed the door shut on their most recent window of contention, the Kansas City Royals chose prep first baseman Nick Pratto with the 14th overall selection of that summer's amateur draft. Using that first pick on Pratto seemed to be paying off handsomely when in 2021 he slammed 36 homers, drove in 98 runs, slashed .265/.385/.602, and won a Gold Globe in the minors.

Sadly, Pratto hasn't shown the Royals much since, including this spring.

In camp by virtue of the 40-man roster spot he's curiously maintained, he's batting .172 (5-for-29) and his 12 strikeouts, which aren't surprising considering his career 38.7 K%, overshadow his lone homer and four RBI. Those numbers wouldn't imperil the careers of some players, but they threaten Pratto's.

And they're making it harder for KC to justify putting him on the Opening Day roster.

The clock is probably ticking on Nick Pratto's time with the KC Royals

Unfortunately, the promise of Pratto's spectacular 2021 minor league campaign is fading, and may have disappeared. Considered by many to be the Royals' first baseman of the future heading into the 2022 season, he slumped early at Triple-A Omaha and found himself beaten to Kauffman Stadium's first base bag by Vinnie Pasquantino. Despite subsequent chances to make good in the majors — including the 95 games he played for KC in 2023 — Pratto remains a disappointment at the plate.

Why? Including the near-100 times he played two seasons ago, Pratto has appeared in 145 major league games, but he's slashing an unsightly .216/.295/.364 with just 14 home runs, and owns a -0.9 fWAR and 79 wRC+. Combining all that with his present spring training stats doesn't provide much hope for Pratto.

That's especially true considering what remains of Kansas City's spring schedule. With just six exhibition games left after the club's March 19 night tilt with the San Francisco Giants — four Cactus League contests and a pair of games against the Texas Rangers in Arlington — Pratto's chances to convince the Royals he deserves another shot at The Show are dwindling rapidly.

His roster salvation, barring an unlikely explosion at the plate so great that it can't be ignored, may be that he's out of minor league options. That means that if the Royals don't want Pratto on the 26-man active roster when the regular season begins next week — but still want to keep him in the organization — their only way of sending him to the minors is by getting him through waivers without another team claiming him.

But is giving Pratto a big league roster spot at the expense of someone else worth it? Probably not. There is no everyday position available to him. Yes, he's a left-handed batter, and teams love lefty bench bats, but he's not a good lefty hitter. At least for now, he's not a very good hitter at all.

That makes it tough to justify Pratto winning a bench role when so many other players are, regardless of which side they hit from, vying for that niche. Newcomer and non-roster invitee Craig Biggio is hitting only .200, but his big league experience and versatility render him a virtual certainty to break camp with the Royals. Fellow NRI Harold Castro remains in the running, and Nick Loftin is slashing .429/.556/607.

And because there probably isn't any trade market upon which the Royals can reap a decent return for Pratto, they're probably better off taking their chances and waiving him. If they lose him to another club, so be it. At this moment, he seems expendable.