3 players whose time with the KC Royals may be short

A promising Triple-A catcher may not have a future with the KC Royals

Unlike Olivares, the Royals haven't kept Logan Porter busy traveling Interstate 29 between Kansas City and Omaha. Porter, in fact, hasn't spent even a regular season day with the Royals.

And that's a bit of a mystery. Porter, a veteran of five minor league seasons and a capable catcher who can also play first base and boasts some power, owns a decent .280/.408/.464 career line. He homered 14 times in 77 games at High-A Quad Cities two years ago, 13 in a campaign split across Double-A and Triple-A last year, and has 10 through Tuesday's play.

But for one reason or another, the Royals haven't seen fit to give Porter even the proverbial big league cup of coffee in Kansas City, electing instead to take looks at him in Cactus League games in the spring and minor league contests in the summer. And the club should have called him up earlier this season but didn't.

That Kansas City has Salvador Perez and Fredy Fermin sharing time behind the plate, and can in a pinch call on MJ Melendez to catch, complicates things for Porter. So, too, does backstop Blake Mitchell who, only a month after the Royals took him in the first round of this year's amateur draft, is already ranked by MLB Pipeline as the club's No. 1 prospect.

Porter's recent performance also doesn't help his cause. Hitting .284 with a flashy .388 OBP at the end of June, he slumped to .167 and .291 in July, and .163 and .268 so far in August.

So, where does Porter stand? He's Rule 5 eligible again; the Royals didn't protect him last winter, and almost certainly won't this year. His remaining time with the franchise could be pretty short.

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