KC Royals: 3 key second half questions and answers

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The KC Royals answered a lot of questions during the first half of their 2023 season. No, they won't make the playoffs. Yes, they're a bad ballclub. No, Zack Greinke won't be stellar in what may be his last season. Yes, more than ever before they'll probably consider dealing closer Scott Barlow at the trade deadline. And yes, these Royals have a lot of work to do, and many moves to make, before they can even think about contending.

And big questions, which sometimes seem to surround this team and franchise more than any other, remain as Kansas City opens post-All-Star Break play, what is traditionally considered the second half of major league baseball's season, when they host Tampa Bay tonight at 7:10 p.m. CDT. KC Rookie Alec Marsh is scheduled to face the Rays' Tyler Glasnow.

Let's take a look at three of those questions.

Can the KC Royals somehow manage to avoid losing 100 games this season?

Theoretically, yes, but only because losing fewer than 100 times is still mathematically possible. The real answer, though, the one nobody can seriously dispute, is no.

The season's second half begins with the Royals buried in last place in the American League Central. They're 26-65, which means they'll finish the campaign with no more than 99 losses only if they go 37-34 the rest of the way. That's a tall order for a struggling team that hasn't won more than two games in a row all year.

It just isn't going to happen.

Will KC Royals All-Star catcher Salvador Perez have a big second half?

This is a hard one. Perez made the American League All-Star team again (for the eighth time, to be precise), leads the club in home runs with 15, and was hitting .270 three weeks ago, which isn't bad for a 33-year-old catcher at the mid-point of his 12th big league season.

But that nice .270 average is falling, a statistical decline not at all surprising considering Perez is a dismal 4-for-43 (.093) in the 12 games since he last posted that number. He's been held hitless in eight of those contests. Not once during that span has he homered; in fact, he can't boast any extra-base hit in those dozen games. His one RBI doesn't bode well, either. He's slashing .246/.289/.435, a line worse than the .254/.292/.465 he posted last season.

And the recurring vision issue that's troubled Perez in the past struck him again and required procedural intervention late last month.

It's difficult to comfortably predict, then, a significant turnaround for the Royal captain. And the Royals may have to rely less on Perez and more on Bobby Witt Jr. who, in his sophomore season, is passing Perez by as the most productive KC hitter—entering tonight's action, Witt leads the Royals in RBIs, triples, hits, and stolen bases, has homered more than any other Royal except Perez, and although it isn't as good as it someday will be, his .257/.300/.442 line is still better than Perez's.

Can pitcher Brady Singer rediscover his 2022 form for the KC Royals?

Here's wishing it were otherwise, but the most optimistic answer to this question is "It's unlikely."

Singer, remember, started slowly last season but, after a fruitful demotion to the minors, finished with a 10-5 record, a career-best 3.23 ERA, and won the club's Bruce Rice Pitcher of the Year award from the Kansas City chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

But the consistency he displayed after his visit to Triple-A Omaha last year is gone. He's had some good moments (he leads manager Matt Quatraro's staff with five wins) but his 5.80 ERA reflects his unfortunate tendency to give up far too many runs—in 18 starts, he's been battered for eight runs twice, six once, and five five times.

Much of Singer's trouble is certainly traceable to his mysterious reliance on just two pitches. That's a recipe for disaster in the big leagues unless both are consistently and simultaneously overwhelming, and it's not often that Singer's sinker and slider, his primary pitches of choice, work superbly at the same time. And he simply doesn't mix in his other two pitches: per Baseball Savant, he's throwing his changeup 5.6% of the time and his sweeper only 0.9% of the time. Predictably and wisely, major league hitters simply sit back and look for either the slider or sinker.

Singer shows no signs of changing. So it is that he probably won't enjoy a big second half to this 2023 campaign.

Next. Lynch's adjustments. Looking at Daniel Lynch's adjustments. dark

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