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KC Royals: 3 players to ditch, 9 to add before season’s end

The KC Royals need to look at 2024 in this season's closing months.

By Jacob Milham |
/ Omar Rawlings/GettyImages
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The KC Royals season has been one filled with disappointment and losses, but there's always next season right? The team needs to focus on that as the 2023 season winds down. The Royals have already deployed 31 different pitchers this season and 49 different batters too. This roster has seen plenty of turnover but, in the words of Matthew McConaughey as Mark Hanna, "You gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers in this racket."

The KC Royals need to move past these three players, towards the future.

The Royals have some clear players that do not factor into the future of this organization. Guys like Nicky Lopez and Jose Cuas fit that role but hit the road at the trade deadline. That opportunity has passed. The Royals need to cut bait with these players, return or not, to truly lean into evaluation mode to close out the 2023 season.

Reliever Collin Snider

Remember "The Fireman" Collin Snider? His 2022 debut season started strong, but terrible May and June performances erased any goodwill his MArch and April outings built. Snider's MLB workload never recovered, and a second-chance September saw Snider give up seven runs on 12 hits in nine innings of work. Snider had a surprising stretch of games, but the bulk of his appearances outweighed that. Snider ended up posting a -.6 WAR in 42 appearances, a terrible rate at best.

Snider appeared in five games for the Royals, with even worse results. From July 2 to July 15, Snider had four walks to three strikeouts, four earned runs in less than five innings, and posted a 2.357 WHIP. All of that, the strikeout/walk ratio, the ERA, and the WHIP, is well below the league average. Even Royals utilityman Matt Beaty has a better strikeout/walk ratio this season.

If there were some better results in Triple-A, there would be a reason for keeping the 27-year-old. But, the sad fact is he is having his worst season at the Triple-A level. Across 35 games, Snider has 9 K/9, 6.81 BB/9, and a 1.78 WHIP. All those are not only bad but minor league career lows for Snider. There is not a redeeming factor to find in Snider this season, at any level. There are some good bullpen arms, better ones certainly, who need to join the 40-man roster now and take Snider's spot.

Replacement players: Will Klein, John McMillon, Steven Cruz

1B/OF Matt Beaty

I threw out Beaty's lackluster pitching performance this season, but the Royals don't need him for the bullpen. They need the veteran's glove at first base or the corner outfields in a pinch.

Beaty was a 48th-round pick by the Royals back in 2011, so his finding his way to Kansas City at 30 years old is poetic in a sense. But his production has been anything but out of a storybook. He has appeared in eight games for the Royals since returning from San Francisco, posting a .646 OPS in eight games. It is not terrible production for a bench player or spot starter, but does he warrant anything more than a spring training invite next season, at best? I do not think so.

There is value in a veteran off the bench, but Beatty doesn't move the needle much. After all, he has a negative WAR in his career, albeit a measly -.1. He just... isn't inspiring, you know? There are times when looking down a Royals lineup, and I react to seeing a player at a certain spot in the lineup. That reaction varies, depending on that player's ceiling, and impact on that day's game, or the future seasons. I understand that Beaty is an above-average batter for Kansas City, with a 113 wRC+, but that comes off of six total hits. He produces, but if the Royals want to see what the depth looks like at first base or the corners, there are better options.

Replacement players: Logan Porter, Devin Mann, CJ Alexander

Reliever Nick Wittgren

Look, I get that the Royals bullpen is not great as a unit. But, there are some key players dragging the whole group down. One of those players is veteran Nick Wittgren.

Wittgren joined the Royals on Dec. 23, 2022, after a down 2022 season with the St. Louis Cardinals. Still, there was hope for him to bounce back in Kansas City. After all, Wittgren had a solid stretch in Cleveland from 2019-2021 and Royals fans saw him being a solid bullpen contributor for the then-Indians firsthand. In a bullpen that entered the 2023 season with many question marks, Wittgren was supposed to be average at least. Dependable, solid, all the adjectives. But, he has just been plain replaceable.

Wittgren has a 5.27 ERA across 25 games for the Royals this season. That is bad, reliever or starter. He has slightly improved since 2022, but not notably enough to make a visual difference. Fans don't get excited or comfortable seeing Wittgren jog out of the bullpen. To be fair, the velocity is up on nearly all of his pitches. Fastball, changeup, sinker, all of them. Just the results are not showing that improvement. Wittgren may still have some value for a contending team needing depth in the bullpen. There may be something that another team can find in Wittgren, but the Royals cannot. Cutting ties and pulling in a younger replacement is best for all parties.

Replacement players: Noah Murdock, Yefri Del Rosario, Luinder Avila

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