KC Royals News: 4 questions for last full Cactus League week

Can Nicky Lopez and Salvador Perez keep up their hot hitting after the WBC?

Nicky Lopez looked more last year like the player who hit .240 in 2019 and .201 in 2020 than the one who surprised the baseball world two seasons ago by becoming the first Royal shortstop to hit .300. He batted only .227. And he was 0-for-6 in Cactus League play when he and teammate Vinnie Pasquantino joined Team Italy for the WBC.

Fortunately, something clicked and Lopez found his stroke, pacing Italy at the plate with a 9-for-19 (.474) performance and seven RBIs in five games.

Like Lopez was for Italy, Salvador Perez was hot for Team Venezuela. Despite going just 1-for-4 in Venezuela's quarterfinal loss to the USA, he slashed .429/.467/.929 with a homer, four doubles and six RBIs overall.

Neither Royal will maintain such torrid bats. But just hitting well will help the club.

Another Royal poses a much different question for the Royals—will Vinnie Pasquantino start hitting after his World Baseball Classic experience?

Pasquantino, who appears to have the edge over Nick Pratto at first base, slumped at the Classic, managing only four singles in 20 at-bats and failing to drive in any runs. He was slashing .444/.545/.778 with a home run and four RBIs in four Cactus League games before leaving for the tournament.

Moving on to the next question...

Where does reliever Richard Lovelady stand with the KC Royals?

By necessity, Kansas City's muddled bullpen picture will begin to clear this week. Because the team has far, far more relievers in camp than it can squeeze onto the 26-man regular-season roster, cuts are coming.

One question remark is Richard Lovelady, who somewhat surprisingly found his way back to the mound late last season after undergoing Tommy John Surgery late in the 2021 campaign. After two disappointing tries at the majors (he went 0-3 with a 7.71 ERA across 26 games in 2019-2020), Lovelady was 2-0, 3.48 in 20 games in 2021 before his UCL issue sidelined him in late August.

But the lefthander's recovery went so well that Kansas City worked him in a game at Double-A Northwest Arkansas, then three more at Triple-A Omaha, last September. He looked good, striking out nine and walking only one in four scoreless innings.

And he's pitching well this spring. Lovelady maintained his perfect 0.00 ERA with a scoreless inning against the Angels Friday and has yet to walk a batter in seven frames. He's also fanned a whopping nine batters.

Will he make the Opening Day roster? We shall see, but a good inning or two this week will make it hard for manager Matt Quatraro to say no.

And one final question...

Who will be Matt Quatraro's Opening Day starter for the KC Royals?

It's been an interesting spring for Zack Greinke, the KC starter who re-signed with the Royals in January to make his 20th big league season a Royal one. Entering Sunday's 13-2 loss to the Diamondbacks, he'd struck out nine and yielded only two runs and three hits in nine innings. And he'd tinkered with calling his own pitches.

Sunday, though, was ugly. Arizona pummeled him for nine runs on eight hits in 2.1 innings, and he didn't strike out a single Diamondback. MLB.com writers Anne Rogers and Manny Randhawa reported Greinke wanted to work on his pickoff moves and his fastball command wasn't good.

The spring has also been interesting for Brady Singer but for different reasons: as touched on earlier in this story, his pitching was just fine before he reported to Team USA for the WBC, but his only official appearance there so far wasn't good.

Either Greinke or Singer will be the answer to one of manager Matt Quatraro's Opening Day questions: who will be the Royals' first-game starter? Greinke is the sentimental choice because he's entering his 20th, and possibly final, major league season, while Singer is the more logical selection after his 10-5, 3.23 ERA made him the staff ace last season.

Both pitchers should see action this week, which could help Quatraro make a decision. (Our guess is Singer).