New KC Royals earn good grades, bad grades at one-third mark

Long before his KC Royals barely avoided setting a new club record for losses by winning the last game of the 2023 season, general manager J.J. Picollo's offseason agenda was clear and complicated — he needed to drastically improve the team, and couldn't do it without bringing new blood to Kauffman Stadium.

Amazing is the best way to describe what Picollo accomplished in only his second baseball winter at the helm of Kansas City's baseball operations. Recrafting the Royal roster with a combination of trades, free agent signings, releases, and nontenders, he transformed his club from hapless to contender — despite losing to Tampa Bay Sunday, Kansas City is 34-20 and standing tall in the American League Central, a mere 2.5 games behind division-leading Cleveland with exactly one-third of the season in the books.

Picollo brought aboard almost a dozen new faces before this season started, some who've succeeded and some who haven't. Just how have those players fared, and how should they be graded with two-thirds of the campaign left?

Two offseason acquisitions get DFA'd

Kansas Ci recently designated two new Royals for assignment; as of this writing, one is gone, and one could be soon. We'll give them Incompletes.

Rule 5 Draft selection Matt Sauer received the first DFA a week ago after giving up 14 runs and 23 hits in 16.1 innings. Under Rule 5, the Royals could keep Sauer and send him to the minors only if they couldn't work out a trade for him, he cleared waivers, and the Yankees, who held his rights before the draft, didn't want him. The Yanks took him back Sunday.

The Royals signed Duffey in January but didn't use him often; DFA'd Friday, he'd allowed five runs and walked eight in nine innings.

Moving on...

Bottom of the class: 2 players who've struggled with the Royals

Hunter Renfroe. Kansas City signed Renfroe in mid-December to do three things — play right field, hit homers, and drive in runs. He's been manager Matt Quatraro's right field choice 46 times this season, but failed at the plate. His .161/.248/.285 line is abysmal and his four homers have him on pace to finish the season with 12, a disappointing total considering he's missed hitting at least 20 only in 2016, when he played just 11 times, and in the pandemic-truncated 2020 season.

Yes, Renfroe is historically a slow starter. But not hitting a lick with a third of the season gone is worse than slow. We'll give him an F.

Adam Frazier. Frazier's rather curious late-January signing is perhaps best explained by offseason questions surrounding Michael Massey's bat and the Royals' seemingly insatiable desire for defensively-versatile players. The club may have been concerned about the former and focused on getting more of the latter.

Although Massey's excellent hitting since escaping from the Injured List last month cut into Frazier's playing time, the club didn't miss him at the plate. But with Massey back on the IL as of Sunday, he'll probably share time at second with Nick Loftin, which means he must improve his .210 average.

Frazier gets a D.

Moving to the middle of the pack...

The trio of Royals at the head of the class

Michael Wacha. Fans who wanted to see Wacha in Royal Blue got their wish when Picollo signed him in December. His has been an up-and-down season — he's 4-5 with a 4.31 ERA — but he has six quality starts and had won three straight games before losing to Tampa Bay Sunday.

Notable about that loss, however, is the five perfect innings Wacha threw before the Rays nicked him for a hit and a walk in the sixth. Then, clearly tiring, he allowed two hits to begin the seventh before giving way to John Schreiber, who gave the Rays four runs, two of which were charged to Wacha. Still, it was a good outing for Wacha, especially considering he struck out seven, walked only one, and pitched those five scoreless frames.

We're giving Wacha a B.

John Schreiber. Speaking of Schreiber, a late addition to the roster when KC traded David Sandlin to Boston to get him in February, Sunday's troubles were his first of the season. He entered the game 3-0 with a 1.25 ERA, and had given up runs in only three of his 22 appearances.

One rocky game isn't enough to spoil Schreiber's stellar season. We're giving him an A.

Seth Lugo. Lugo, another of Picollo's December signings, is the KC general manager's best acquisition. Just how good has the veteran righty been?

Quite good. Lugo leads the American League in wins (eight), ERA (1.74), and innings pitched (72.1). His WHIP is a minuscule 0.97. He's walked only 5.3% of the batters he's faced, and has failed to rack up a quality start only twice in 11 tries.

He gets, and deserves, an A+.

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