Saturday roster moves raise 3 big questions for KC Royals

What does Tyler Cropley's promotion to the KC Royals mean for Logan Porter?

Nothing good. Bumping Cropley up from Double-A when he's never spent a moment in Triple-A all but ends Porter's chances, of making his big league debut this season.

Or with the Royals at any time.

Kansas City choosing Cropley over Porter to back up Salvador Perez is at least somewhat surprising. Cropley, signed by the club after the Washington system let him go during the 2020 season, played just 26 games in 2021 and 36 last season, and was hitting .234 in 43 games at Northwest Arkansas when the Royals called him up Saturday. He owns a paltry .210 career minor league average.

Porter, on the other hand, is batting only .235 at Omaha, a number arising primarily from a prolonged slump, but has 13 homers and a nice .342 OBP in 109 games. He also slashed .301/.442/.476 and homered 13 times across a 2022 season split between Double-A and Triple-A.

That Porter's bat is better than Cropley's renders the decision to bring Cropley to Kansas City curious. Promoting Porter would have made more sense — the Royals could have finally taken a look at him at and behind the plate.

But this isn't the first time the Royals have passed on Porter when they could have promoted him; failing to give him a chance now, with only three weeks left to play and the club going nowhere, could have been a low-risk but valuable opportunity.

And probably signals a lack of any future for Porter with the Royals.

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