Royals fans may not have realized this former Opening Day starter recently retired

The 2017–2023 Kansas City Royals featured some truly forgettable players during some absolutely unforgettable losing seasons.

Who could ever forget the 2019 squad, a 103-loss team featuring nearly 50 games from the likes of catcher Meibrys Viloria, shortstop Humberto Arteaga, or the infamous Chris Owings experience?

That season, the final one under manager Ned Yost, got off to a telling start with an Opening Day lineup that signaled the challenges ahead. The struggles weren't first baseman Frank Schwindel’s fault but he certainly didn’t help matters.

Now, more than five years after his brief Royals debut, the New Jersey native is officially hanging up his glove.

A forgotten Royals starter, Frank Schwindel, moves on from playing baseball.

Schwindel announced his retirement from professional baseball in late September, concluding a career that spanned over a decade and took him around the world.

A former 18th-round pick out of St. John’s University, Schwindel beat the odds just by making it to the big leagues. He made his MLB debut with the Royals on Opening Day 2019, appearing in only six games for Kansas City.

However, his most notable run came with the Chicago Cubs in 2021, when he posted a scorching 1.002 OPS and tallied 33 extra-base hits in just 56 games. He followed that with a below-replacement-level season in 2022 and finished with 145 career MLB games across three seasons.

After his time in the majors, Schwindel continued to play globally, with stints in Japan, Mexico, and the Dominican Winter League. He never played affiliated ball again after 2022, but his professional career included an impressive 852 minor league games. Drafted in 2013, Schwindel was a three-year starter at St. John’s and developed steadily through the Royals' farm system.

While he won’t be joining the Royals Hall of Fame, Schwindel represents part of a trio of largely forgotten Opening Day starters at first base.

When Eric Hosmer left in free agency following the 2017 season, the Royals struggled to find a stable replacement. Lucas Duda was signed as a stopgap but fell short. Schwindel, and later his longtime teammate Ryan McBroom, each got their shot in 2019 and 2020, respectively but neither emerged as a long-term solution.

Schwindel’s time in a Royals uniform may be short on statistical impact, but it serves as a valuable organizational case study: drafted, developed, rewarded with a debut, and eventually moved on. His brief but electrifying success in Chicago shows how a player’s early years, often with a different team, can lay the foundation for a breakout elsewhere, even if it proves fleeting.

What life after professional baseball will look like for Schwindel is already becoming clearer, as the former first baseman was announced as the Director of Player Personnel for Rutgers University baseball just over a month ago.