3 Royals Spring Training Stats That Will Actually Matter

Opening Day is here, and our Kansas City Royals have real hope this season. Before the meaningful games begin, we should reflect on some spring training foreshadowing. Many stats from spring training will go on to mean next to nothing, but others serve as a hint at what shape a team will take. Here are three stats from spring training that actually matter:

3. Nicky Lopez's .378 OPS

We should get the bad news out of the way first. That means talking about Nicky Lopez, specifically the fact that he's starting at shortstop while Adalberto Mondesi recovers from an oblique injury. I'm probably not the only Royals fan who sat back and envisioned some batting lineups that felt truly formidable once Nicky's spot was taken by a potent pro like Whit Merrifield or a young potential superstar like Bobby Witt Jr. Now, Lopez takes the place of Mondesi, whose 2020 September OPS of 1.075 left countless Royals fans excited about his future. This is a bummer no matter how you slice it, but at least it isn't the only surprising addition to the Opening Day lineup...

2. Kyle Isbel's .968 OPS

No Royal participated in more spring training games this year, and perhaps no Royal surprised KC's decision-makers more than Kyle Isbel. Royals management was already high on Isbel after he exhibited his consistent defense, speed and power through two seasons in KC's farm system. Now that injuries necessitate the addition of a right fielder, it's time for this non-roster spring training invitee to shine. If he can represent another tough out in KC's lineup, fans like me can go back to that previously mentioned daydreaming about a Royals batting order with virtually no "holes" in it. An offense like that is one piece of the puzzle for a playoff contender. Another piece in that puzzle is a capable front half of the starting rotation. Fans in KC haven't seen that happen for their team since they last became champions, and perhaps the time for change is now...

3. Brady Singer's 2.65 ERA

Singer posted this stat while posting a 1.00 WHIP and holding opponents to a .203 average over 17 innings. He represents the wave of young, talented starters that will decide if KC can contend for the next decade. His productivity is important to the Royals and their committed fans to an almost unmatched degree. To garner realistic World Series aspirations should be the goal of every team in the league, and a legit starting rotation is the foundation of any team that gets there. Today is Brad Keller's day, so enjoy watching the more proven guy go to work. However, we should also appreciate that there is much more to look forward to, and the game after this one will also gift Royals fans with the thrill of anticipation. Such is the beauty of baseball.

Nobody Wins With Pitching as Bad as Kansas City's

The Kansas City Royals' pitching staff is currently horrendous, so it's no surprise that they're on pace to win fewer than 60 games this year. Only two teams in baseball have a lower team ERA than the Royals. Three KC starters - Homer Bailey, Jakob Junis and Jorge Lopez - have started nine games and racked up an ERA higher than 5.35. No other team in baseball can say that.

Imagine being the Arizona Diamondbacks, with three starters who've had nine starts and kept their ERA's below 3.2. The Rays have three guys in their rotation with ERA's below 2.5 and at least 8 starts. There's no guarantee that Arizona or Tampa can translate that into postseason success, either. The second-place D-Backs would barely be a Wild Card team if the season ended today. When KC won it all in '15, Jeremy Guthrie was the only player to start a game for the Royals and finish the season with an ERA above 5. To consistently win with such a lack of execution from the starting rotation is truly impossible.

Hope for Royals fans currently resides in Wilmington, North Carolina. There, the three first Royals picks in the 2018 Draft form the front of the Advanced-A Blue Rocks' rotation. First-round pick Brady Singer has a 2.47 ERA through eight starts. Jackson Kowar, KC's second selection, has started eight games and recorded a 2.92 ERA. KC's third pick Daniel Lynch has a 3.95 ERA through 8 starts this year, and he has similarly uplifting peripheral numbers as his aforementioned teammates.

Expect to see these guys advance through the minors at a steady pace if they continue at this rate of effectiveness. Once these crucial pieces of the puzzle make their way to the majors, the Royals could be considered competitors again. Until that happens, the chances of KC being legit will continue to be among the lowest in the MLB.

Doug LaCerte runs this blog and his Chiefs blog while neglecting people on Facebook and occasionally tweeting @DLac67.

Soler's Success Crucial To KC In 2019

Spring training always brings up intriguing questions for die-hards of any club. This year is no different for our Kansas City Royals; I mean, is this KC pitching staff going to actually not suck? Because, so far, on paper, it looks like it might not suck. We'll return to that in a different article, but hey, why did they just now bring back Lucas Duda? Which guys were unjustifiably sent back down to the minors, and which guys don't deserve their spot on the Opening Day roster? Also, how much ass will Kyle Zimmer kick before he gets injured and hurts my soul yet again?

We have many questions that the ensuing months of baseball's blissful return will answer, and I'll try to bring more and more Royals content as the year goes on, but let's start with who showed up big in Arizona this year. One of KC's biggest run-producers, and one of their most important offensive assets, is the rehabilitated Jorge Soler. Soler had six more at-bats than any other Royal in spring training this season, and he still maintained a .973 OPS while leading the team in home runs and runs batted in. That could be crucial for KC this year.

Jorge could be the only starting outfielder capable of producing runs at a higher-than-average level for the Royals in 2019. Newly acquired center fielder Billy Hamilton steals more bases than he brings in runs in every season of his career. He somehow manages an oWAR of exactly 0 or higher every year, but he's never had a season with more than 48 RBI. He'll score around 70 runs if he stays healthy, but the new Billy in town won't be bringing in many runs. His 29 RBI in '18 was bested by 27 center fielders and 98 outfielders in total.

The less said about Gordo's recent run-making potential the better. We have no reason to believe he'll improve on his 54 RBI last year, since this is actually six RBI more than he's produced in any other season since 2014. But Alex has a spring training OPS .001 points higher than Soler's this year! And he didn't suck during the second half last season! That's something, right? We'll see.

Point is, Jorge means a lot to this team, which is already full of intriguing question marks. It's truly difficult to gauge the shift from Alcides Escobar's offensive production to that of our new full-time sensation at shortstop, Adalberto Mondesi. It's equally tough to know what we'll get from KC's new staples at the corner infield spots or from the notoriously big-league-worthy Frank Schwindel.

We have lots of intriguing questions. Regardless of the resulting win-loss record for 2019, I'm excited to get started. If the Royals of the future regain legitimacy within the Nicky Pratto/Brady Singer window, then many of the pieces of that puzzle are already in place this season. Each and every Royals fan should be excited to see what they can do right now.

Doug LaCerte writes about the Royals here and the Chiefs here. He also has a badly neglected Twitter @DLaC67 and a deservedly neglected Facebook page.