Salvy is A-OK!
Salvy will avoid the Injured List, writes Anne Rogers.
Indeed, Perez’s MRI scan taken Monday in Chicago “was the best result we could have hoped for,” Quatraro said. Imaging showed a mild left groin strain that is not expected to require an injured list stint. Catcher Logan Porter traveled to Chicago on Monday to be a one-man taxi squad — meaning he’s not on the active roster — in case the Royals quickly needed a backup.
But all signs point to Perez needing one or a few days off to recover and get treatment. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him get back into the lineup as the designated hitter or first baseman before going full-go behind the plate.
Dan Szymborski writes about how the Royals’ hot start affects their playoff odds.
In terms of playoff percentage, the Royals have experienced the biggest jump in baseball, more than other surprising teams like the Pirates and Brewers. Meanwhile, only the Yankees have seen a larger bump in divisional win percentage.
And it’s more than just the banked wins; ZiPS sees the Royals as having an objectively stronger roster than it did a few weeks ago. In the full-fat ZiPS projections, a handful of the Royals with questions coming into the season have been answering them quite assertively. ZiPS only has the Royals as a .486 team right now, but that’s up 34 points of winning percentage from the computer’s preseason estimate of .452. How large of a swing is that? No other team in the majors has seen a boost of even 10 points in roster winning percentage, with the Nationals second at a mere eight points.
David Lesky writes about the great hitting start by the Royals.
Looking at the Statcast numbers, no team in all of baseball has as many barrels as the Royals do. Their hard-hit rate is seventh-best. Their average exit velocity is tied for second. We talked a lot last season about how hard the Royals hit the ball without results. This year, they’re continuing to hit it hard with results, but they sort of started getting those results at the end of last season. A lot of people will ignore September results, but I don’t think that’s quite the same as it used to be since the rosters no longer expand all the way to 40. I just think maybe we should have been a little more expecting of them scoring some runs. Maybe not to this level, but in general, they showed late last year what their potential was.
Craig Brown notes that Salvy is off to a great start.
Hell, his defense has been improved by the catching metrics as well. He’s been worth +1 Catcher Framing Runs this year, which has him ranked second on the Baseball Savant Leaderboard. Small sample size and all, still…given where Perez normally resides this is incredible. Last season Perez ranked 57th out of 63 catchers with a mark of -7 Catcher Framing Runs. The year before that he was 57th out of 60 with a total of -8. He’s been consistently poor in this metric since it was introduced. Given that there’s plenty of season remaining, he could very well see his value here drop. Still, it’s a positive to see him doing so well even if it’s only through two-plus weeks of the season.
The strong bat coupled with the improved defense has seen Perez accumulate 0.7 fWAR in his first 15 games. That’s the second-best total on the team, trailing only Bobby Witt Jr. at 1.4 fWAR. (Witt’s total is the second-best in the majors behind only Mookie Betts at 1.6.)
Trey Donovan at Farm to Fountains wonders if the start by Nelson Velázquez is sustainable.
The reason it is concerning is because even with this hot start Nelly has been the definition of boom or bust swinging. So far on the year, he has whiffed in 42.6% of swings taken. This is higher than last seasons whiff% of 33.7 and there is a key reason. Of the pitches he has faced this season, three pitches have over a 66% whiff rate. The curveball, sweeper and changeup. If we combine his average and slugging for all three pitches he has a .000 average with a .000 SLG. Let’s keep in mind he sees these three pitches 28.8% of the time.
Anne has a Michael Massey update.
Michael Massey (lower back) is going on the road with Triple-A Omaha this week as part of his rehab assignment, Quatraro said. Royals want him to get a few more games and at-bats in, make sure he feels 100% healthy before returning to Kansas City.
— Anne Rogers (@anne__rogers) April 15, 2024
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