As I did during Spring Training, I will continue to award “Three Stars” to the Royals after each series. This will allow me to share some quick thoughts and highlight key players and/or storylines after each 3-4 game stand.
This Opening Weekend was tough for Royals fans, even with the immaculate weather on Thursday and Saturday. On a crisp Sunday afternoon, they dropped the rubber game against Cleveland 6-2 at Kauffman Stadium.
Today’s loss gave the reigning AL Central champions a 2-1 series win, which was disappointing after the Royals rallied to beat the Guardians 4-3 on Saturday afternoon.
It’s easy to be doomed and gloomy as Royals fans after losing two of three to a division rival (especially one that’s trying to repeat as Central division champions). However, this series had some positives, which couldn’t be said of every team in Major League Baseball this weekend (the Tigers and Twins got swept in their Opening Weekend series).
In this post, I will highlight three players who stood out over the past three games via the “star” system, similar to how hockey awards three stars after each game.
First Star: Hunter Harvey, RP (2 G, 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K)
The back end of the Royals’ bullpen should be considerably better than a year ago if this Opening Day weekend is any indicator. While middle-inning relievers such as Sam Long, Chris Stratton, and John Schreiber had their fair share of struggles, the late-inning trio locked things down in their Kansas City debuts.
Harvey was the most impressive of the three over the weekend as he struck out two and didn’t allow a single batter to get on base in his two innings of work against the Guardians. On Sunday, he kept the Royals in the game in the top of the ninth as he shut down the Cleveland lineup in order.
In his second appearance of 2025, Harvey produced a zone percentage of 50% and a whiff rate of 42.9%. His splitter has looked like a dominant pitch so far this year, with a 105 tjStuff+ and 60 grade on Sunday. The pitch description chart below shows what each splitter he threw did against the Guardians today via Savant.
Harvey was being floated as a trade candidate this offseason after an underwhelming debut with the Royals (he was acquired mid-season from the Nationals). Thankfully, Harvey seems fully healthy and looks more like his old self from when he was a setup man in D.C. in 2023 and 2024.
Second Star: Carlos Estevez (2 G, 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 SV)
Erceg did a stellar job as the Royals’ closer after coming over at the Trade Deadline from Oakland. This season, however, it seems Matt Quatraro will prefer to use him more as a “fireman” who can pitch in the highest-leverage situations, regardless of whether it’s the ninth. Acquiring Estevez this offseason allows Quatraro to do just that, as Estevez has held down the ninth while Erceg is utilized more freely in the later innings.
The former Angels and Phillies closer looked electric this weekend, as he locked down his first save as a Royal on Saturday. He also unveiled a fun save celebration (hat tip to all the Street Fighter and Dragon Ball Z fans who follow this blog).
It was an odd spring for Estevez in Arizona, as he got off to a late start due to some back issues. Based on his pitch quality metrics via TJ Stats, his most recent outing suggests he’s finally back to full health.
In his most recent outing, his four-seamer averaged 95.8 MPH with a 103 tjStuff+ and 60 grade. He didn’t generate any whiffs on it, but he minimized productive contact, as evidenced by his 0.194 xwOBA Contact.
Estevez isn’t going to be a high whiff-rate pitcher like Erceg (or even Harvey). However, he’s a power reliever who throws strikes and can minimize barrels and hard contact. He had to do that while pitching so long in Colorado, and it’s served him well in stops in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and now Kansas City.
There were many things to worry about from this weekend’s series against Cleveland. Thankfully, the 7th-9th innings may not be one of them.
Third Star: Maikel Garcia (.400 AVG, 1.200 OPS, 4 H, 1 HR, 1 RBI)
Garcia is looking to bounce back after a rough 2024 campaign. The 25-year-old Venezuelan showed last season that he is still valuable in defense and on the basepaths (37 stolen bases on 39 attempts). However, he only hit .231 and posted a .613 OPS, significant regressions from his .272 and .681 marks in 2023.
Much like last year, Garcia had a solid Opening Weekend, highlighted by a home run off Paul Sewald on Saturday that tied the game up in the later innings.
In addition to his home run, Garcia had four total hits this series in 10 at-bats, including a double, which he collected today. It’s nice to see Garcia hit the ball with some authority so far this year, as his hard-hit rate is 40%, his barrel rate is 20%, and his xwOBA Contact is .509. It’s a small sample, but it shows that Garcia’s hard-hit skill remains.
Garcia’s positive early development through these first three games has been shortening his swing length and increasing his bat speed, as demonstrated in his Statcast bat tracking data.
His average bat speed is 0.9 MPH faster than a year ago, and his fast swing rate (swings greater than 75 mph) is 7.4% higher as well. He also has cut 0.2 feet off his swing length, now 0.3 feet below the league average (only 0.1 feet difference last season).
If Garcia is going to bounce back, show more power, and become a force at the bottom of the lineup, maintaining this bat speed and swing length will be key, especially against pitchers who sport higher velocity (which we saw the past two days against Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibee).
Photo Credit: Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images
A los of us overlook that Maikel is 25, and in the majors since a Petty tender age. A disadvantage into this is that he missed out on two to four years of honing his craft in the minors. I frequently carp about how his bat plays better in the middle infield than in the hot corner. And so far, it is true. An infieldervusually hits the majors around 25 to 27 years of age. Let’s hope that Maikel’s bat becomes “ready for prime time”. I believe that he can be a .280+/20+HR hitter, which would only leave the issues of total bases and OBP to make him a good middle of the order bat. Here’s hoping that this is his coming out year as an offensive force.
This is a great point. He’s still quite young and he still has a lot of time to develop. I think the growing pains he went through last year will really help him this year. Already, we’re seeing him a lot more compact with his swing, which is leading to not just a faster swing, but better power results (two home runs already). He also has been balancing patience and aggressiveness at the plate well so far, which was something he struggled with at times. That’s just youth, and I think he’ll take some steps to cut down on those looking strikeouts which plagued him last year.