Royals fans are a bit on edge after Monday’s 4-1 loss to the Yankees, especially regarding the hitting. According to Fangraphs, entering Tuesday’s game (which won’t be easy against Max Fried), the Royals rank 24th in batting average, 26th in OBP, 28th in OPS, 27th in runs scored, and 29th in home runs.
Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia are carrying the offense right now, as demonstrated by their 152 and 112 wRC+ marks. Unfortunately, no other Royals hitter with 10 or more plate appearances has a wRC+ mark above 100, and three have wRC+ marks under 10 (Hunter Renfroe, MJ Melendez, Freddy Fermin).
Thus, Royals fans are frustrated and looking for immediate answers, especially with the club sporting an 8-9 record and not looking as impressive as they did a year ago when they went 18-13 in March/April.
Two solutions are primarily being floated: Make a trade (which would involve DFA’ing certain players) or firing the hitting coach, Alec Zumwalt, who’s been in the position since May of 2022 (when he replaced former hitting coach Terry Bradshaw in May).
In a recent post, Royals Review already explored Zumwalt’s tenure as hitting coach and whether or not a move is necessary.
While my irrational fan side is open to pursuing those options, I am unsure if either is realistic at this point in the season (after only 17 games).
The results haven’t been great under Zumwalt this year, and one could argue that they have been mixed in his tenure (especially if you look at homegrown hitters and their development beyond Bobby). Conversely, Zumwalt is a guy the Royals’ hitters trust and are familiar with. Firing him now would send an odd message and could derail the momentum built a year ago.
Furthermore, I’m not sure assistant hitting coaches Keone Derenne or Joe Dillon would be much better options as lead hitting coach, especially since they’ve had multiple years with the Royals organization. They may be just as at fault as Zumwalt, and it would not be easy to do a full staff haul so early in the year.
As for trades, I do believe one will eventually come. After all, that was one of my bold predictions for the 2025 season (Taylor Ward, being a Royal, is still in play). However, no team will trade anyone of value on their roster until after Memorial Day. Thus, harping about “making a trade” is a fruitless endeavor for Royals fans.
Instead, I think there are three realistic solutions the Royals could pursue that would help the lineup and not thwart the chemistry and momentum of this roster so early in the season. Let’s break them down and see how they can help the Royals get out of their offensive funk.
Option MJ Melendez to Omaha
I’m still a fan of MJ and think there’s some potential there (though I would like him to revert more to his rookie habits at the plate). However, he’s been a mess at the plate, and his metrics so far in 2025 clearly illustrate that.
In 14 games and 44 plate appearances, he’s slashing .077/.182/.103 with a -13 wRC+. His K rate is 36.4%, a career-high; his BB/K ratio is 0.19, and his ISO is .029. The latter are both career lows. His rolling wOBA has also been ugly, as he touched the 75th percentile in his 25th through 30th plate appearances, but promptly regressed to the 25th percentile after.
Melendez’s average wOBA is 0.181. That is 124 points below the MLB average and puts him in the 11th percentile in that category.
His Process+ rolling chart data is just as bad as his wOBA chart. Even though he’s struggling with contact, he’s always at least demonstrated decent power and decision-making skills at the plate. Unfortunately, he’s not succeeding in those two areas this year, and it doesn’t look terrific compared to his 2024 Process+ chart.
According to Fangraphs, his 32.4% O-Swing% (swings outside the strike zone) and 71.7% Z-Contact% (contact on pitches in the strike zone) demonstrate the deterioration of his decision-making and contact ability this season. His new swing adjustment is likely contributing heavily to those struggles, and it’s straining him mentally at the plate.
Melendez still has a Minor League option. If he wants this new swing to work long-term, he needs a reset and time to work on the mechanics in a lower-pressure environment. A month in Omaha could help him work out the kinks and get some much-needed confidence at the plate that has evaded him in 2025 at the Big League level.
Rotate Drew Waters, Joey Wiemer (or Tyler Gentry) in the Outfield
In MJ’s place, the Royals should promote Wiemer, acquired from Cincinnati along with Jonathan India in the Brady Singer deal this offseason. Waters and Wiemer could provide a nice platoon in left field for a month while Melendez works on things in Omaha.
Waters hasn’t gotten off to a good start since getting called up. He’s hitting .182 with a .364 OPS in 11 plate appearances and has struck out six times. Waters hasn’t drawn a walk, and his .162 wOBA is barely better than Melendez’s mark. The 26-year-old former Atlanta prospect has hit well in Omaha this year and has nothing to prove in Triple-A.
There is some power upside there with Waters.
In Omaha, he produced an 11.1% barrel rate and a 50% hard-hit rate. He still chases a lot (51st percentile), and strikeouts were still an issue with the Storm Chasers (25% K rate). However, he whiffed less (24.2% whiff rate) and pulled the ball a lot more in Omaha this year, as demonstrated by his 81st percentile pull fly-ball rate (44.4%).
He gives the Royals some upside that Tyler Tolbert can’t bring off the bench. The Royals need to know whether Waters can have an MLB career in Kansas City. Thus, a month of semi-regular playing time in the Royals outfield could help them determine that. If Waters doesn’t take advantage, they can option him back to Omaha when MJ is ready and eventually trade his roster spot with John Rave, who’s performing well with the Storm Chasers and isn’t on the 40-man roster.
Another option that could help is Wiemer, who brings some power and defensive upside to the Royals. Like Waters, Wiemer has struggled with strikeouts in Omaha, and his surface-level metrics aren’t as impressive as Waters’ Omaha stats.
Wiemer ranks in the 52nd percentile in strikeouts, 50th percentile in whiff rate, and 45th percentile in whiff rate, all mediocre marks. He does walk a lot (15.5% rate; 84th percentile), and his 90th percentile EV ranks in the 85th percentile (106.6 MPH). Thus, some projection and upside exists, though his inability to pull the ball (20th percentile Pull FB%) makes me worried that he could get overwhelmed by MLB pitching.
If the Royals don’t want to go with Wiemer, they could opt for Gentry. He’s only hitting .160 with a .579 OPS in 28 plate appearances, but he offers a better profile in areas where Wiemer is lagging this season.
Gentry pulls the ball more (79th percentile Pull FB%), whiffs less (65th percentile whiff rate), and has a better average EV (77th percentile). The power hasn’t quite been as consistent for Gentry (32nd percentile barrel rate), but he hits the ball hard (70th percentile hard-hit rate), so he may be a slight adjustment away from fully tapping into that natural power.
Waters, Wiemer, and Gentry are all flawed hitters who may not have long-term futures in Kansas City. However, the Royals may as well see what they have from them for a month until Melendez is ready to return after a brief stint in Triple-A. They could catch fire and be forces in the lineup, much like Nelson Velázquez was after the 2023 Trade Deadline.
Play Hunter Renfroe Regularly
It pains me to say this, but the Royals will be stuck with Renfroe for a little longer.
Thinking the Royals will DFA him after only 17 games is overly optimistic. He’s one of the few veteran hitters in the lineup, and the Royals are paying him $7.5 million this year. Owner John Sherman isn’t going to eat that after less than 20 games.
That said, the numbers haven’t been pretty for Renfroe. He’s slashing .128/.209/.154 with a 6 wRC+. He has a 27.9% K rate, BB/K ratio of 0.33, and .026. That demonstrates that not only is his power failing to materialize, but also his plate patience (0.43 BB/K ratio last year).
He showed flashes in his rolling wOBA chart at the beginning of the season, but has dropped since his 25th plate appearance.
It’s easy to quit on Renfroe, especially since he will be a free agent after this season. However, the 33-year-old Mississippi State product has traditionally been a slow starter in his career. Here’s a look at his career monthly splits via Fangraphs.
Renfroe’s career wOBA in March/April is .288, and his wRC+ is 79. He only has one other month where his wRC+ is under 100, which is August, where it’s 99. The start of the year has traditionally been the worst time for Renfroe as a hitter. However, he’s always been able to turn it around afterward, as evidenced by his career 116 wRC+ in May and 123 wRC+ in June.
Renfroe showed a similar trend last year via his Rolling wOBA chart via Savant. He was subpar through his first 150 plate appearances as a Royal. However, after passing that mark, he spiked up and was an above-average hitter for most of the season, sans small spans around the 350th and 400th plate-appearance marks.
Royals fans should also remember that Renfroe was injured around that 300th plate appearance, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the late-season regression was due to injury. If he were fully healthy, the dip may not have been as great, and we may have had much different expectations with Renfroe for 2025.
At this point, Renfroe deserves some patience to show he can return to that May self. He has a track record of Major League production, which can’t be said of Melendez, Waters, Wiemer, Gentry, or even Rave.
He needs regular at-bats in the lineup to get back to that level, both against lefties and righties. Suppose he doesn’t produce in that sample. In that case, the Royals can decide more dramatically on Renfroe’s future by Memorial Day or early June, when the trade market may be more active, especially with teams already out of the postseason hunt.
Photo Credit: Jess Rapfogel/Getty Images
It is past time to sit Renfroe
and coach Q needs to come to realize that Garcia is your best two way third baseman
and Salvy is predictable – ground out ( double play ) , or strike out reaching – with a very rare homerun
at least put the team in best position to win , before you loose fan base – people like myself are getting very close
I’m not sure what you can do beyond promoting guys who aren’t doing well in Omaha or trade for someone which isn’t going to happen this early in the season.
I agree with Garcia but not sure anyone else can hit cleanup right now beyond Salvy
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