After losing six of seven on the road last week, the Royals have won four straight games, including three straight at home against the Colorado Rockies. On Thursday, the Royals completed a doubleheader sweep of the Rockies, winning 7-4 in game one and 6-2 in game two. That completed a series sweep of Colorado.
The Rockies are a struggling team, as evidenced by their 4-20 record, which currently places them at the bottom of the tough NL West division. However, the Royals last season took care of business against weaker teams, especially the White Sox, whom they were 12-1 against in 2024.
Thus, Kansas City sweeping a series in which they were the clear favorites was nice to see, especially after their recent lackluster road trip in Cleveland, the Bronx, and Detroit, where they went 2-8.
In this week’s edition of the Royals Three-Star awards presented by the Crown Talk podcast, I highlighted hitters, as the Royals’ offense looked more alive against the Rockies. Kansas City scored 17 runs in this series and outscored Colorado by eight runs. The lineup’s strong performance has improved the Royals’ record to 12-14, putting them 3.5 games behind the division-leading Tigers.
First Star: Salvador Perez (6 H, 4 2B, 3 R, 4 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K)
We’ve been discussing the need for Salvy to get locked in for a couple of weeks now. Going into the Colorado series, he was hitting .185 with a .528 OPS. However, after six hits, including four doubles, he has improved his average to .200 and his OPS to .631.
Even though his average and OPS haven’t been great, the expected and Statcast metrics have been more promising.
According to Savant, Salvy ranks in the 80th percentile in xwOBA (.375), 89th percentile in xSLG (.559), and 77th percentile in LA Sweet-Spot percentage (39.1%). He also has been barreling the ball pretty well, as evidenced by his 15.9% barrel rate (89th percentile), and his barrel rate rolling chart this season (via TJ Stats).
It was a matter of time before Salvy’s traditional metrics caught up with his more advanced ones. Hopefully, this big series against the Rockies can get Salvy back to his “Silver Slugger” self in the cleanup spot.
Second Star: Drew Waters (5 H, 1 3B, 1 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, 0 BB, 3 K)
After a 0-for-4 game on April 17th against the Tigers, Waters was hitting .167 with a .334 OPS, a pretty paltry mark for a player who barely played with the Royals in 2024 (19 plate appearances).
Since then, Waters has improved his average to .275 and his OPS to .751 in 43 total plate appearances. With the Royals recently demoting MJ Melendez to Triple-A Omaha, the former Atlanta Braves prospect has stepped up significantly with the increase in playing time.
Waters hit his first home run of the year in Tuesday’s 4-3 extra-inning victory, an absolute moonshot off of Colorado starter Ryan Feltner.
In addition to his hot bat, Waters has also demonstrated some solid play with his glove in the outfield. In game two of the series, Waters made an incredible play at the left-field wall against Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia.
This may be a last hurrah with the Royals for Waters, who has nothing to prove in Triple-A at this point in his career. It will be interesting to see if he can maintain this performance over a larger sample of plate appearances this season. His career .233/.308/.399 slash in 508 MLB plate appearances suggests that it will be difficult for Waters to maintain his current performance in 2025.
Nonetheless, the Royals have needed a spark from someone in this lineup for a while, and it seems like Waters has provided that unexpected jolt this week.
Third Star: Freddy Fermin (2 H, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K)
Fermin’s stats this week aren’t eye-popping, but he earns the third star for his clutch hit in extra innings in game one against the Rockies on Tuesday night.
If that wasn’t enough, Fermin also made an insane pickoff at third base earlier in the 10th inning that essentially helped preserve the game for the Royals.
It hasn’t been the best start to the season for Fermin, who’s coming off a career season in 2024.
In 38 plate appearances, he’s only hitting .229 with a .603 OPS. Both those marks are significantly down from a year ago (.271 average; .685 OPS in 368 plate appearances). According to Savant, his K rate has also increased to 20.9% (from 17.9% in 2024), and his BB rate has decreased to 2.9% (from 6.3% last year).
On a positive note, he is barreling the ball slightly more at 3.8% (0.6% higher than last year), and his 38.5% hard-hit rate is 4.6% higher than a year ago as well. In this series, he finally looked like he was squaring up the ball better, a sign that he may be due for a turnaround, hitting-wise, soon, much like his fellow Royals catcher.
It would be nice for Salvy to get more rest behind the plate and more time at DH and first base to help preserve his stamina and bat. For that to happen, Fermin has to get his bat closer to average, at the very least.
Thankfully, he took steps toward that goal in two games against the Rockies.
Graphic Credit: Kevin O’Brien and Jared Perkins/Crown Talk Podcast
[…] After another two-hit night, Drew Waters is hitting .302 with an .836 OPS. Hunter Renfroe had a hit and a sacrifice fly on Friday night. Lastly, the first four hitters in the Royals lineup all had at least one base hit against Houston in their 2-0 win as well (and that was with Salvador Perez having a night off after a big day on Thursday). […]