I went to the Royals game today, hoping to see a Sunday sweep of Minnesota. Unfortunately, the Kansas City offense was unable to come through, as they lost 5-1 to Bailey Ober and the Twins.
The Royals have a big series this week in Cleveland, as they face the 72-70 Guardians, who won their third game in a row.
Kansas City holds a 0.5 game edge over the Guardians in the AL Wild Card race (the Royals are 73-70). A series win at Progressive Field could not only help the Royals gain some ground but also put some distance between them and their division rival.
I likely will write about the series after the first game. However, in this edition of the Jottings, I wanted to share some things I posted elsewhere on the web this week, as well as some thoughts on a left-handed Royals reliever who pitched today.
Batter’s Box on Pitcher List
I have written the Sunday morning “Batter’s Box” column on Pitcher List for a few years now, and I wanted to share my latest column, which featured Salvador Perez and his big performance on Saturday.
Here’s my snippet on Salvy’s performance on “Viva Los Royals” night on September 6th at Kauffman Stadium.
Salvador Perez (KCR): 2-4, HR, R, 3 RBI.
The Royals did something on Saturday that they haven’t done much of in the past couple of seasons: hit Joe Ryan. On Saturday, the Royals tagged the Twins ace for five runs on four hits and four walks in two innings of work. Perez did the most damage, launching a three-run home run in the bottom of the first that set the tone for this Kansas City nine-run victory. His homer tonight was his 25th of the season, giving him back-to-back seasons of 25 or more home runs.
Look for my weekly pieces during the season at Pitcher List, specifically in the Batter’s Box section, which recaps top fantasy hitters daily. Check out the site and subscribe to the Pitcher List newsletter for not only insight on hot-performing hitters in fantasy baseball, but all things related to fantasy baseball as well. It’s really an excellent site that I think is the best when it comes to fantasy baseball-related content.
Three Key Players in September on “Just Baseball”
On Sunday, my latest post for Just Baseball dropped, which looked at three players who will be key for the Royals this month to make the postseason.
The three players I focused on were Salvy, Bobby Witt, Jr., and Lucas Erceg. Here’s what I said about Witt, who missed his second-straight game today, in my Just Baseball post.
The primary concern with Witt is the decline in power stats. His ISO is .209 this season, 47 points lower than his mark a season ago. He is also barreling the ball 1.8% less than a year ago as well. While 21 home runs is nice, it seems like Witt won’t reach the 30 mark unless he goes on a tremendous tear.
That said, with his power and talent, Witt can go on a tear and reach that 30-HR mark over the next 20 games. He showed that ability on Thursday night with a go-ahead home run in the eighth that ended up winning the Royals the game.
I try to post weekly about the Royals at Just Baseball. While I will always share that content here at Royals Reporter, check out Just Baseball for not just great Royals content (Caleb Moody also does great stuff), but overall baseball content as well.
Lynch IV Has a Shaky Outing
The Royals’ hitting was the primary contributor to today’s 5-1 loss. However, one interesting pitcher for the Royals today was Daniel Lynch IV, who had a bit of a rocky relief outing against the Twins.
In 0.2 IP, Lynch allowed one run on one hit and two walks while striking out two. The strikeouts were nice, but it just didn’t seem like Lynch’s command was on. The TJ Stats metrics appeared to back that up as well.
Lynch only posted a zone rate of 40.9% and a xwOBACON of .625, both lackluster marks. He also hardly generated any chase, as illustrated by his 15.4% chase rate. He did induce a lot of whiffs with a 75% percent mark. That said, whiffs and strikeouts were something the Twins hitters struggled with on Sunday, as they struck out 12 times against Royals pitchers.
Lynch’s TJ Stuff+ was 97, which is slightly below league average. Furthermore, it also rated a bit down for his standards, which can be seen in his overall TJ Stats profile below.
Lynch’s ERA is solid at 2.91. That said, his FIP is much worse at 4.74, and his 5.1% K-BB% is paltry as well. For the year, he’s posting a 99 TJ Stuff+ with his slider (101) and changeup (104) rating as above-average pitches, based on TJ Stuff+. Additionally, his zone rate is 51.1% and xwOBACON is .340, which is a lot better than what he showed today.
Nonetheless, the 28-year-old lefty isn’t great when it comes to generating chase (26.4%) or whiffs (21.6%). He also seems to be behind Angel Zerpa when it comes to left-handed high-leverage usage. That makes one wonder if Lynch will still be in Kansas City next year, as he begins his first year of arbitration eligibility.
He won’t cost a tremendous amount, but the Royals may opt to replace him with a more veteran lefty, especially if they want to continue to compete in the American League Central in 2026. Thus, how Lynch finishes 2025 will be interesting to watch, as a poor stretch in September could lead to him being non-tendered this offseason.
[…] my post for Just Baseball, I wrote that Witt was one of the most important players for this Royals team down the stretch, […]