Royals Spring Training Recap – 3/6/24

Zac Miller March 6, 2024 in News - 2 Minutes

Final Score: SEA 8 | KC 7

Overall Spring Record: 9-4

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Salvador Perez

Salvy continues to demolish baseballs, hitting his second home run of the spring to straightaway center in the bottom of the first inning. He added a third-inning single to cap off a 2 for 3 showing. After a slow first few games, he has started to heat up in the past week.

MJ Melendez

It is extremely encouraging to see MJ building on his strong finish to the 2023 season. In his three at-bats today, he walked twice and hit a double, raising his batting average to .400 for the spring. MJ growing into the hitter we all believe he can be is going to be key if the Royals want to be competitive this season.

Michael Massey

Almost equally as important to Melendez’s growth is Massey’s ability to avoid the incredibly slow start he experienced in 2023. It would be hard for a season to start much worse for him than it did last year, but there are players like Adam Frazier and Garrett Hampson ready to step in if Massey repeats a slow start. Games like today remind us of what we see in him as a hitter, as he went 2 for 3 with a home run and a double, driving in three runs.

Royals starting pitching dominance?!

Spring training does not provide us with much of an accurate look at how performances might translate to the regular season, but it is hard to not get excited about how the starting pitching has looked so far. Over 27.1 innings pitched, the Royals’ starting pitchers have a combined 2.66 ERA. Surprisingly, Angel Zerpa raised the starting pitching’s ERA today with one earned run over three innings pitched. Zerpa looked strong, striking out five batters over his three innings. He is looking to make the opening-day roster as a potential long-relief candidate out of the bullpen.