At Royals.com, Anne Rogers writes about how Hunter Renfroe is, say it with me everyone, in the best shape of his life!
Renfroe came into camp this year leaner, thanks to offseason training that included going to a physical therapist and focusing on his diet and hydration. He cut out sweets, oils and saturated fats as much as he could, and now wherever Renfroe goes, a 64-ounce insulated water bottle goes with him.
“I’ve lost a little bit of weight. I wasn’t necessarily trying to, but it was just a byproduct of the offseason training and trying to eat as clean as possible and drink as much water as I can,” Renfroe said. “Making sure I’m doing everything I possibly can to make my career be as long as possible, make sure I’m healthy as possible coming into this year.”
The differences in the 33-year-old’s physical and mental shape have been noticeable for the Royals as they look for more out of him in 2025.
At The Star, Jaylon Thompson asks about Nick Pratto’s fit:
The Royals have Pratto competing with Nelson Velázquez, Drew Waters, Joey Wiemer, Cavan Biggio and Harold Castro for the final bench roles. There could be a couple spots available in spring training. To better improve his chances, Pratto also made a positional change this offseason. He is now listed as a full-time outfielder. It has been an adjustment, but Pratto is excited about his ability to grow at the position.
“This is the first time I’ve been able to go through that and have a process out there,” Pratto said. “Not only that, this is the first time I’ve played the outfield healthy. It’s pretty interesting and I feel good out there and comfortable. I think just getting my legs underneath me and getting used to the day-to-day is going to be the biggest thing.”
Vahe Gregorian is getting on the Jacwagon (© Hokius):
It’s one thing to witness the jaw-dropping talent and sheer physical presence of the chiseled 6-foot-5, 250-pound 22-year-old — gifts illustrated this spring with three mesmerizing home runs and a double (in 12 at-bats through March 11) and batting practice sessions that evoke a religious experience.
The thwack of those three homers, including the first one that left Surprise Stadium at 115.4 mph as the third-hardest hit homer by a Royal in the last decade, and the blunt crack of his BP swats made me think of Buck O’Neil’s observation upon watching Bo Jackson hit on the 1986 day he signed with the Royals.
That day, the man who’d heard the impact of Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson at the plate thought, “Here is that sound again!”
Lisa Gutierrez picks up a story about how Bobby Witt Jr. bids for his own cards on eBay:
In a brief interview posted to X on Thursday, a (presumably) Clict reporter asks Witt if he’s ever had to bid against other fans to acquire one of his own cards.
“Oh yeah. I got an alias on eBay and stuff, so a couple actually,” Witt said. “So then I’m out there bidding.”
Carlos Estévez is slated to make his Spring Training debut on Friday.
At MLBTR, Anthony Franco does an “Offseason in Review” for the Royals ($) behind their paywall.
Blog time!
At Inside the Crown ($), David Lesky updates the status of Spring Training positional battles:
End of the Bullpen – Jonathan Bowlan vs. Eric Cerantola vs. Taylor Clarke vs. Steven Cruz vs. Junior Fernandez vs. Thomas Hatch vs. Carlos Hernandez vs. Sam Long vs. Lynch vs. Evan Sisk vs. Chris Stratton vs. Ross Stripling
Many will enter, only two or three will leave. Yes, that’s 12 pitchers vying for as many as three spots and as few as two. A lot depends on how the Royals handle Lynch if he doesn’t win the fifth starter job. We know that if Bubic isn’t the fifth starter, he’ll slide into a late-inning relief role, which leaves just two spots open. The question is if the Royals want to put Lynch back to the spot where he didn’t allow a run for over a month at the end of the year or if they want him in AAA stretched out to help in the rotation. Bubic is 100 percent on the team. Lynch is worthy of a roster spot, but it just depends on how they want to utilize him.
In that same vein, Kevin O’Brien, the Royals Reporter, projects the Opening Day Roster:
I added Lynch to the Opening Day roster, even though he still has a Minor League option. My main reason for doing this is that Lynch has been stellar in Cactus League play this spring. In four games (three starts) and 10 IP, Lynch has a 1.80 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, and nine strikeouts to zero walks. The former Virginia product has been an efficient pillar of command this spring. That effectiveness will likely earn him one of the final spots in the Royals Opening Day bullpen.
Thus, two pitchers could be on the chopping block: Sam Long and Stratton. Neither pitcher has a Minor League option.
My gut was to omit Long, which means he will be designated for assignment (and likely picked up by another club). The numbers haven’t been good for Long this spring. In three outings and 2.2 IP, he has a 10.13 ERA, 2.25 WHIP and hasn’t struck out a single batter. The Royals also have lefty Angel Zerpa, in addition to Lynch, in the bullpen. I’m not sure Kansas City needs a third lefty, especially one who has had an up-and-down MLB career like Long.
Blog Roundup:
There’s a weird mix of stuff that we’ll count up as an MLB section. One big story and a bunch of Royals listicles.
Yesterday, the Rays scrapped their previously agreed to $1.3B ballpark project:
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Rays withdrew Thursday from a $1.3 billion project to construct a new ballpark adjacent to Tropicana Field, citing a hurricane and delays that likely drove up the proposal’s cost.
The team issued a statement by principal owner Stuart Sternberg saying “a series of events” in October, which included severe damage to the the Trop and financing delays, led to what he called “this difficult decision.”
“After careful deliberation, we have concluded we cannot move forward with the new ballpark and development project at this moment,” Sternberg said.
At CBS Sports, Mike Axisa puts forth six possible outcomes that range from Sternberg selling the team to relocation to the a really unlikely contraction:
In the short-term, the most likely outcome is Sternberg sells the Rays and the new owner floats relocation. Perhaps earnestly, perhaps only to create leverage to get a new ballpark in St. Petersburg, Tampa, or the surrounding area. How the Rays go from here to a new ballpark is once again a great unknown, and how long it will take or where it will be located is anyone’s guess.
Listicles!
MLB.com puts together a list of Cy Young candidates:
2. Cole Ragans, LHP, Royals
2024 Cy Young finish: 4th
Ragans flashed ace potential after being traded from the Rangers to the Royals for veteran reliever Aroldis Chapman in June 2023, setting the stage for a stellar ’24 campaign that saw the lefty fully blossom into one of baseball’s top arms.
Ragans ranked fourth in whiff rate (32.0%) and ninth in strikeout rate (29.3%) among starters who faced at least 500 batters in 2024, showing the ability to consistently dominate big league hitters with his deep arsenal. Having pitched to a 3.00 ERA with 312 K’s over 258 innings in a Royals uniform, the 27-year-old enters 2025 with a great chance to become the franchise’s first Cy Young winner since Zack Greinke in ’09.
MLB Pipeline compiled a list of Spring Breakout prospects to “not sleep on”:
Royals: Spencer Nivens, OF (No. 30)
Nivens was the hottest hitter in the Minor Leagues from Aug. 1 onward last year at High-A Quad Cities, slugging 15 homers while posting a MiLB-best 1.179 OPS over his final 34 games of the regular season. What can the 2023 fifth-rounder do as a follow-up? Watch his mechanics at the plate Friday against the D-backs. He simplified some of his movements prior to that breakout, and those adjustments played a big role in getting his impressive pullside pop into games consistently.
At ESPN, Anthony Gharib lists new ballpark foods for 2025:
Kansas City Royals: “Z-Man Sandwich”
In collaboration with Joe’s Kansas City BBQ, the Royals will offer a new item this season: the Z-Man sandwich. It includes slow-smoked beef brisket and provolone cheese on a toasted Kaiser roll, topped with two onion rings.
Finally, at The Athletic ($), the Royals rank highly on Stephen J. Nesbitt’s Hope-O-Meter:
5. Kansas City Royals: 93.5 percent optimism
2024: 74.4 percent (14)
2023: 44.2 percent (22)
2022: 73.5 percent (15)
Optimist Ben: Two words: Bobby Witt.
Optimist Jack: Three words: Bobby Witt Jr.
Pessimist Sam: Regression, regression, regression. The money was not spent to adequately combat said regression.
Optimist David: After the Super Bowl beatdown, championship mojo dumped Patrick Mahomes and went across the parking lot into the waiting arms of Bobby Witt Jr.
Longtime readers of this space will know I use March 11th to mark the anniversary of COVID. We’ve done it a number of times in the past: (September 2020), (March 2021), (September 2021), (writing hiatus in 2022), (March 2023), and (March 2024). We’re now 5 years from that milestone, which seems both not very long and forever ago. It’s long enough ago that I ran across one of those “oral history” retrospective articles on ESPN about the events of that night that led to the NBA shutting down and the rest of the world quickly following suit.
The pandemic did have some good to go along with its overwhelming bad. For instance, I sat down and watched some Asian baseball. Taiwan’s CPBL, in particular, helped me feel a sense of normalcy in the middle of the abnormal times. It’s now about the time of year on Friday Rumblings for Asian baseball previews. Also, after discussing it up in the comments last year, we’re scaling back to 2 per year year, one preview and one postscript, for each of the three leagues.
Here’s the schedule for this year:
- This week: CPBL
- March 21st: KBO
- March 28th: (skip) – It’s the day after MLB Opening Day and there’s a lot to discuss
- April 4th: NPB
And here are links to old articles:
For a reminder about competition level, here what Baseball America said in 2020:
Overall, here is the hierarchy of how MLB front office officials and evaluators generally view the quality of the various Asian leagues compared to MLB and the minor leagues.
MLB
NPB (Japan)
AAA
KBO (Korea)
AA
High A
CPBL (Taiwan)
Low A
CPBL – Chinese Professional Baseball League
Country: Taiwan
Opening Day: March 29
International Players: Not a lot of (any?) big name former players in the CPBL but this section will be more populated for the KBO and NPB; Full list from CPBLStats
Former Royals: They have filtered in and out of the league and there were more last year. But a trio of former Royals farmhands are still in the league: Pedro Fernandez (Monkeys), Marcelo Martinez (Monkeys), and Eric Stout (Hawks).
Last Season: The Uni-Lions won the first half and the CTBC Brothers won the second half. Once again, our Rakuten Monkeys were the wild card team. However, unlike 2023, the higher seeded Uni-Lions prevailed over the Monkeys. In the Taiwan Series, the Uni-Lions had leads in all but game 3. However, the Brothers won 4 games to 1. As stated last year, “With the win, the Brothers tied the Lions with 10 titles apiece”.
Rooting Interest: The Rakuten Monkeys are our squad here at RR. As noted in a previous preview: “they had the first English broadcasts and were the inspiration for my first article”. Our red clad simians have been runner up both in 2022 and 2023. However, they have not won since they took on the Rakuten name. They won as the Lamigo Monkeys in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019. The aforementioned Martinez was the best pitcher on the staff last year, going 13-3 with 2.04 ERA in almost 150 IP. My favorite, Chu Yu Hsien, had another solid campaign at .295/.346/.423. But he will be 33 this season and his power numbers aren’t what they used to be.
Random Nuggets:
- Last year, I was able to mention Daniel Mengden and his “gentlemanly mustache” in the “Former Royals” section. He had an “outstanding 2024 season”: “In 25 starts, he posted a 2.86 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. While his 3.57 FIP, 17.8 K%, 6.7 BB%, and 18.7 Whiff% were only slightly above average, he made up for it with his ability to pitch deep into games”. The Brother resigned him in January. However, earlier this month, he failed a team drug test, with “multiple media outlets reported that [he] tested positive for marijuana” and he may or may not be banned from the CPBL for life (check the link about the drug test for more details).
- I find some of the league nuts and bolts fascinating. Last year, Lions’ ace Gu Lin Ruei-Yang was the first Taiwanese pitcher to win MVP in the league in almost 2 decades. The 24yo, who throws 97 mph, was posted internationally and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters won the bid for him with a rumored bid of around $1M. He then signed a contract with the Fighter for over $500K per season.
- Salaries are escalating in the CPBL. “Less than a month after the Dragons signed free agent Chen Tzu-Hao to a mega-contract (5+5 years worth $4.33 million USD), the record has already been surpassed by the Brothers. On January 24, the CTBC Brothers announced that they had signed their primary shortstop, Chiang Kun-Yu, to a 10-year contract extension worth $4.93 million USD (147,880,000 NTD), making it the largest contract in CPBL history.”
- Sarah Edwards, an international softball star and former minor league hitting coach in the Phillies organization, was named hitting coach for the CTBC Brothers. There’s a good interview with her on the Italian baseball federation’s website. She played for Team Italy in the 2022 World Games.
- Speaking of international baseball, Taiwan shrugged off some subpar play in the World Baseball Classic qualifiers to make the 2026 WBC. I’m excited that one of the Pools will be in Houston next year and I’m hoping to snag tickets. Also, I am quite tickled that Houston’s stadium is no longer Minute Maid park as that felt more Florida. The fraud and oil and gas of Enron made sense. Coming into this seasons, it’s now Daikin Park, named after a Japanese conglomerate with a huge air conditioning division. /That/ makes a lot of sense.
- Unfortunately, the English broadcasts from 2020 are a thing of the past. If you want to sign up for games in the native language, here’s what Reddit users say is the “definitive” guide. At $80, I can’t justify that one. This guide is even older, but does link to some Twitch rebroadcasts that still work. Again, not in English, though. A little perk over previous years: Exhibition (i.e. Spring Training) games are available on YouTube via ELTA TV.
Links:
It’s time for the last for the boss levels for Just Shapes & Beats. So far, we’ve done “Noisestorm – Barracuda”, “Danimal Cannon – Long Live the New Fresh”, “Sabrepulse – Close to Me”, “Annihilate – Destroid/Tristam – Till It’s Over”, “Nitro Fun – New Game”, and “Nitro Fun – Final Boss”. Today, we complete the set with “Cardi – Lycanthropy”. Blue square carrying his team on this one