The Royals Need an Entire Outfield
Recently there's been discussion here at RR about the Royals' need for a center fielder in 2022. Today I was perusing fan graphs' WAR list by team/position, and here is what my "research" (haha) uncovered, with the teams rank in MLB in parentheses:
Royals LF so far in 2021: .4 WAR (24/30)
Royals CF so far in 2021: 1.1 WAR (22/30)
Royals RF so far in 2021: -2.2 WAR (30/30)
Royals OF so far in 2021: -.7 WAR (30/30)
Per fWAR, the Royals have had the worst outfield in baseball. By contrast, the division-leading White Sox have gotten 8 wins from their OF so far. So here's my hot take: to be good in 2022, the Royals would need an entirely new outfield. Where is this entirely new outfield going to come from? CF has been covered recently, and it is definitely a problem. MAT is a good 4th outfielder but not a solution as a starter.
But the OF corners are at least as much of a problem. Merrifield's 95 WRC+ looks great with his Gold Glove defense at second base; with league average corner outfield defense, that same batting line is less valuable. So I don't favor moving him back out to the grass. Other in-house options look...bad. Here they are:
- Hope that Dozier has a bounce-back year at the plate and can be adequate defensively in RF
- Hope Benintendi remembers how to be a good all-around player
- Hope Kyle Isbel can suddenly be a league-average starter
- Hope Edward Olivares can suddenly be a league-average starter