The New Royals Veterans Can Be Key Pieces This Postseason

The Kansas City Royals find themselves on the brink of what was considered the unthinkable at the start of the year: clinching a 2024 postseason berth.

Just a year ago, the Royals finished the 2023 season with a 56-106 record to place last in the AL Central with the second-worst record in all of Major League Baseball.

Now with the 2024 regular season coming to a close, Kansas City sits at 82-70, good for second in the Central, the second AL Wild Card spot and just seven games away from clinching their first postseason spot since their World Series winning season in 2015.

And the Royals did their best to shore up their lineup down the stretch by getting creative on Aug. 31 with the acquisitions of three seasoned big league veterans: Tommy Pham, Yuli Gurriel and Robbie Grossman.

While some are doing better than others, all three of these players have provided much-needed depth in Kansas City and could play key roles for the Royals come October.

All stats used within this article are from prior to games on Sept. 18.

Tommy Pham Is Shoring Up the Outfield

The Royals outfield has been nothing special this season from an offensive standpoint.

Of their six outfield options that have contributed at least 200 plate appearances, only one has come within spitting distance of achieving a league average wRC+ and that’s Hunter Renfroe, who currently sits at a 94 wRC+ this season, according to FanGraphs.

And from an fWAR standpoint, only Kyle Isbel and Garrett Hampson sport a positive rating, and this is in large part due to their defensive capabilities.

Isbel sports a 1.8 fWAR, with a -2.7 FanGraphs offensive rating and a 6.6 FanGraphs defensive rating. And Hampson has posted a 0.4 fWAR, thanks to a -8.9 offensive rating and a 5.8 defensive rating.

So, the fact that the Royals jumped all over the chance to claim Tommy Pham off waivers on Aug. 31 for the final stretch makes complete sense.

Pham hasn’t been otherworldly with the Royals by any means. But he’s been consistent, and that’s more than what can be said for the team’s preexisting outfield options.

While he was disappointing after his trade from the White Sox to the Cardinals on deadline day, leading to his eventual DFA, Pham is looking more like the player the Cardinals traded for than the player they got.

Through 15 games and 69 plate appearances in Kansas City, Pham is slashing .258/.290/.409 with two homers and seven RBI while posting a near league-average 98 wRC+.

And in that time, he’s been leading off this lineup while consistently being the Royals’ primary starter in left field.

With four prior postseasons under his belt, Pham brings valuable postseason experience to a young lineup that’s desperate for more knowledge of October.

This includes the deep run he went on just a year ago in Arizona. He played out of his mind in last year’s World Series, posting a .421 AVG and a 1.165 OPS.

The expectation for Pham in the postseason has to be to maintain the status quo already established, as he sets the table for Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez atop the lineup.

Yuli Gurriel Has Been a Godsend at First

The Royals lineup took a huge hit when one of their offensive mainstays, Vinnie Pasquantino, went down with a thumb injury on Aug. 30 and was given a six-to-eight-week timetable for his return.

While Salvador Perez can put in a shift at first, and Freddy Fermin would be able to fill in for Salvy behind the dish, the Royals had other plans in mind to address the “Vinnie-sized hole” in the lineup when they traded for Gurriel the day after Pasquantino hit the IL.

Gurriel was having himself a great year in Atlanta’s minor league system at Triple-A Gwinnett. In 333 plate appearances across 75 games there, he was slashing .292/.378/.485 with 12 HR, 48 RBI and a 126 wRC+.

And in nine games and 29 plate appearances so far in his return to the big leagues, Gurriel has looked great as a Royal. He’s hitting .348 with an .849 OPS and a 134 wRC+.

Gurriel also brings immense postseason experience to the table having been a key figure in the Astros dynasty, winning two World Series titles and four AL Pennants from 2017 to 2022.

With the trio of Perez, Fermin and Gurriel accounting for the reps at first and catcher, Kansas City seemingly has the remainder of Pasquintino’s time on the IL covered.

And even when Pasquantino makes his return, considering how Gurriel is currently hitting paired with the plethora of October baseball under his belt, he’s surely a candidate to hold down a DH/bench role on this postseason roster should Kansas City make a deep run.

Robbie Grossman Offers Plenty of Experience off the Bench

Robbie Grossman is definitely the lesser of the trio of Aug. 31 roster moves by the Royals.

Grossman has been more of a bench bat of late in his time in Kansas City and hasn’t exactly posted the best numbers since making the move to Missouri. In 21 plate appearances across 10 games, he’s only managed to hit .176 with a 61 wRC+.

That being said, the Royals acquired him via a waiver claim from Texas, where he hit .238 with a .336 OBP and a 102 wRC+ in 122 plate appearances as a Ranger.

And we’ve already touched on the Royals’ poor performance in the outfield this season. So, across all three stops in 2024 for the veteran outfielder (CHW, TEX, KCR), Grossman immediately has the stats to be one of the better options in Kansas City as he’s hitting .223 with a 90 wRC+ so far this season.

Like both Pham and Gurriel, Grossman also brings his fair share of postseason experience to this inexperienced Royals roster. He’s been a member of five postseason teams including being part of the Texas Rangers World Series roster last season.

Despite the poor start to his Royals tenure, Grossman is a switch hitter with considerable postseason experience, giving him a good shot at cracking the postseason roster.

What’s Next for the Royals and Their Postseason Plans?

The Royals still have work to do to ensure that they not only clinch a postseason spot but also clinch home field advantage in an AL Wild Card series.

As it stands now, they sit 1.5 games up on the Minnesota Twins for the second AL Wild Card spot, meaning if the season ended today they’d be taking on their division rivals at Kauffmann Stadium, where they hold an impressive 45-32 record in 2024.

That task looks easier than it did heading into September with these three veterans adding strength to the Royals lineup here in the final stages of the season.

And while it remains to be seen how manager Matt Quatraro and GM J. J. Picollo build out this postseason roster, they certainly have more postseason experience to choose from, which could very well be an X-factor for Kansas City in October.