Kendrys Morales notches 1,000th career hit in Royals’ 10-3 victory over the White Sox

Kendrys Morales called the moment bad luck. That seemed like a strange way to describe the 1,000th hit of his career. But then again, most milestone baseballs end up in the hands of the player who hit them, not waterlogged and buried at the bottom of a 322-foot-wide fountain.

But that was Sunday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium, in the moments after an 10-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox, after Morales had deposited his 1,000th hit — a two-run homer — into the water spectacular in right field. The baseball traveled 416 feet and bounced high off the second deck of the Pepsi Porch, splashing into the top tank of the fountains in the bottom of the sixth. The blast punctuated a blowout victory over Chicago.

But as Morales stood before his locker late Sunday afternoon, the keepsake baseball was nowhere to be found. Presumably, it was still out there in the fountains, needing to be fished out.

“Bad luck,” Morales said, through translator Pedro Grifol.

It was, of course, the kind of luck Morales could live with. One day after the Royals ended a five-game losing streak, Morales jump-started a rout against the White Sox, finishing 3 for 5 with four RBIs. Feasting on off-speed pitches, he opened the scoring in the first with an RBI single on a 1-0 change-up from White Sox starter Jose Quintana. Five innings later, Morales pounced on a hanging slider from reliever Chris Beck.

“First and foremost,” Grifol said, translating for Morales, “he didn’t even know he had 999 hits.”

As Morales pounded the White Sox, the ripple effects of the power surge could be felt throughout the afternoon.

Royals starter Danny Duffy allowed three runs in seven-plus innings, moving to 12-2 this season and a perfect 7-0 at home. Alex Gordon added his 16th homer — and 150th of his career — on a towering, 436-foot shot into the fountains in the second inning. The Kansas City offense ambushed Quintana, a fringe Cy Young contender, for six runs in four innings, including three in the bottom of the second.

The offensive surge included three hits by Whit Merrifield and two doubles from Paulo Orlando. But as Morales continued another torrid stretch, hitting his eighth homer in 20 games, another relevant question surfaced. After a woeful start in April and May, Morales is now batting .261 with a .328 on-base percentage and a club-high 28 homers. His bat has stabilized. His power has returned. Yet, his future remains uncertain.

Morales will likely become a free agent in the offseason. His current contract contains a mutual option for $11 million in 2017, and after a strong finish, he is a near lock to walk away from the deal and become a free agent. The Royals could counter by giving Morales a “qualifying offer” — essentially a one-year deal worth $16.7 million, according to current estimates — and the veteran would have the option of accepting or taking his services to the open market.

The latter comes with a catch: If Morales declines the qualifying offer, other teams would risk losing a first-round pick by signing him, which could drive down his price on the open market. If this sounds familiar, the same thing happened to Morales before the 2014 season after a season in Seattle. With his value low, Morales waited and waited, eventually signing with the Twins and missing all of spring training. The result was a down year and a bounce-back contract with the Royals before last season.

For now, of course, there are many moving parts. The Royals’ payroll continues to climb, with projections pushing it past $140 million in 2017. The club could possibly use a vacancy at DH to find a way to utilize both Mike Moustakas and Cheslor Cuthbert. Morales could be inclined to accept a qualifying offer — though that's not a given.

All of which is to say there could be much intrigue in the coming offseason.

“Every time he’s going through his hot streaks — and even when he’s not — you know that he has the ability to put the ball out of the ballpark and put some runs on the board,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He’s been a good addition to our lineup the last two years.”

Morales’ power numbers — he could be the first Royal to hit 30 homers since Jermaine Dye in 2000 — obscure some elements of his true offensive performance. Morales has just 21 doubles after hitting 41 last season. His batting average and on-base percentage have declined from last year. He has been streaky at times. And his OPS-plus — an advanced metric that takes into account the ballpark — is just 105, or five percent better than the league average. A year ago, it was 127.

And yet, Morales possesses something the Royals lack: The ability to hit the ball out of the park.

“He’s a very smart, professional hitter,” Duffy said. “People don’t use the word ‘great’ a lot in this game, but he’s a great hitter. He knows what he’s doing.

“If you eliminate a month and a half, the dude’s hitting .300.”

The Royals, of course, do not have to make the decision now. They have 13 games remaining as the defending world champions, beginning with a series finale on today against the White Sox — a makeup of a rainout earlier this year. But as the offseason looms, the Morales question could emerge as a key one.

Back on June 5, after a 7-0 loss in Cleveland, Morales was batting .191 with just six homers. In those moments, a qualifying offer appeared like a nonstarter. But more than three months later, he has raised his average to above .260 and added 22 homers and continued to produce throughout September. As the Royals reload for another run in 2017, the club could face an intriguing decision.

For now, though, Morales is just focused on finishing strong — after he finds that baseball.

“Obviously, he didn’t have a good start,” Grifol said, translating for Morales. “But the season is a very long season. He was able to get back on track and finish strong.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2016 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Kendrys Morales notches 1,000th career hit in Royals’ 10-3 victory over the White Sox."