Royals’ Lopez hopes to be bigger, faster version of the same player he’s always been
Before last season ended, Kansas City Royals second baseman Nicky Lopez proclaimed his intention to devote his winter to sculpting his body and returning for the 2020 season with a noticeably more muscle-bound physique.
Lopez, 24, put on 15 pounds to push his weight from 165 pounds to 180, but he stopped short of a full-scale bulking-up this offseason. He didn’t try to completely change the type of player he’s been in the past.
Instead he aimed to be the same player just a bigger, faster, stronger version. If some added weight came along with it, then great.
Before Lopez left town, he sat down with general manager Dayton Moore and listened as the club’s top decision-maker stressed the importance of maintaining his agility and lateral movement in the field. His skill was “first and foremost” in the eyes of the organization, not added weight.
He didn’t need to turn into a home run hitter.
“We were real clear, everybody was, about, ‘We’re not trying to turn you into a launch guy,’” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “’You need to put together really good at-bats. You’re a run scorer. You need to do all the little things right, but don’t be afraid to drive the ball in counts where you can drive the ball. Hey man, lead the league in doubles. There’s nothing wrong with that.’
“Actually, that’s a really good goal. Every once in a while the ball is going to sneak out.”
In the previous two offseasons, Lopez bounced back and forth between his home in Chicago and Omaha, where he worked out and trained at the Creighton University baseball facilities.
This winter, he lived in Scottsdale, Arizona, and trained at the Royals’ facility in Surprise. He worked with team nutritionist Erika Sharp as well as director of performance science/player development John Wagle.
Lopez implemented a smaller-scale version of the dietary program Royals All-Star Whit Merrifield did several years ago that included seven meals per day and a daily breakfast that consisted of nine eggs and oatmeal.
Lopez seriously doubted his body could handle the volume that Merrifield consumed, but he did eat frequently and had a lot of smoothies and snacks to promote growth. His training wasn’t solely geared toward muscle mass; that was particularly true of his work with Wagle.
“That was the important thing of being down here, before every weight training session that we had we actually did agility work and did speed training, running up a ramp or pulling sleds,” Lopez said. “It wasn’t just lifting weights and all that stuff. We did a lot of agility work too.”
Along with the extra weight, Lopez said he’s made improvements in his speed and agility. He even learned about how to optimize his running form.
“I was learning a little bit of how to run properly to use your lower half better and all that stuff,” Lopez said. “ I was running with John Wagle down here, and he did a really good job with me. I was over-extending my legs a little bit when I was running, so just to (have them) underneath me while running has made a big difference so far.”
The Royals called Lopez up to the majors on May 14. A fifth-round pick in the 2016 MLB Draft, Lopez posted a slash line of .353/.457/.500 with six doubles, a triple, three homers, nine stolen bases and 27 runs scored at the time of his promotion. He ranked among the Pacific Coast League leaders in stolen bases (tied for 4th), on-base percentage (fifth) and batting average (eighth).
When asked about goals for this season, Lopez replied, “Continue to play my game. I kind of lost sight of that in the middle of last year when I got called up. I started off strong, started playing my game. I went through a little lull in the middle and then I finished off the season strong.”
When he got into slump last season and started “pressing,” he got out of his normal approach at the plate, started expanding the strike zone and allowed big-league pitchers to take advantage. He went 4-for-42 in a 10-game stretch from May 25 through June 5.
Lopez finished last season with a slash line of .240/.276/.325 in his first stint in the majors.
“When I started struggling I was swinging at balls out of the zone. I was taking pitches that I usually swing at. I was swinging at balls that I usually don’t swing at. You know, (I wasn’t doing) the stuff that got me there. I was known for more walks than strikeouts and all that stuff. I’m going to try to go back to that. I’m looking forward to it.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2020 at 5:15 PM.
