How this new Kansas City Royals player is doing his best to make a lasting impression
Outfielder Edward Olivares set himself apart in the minds of Kansas City Royals’ talent evaluators, in that he’s athletic, right-handed and he came with a ringing endorsement from trusted adviser Rusty Kuntz.
When Royals general manager Dayton Moore decided his club had too much ground to make up in the playoff chase to not cash in its biggest trade chip, reliever Trevor Rosenthal, he and his front-office lieutenants focused on Olivares as part of the trade-return package from the San Diego Padres.
In his short late-season audition with the Royals in an everyday role, the 24-year-old Olivares has flashed intriguing potential. He’s the first player to record a hit in each of his first seven games as a Royal since Kendrys Morales did so in 2015.
Olivares, a native of Venezuela, has batted .387 (12 for 31) with a .387 OBP and a .677 slugging percentage with two home runs, six RBIs and five runs scored in seven games with the Royals entering Friday night.
When this week asked about potentially taking advantage of the chance to play regularly down the stretch, Olivares replied with assistant strength and conditioning coach Luis Perez translating, “That’s the mindset every day, go out there and compete.”
The 6-foot-2, 188-pound Olivares has shown an ability to hit to all fields. During his seven-game hitting streak, he also has five multi-hit games. He’s had one double and one triple to go along with his two home runs. His second homer came in Thursday night’s series-clinching 11-1 win in Cleveland.
“I had a lot of help from Raul Padron, the hitting coach with San Diego, and a lot of work went into the offseason in staying back and letting the ball get deeper into the zone,” Olivares said of his swing.
Padron is the Double-A hitting coach for the Padres. Last season at Double-A, Olivares batted .283 with 25 doubles, two triples and 18 homers. He led the Texas League in total bases (221) and runs (85). He also ranked second in RBIs (77).
“Same approach, try to get on base as much as I can, hitting gap-to-gap,” Olivares said of his approach at the plate. “Doing the same thing every day. Taking advantage of The K being a big field and trying to take that extra bag whenever I can.”
Olivares also finished third in the Texas league in stolen bases (35) behind Royals minor-leaguers Nick Heath and Khalil Lee.
Heath, Lee and Kyle Isbel rank among the top outfield prospects in the upper levels of the Royals’ farm system. All have been part of big-league spring training, and Heath made his MLB debut this season.
All three are also left-handed hitters, which played a significant part in the Royals’ interest in Olivares.
“Live body, really athletic, can steal bases, some developing power, but fit in with our group — the group of young outfielders we have on the horizon — in the fact that he’s a right-handed bat,” Moore said. “We needed to get more of a balance there.”
Moore credited senior director of pro scouting Gene Watson, assistant GM-baseball operations Scott Sharp and director of professional scouting Michael Cifuentes for sorting through the potential trade options. But Moore also mentioned that first base coach/assistant to the general manager Kuntz had seen Olivares play multiple times last year in his role as a minor-league adviser.
Kuntz, who specializes in outfield play and baserunning, suggested the Royals try to land Olivares in a deal with San Diego.
Olivares has proven to be a free swinger early in the count, but that has not been a detriment in manager Mike Matheny’s estimation.
“He’s swinging early, but he’s not necessarily put the ball in play early,” Matheny said. “So he’s getting into deeper counts, then rifling balls the other way. What’s impressing me is you’ll see a couple swings and be like, ‘Dang. He’s just not on that.’ Then the next thing you know he’s hitting a hard line drive somewhere.
“That, to me, is making adjustments. And it’s not just one pitch. He’s laying off some pretty tough pitches, swinging through some at times, but it seems if they do it again, he gets them.”
Matheny has liked the bat speed Olivares has flashed as well as his willingness to take coaching advice.
The Royals’ coaching staff is still learning about Olivares, who Matheny described him as a bit of a “wild stallion.” Matheny and his assistants keep a list of things they see from him during games to address in pre-game work.
Of course, everything is being done on the fly since they’ve had very little experience with each other to this point. After all, Olivares was only traded here Aug 29, and was promoted to the majors Sept. 3.
