Royals’ Kyle Isbel has put himself in the running for an Opening Day roster spot
Outfielder Kyle Isbel scuffled and muddled through his most recent season in the minor leagues, physically and statistically. It appeared as though the Kansas City Royals prospect’s progression had taken a step backward.
Since an injury-plagued 2019 season in High-A, Isbel has bounced back and put himself firmly on the doorstep to the major leagues despite not playing a traditional season in 2020.
The door remains at least slightly open for the 24-year-old to possibly find himself starting this season on the Royals’ Opening Day roster.
Royals manager Mike Matheny acknowledged on Thursday that Isbel remains “in the mix” to make the club when they open the season next week even though he was reassigned to minor-league camp on Monday.
Matheny has sung Isbel’s praises throughout camp, putting him on par with top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. as far as their proximity to being ready to contribute in the majors.
“We keep track of the quality of at-bats, and Kyle Isbel, percentage-wise, has probably had the highest percentage of quality at-bats all the way through so far,” Matheny said recently.
“Hard hit, deep counts. Grinding at-bats, getting guys over, getting them in. Those sorts of things go into how we have our own metric of quality at-bats. But Kyle’s been as good as anybody we’ve had.”
Matheny also pointed to Isbel’s defensive ability to play all three outfield positions and his awareness on the bases.
If the Royals decide to play Whit Merrifield regularly at second base, that could open up a spot in right field for Isbel along with Michael A. Taylor in center and Andrew Benintendi in left.
Royals general manager Dayton Moore seemingly alluded to that type of scenario in February before camp started in the immediate aftermath of the trade to acquire Benintendi.
“We feel really good about Kyle Isbel,” Moore said at the time. “It wouldn’t shock us a bit if he forces his way on this field sooner than later. …
“It’s funny because we’ve always looked at Kyle Isbel and some of our people have always (compared) him to Andrew Benintendi. He plays like him, left-handed hitter, plays hard, has some really unique skills. There’s room for both of those guys in the lineup someday.”
Back on track
The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Isbel hit the ground running like a wild horse his first season in the minors after the Royals selected him in the third round out of UNLV in the 2018 MLB Draft — the same draft class as Brady Singer, Kris Bubic, Daniel Lynch and Jackson Kowar.
Isbel slashed .326/.389/.504 with 24 stolen bases and seven home runs in 64 games at the Rookie League (25 games) and Low-A (39 games) in 2018. He seemed destined to get on a fast track to the majors until he hit a speed bump in 2019.
Injuries to his hamstring injury and a hamate bone stifled the California native’s 2019 season. He played 59 games and slashed .233/.296/.397, including seven games back in the Rookie League that brought his numbers up.
His Arizona Fall League performance seemed to prove that health was the primary culprit that season and not any sort of sophomore slide. That fall, he slashed .315/.429/.438.
“It was tough, but it was just dealing with adversity,” Isbel told The Star earlier this spring. “It was another step in the learning process. I came out of 2018, did well. In 2019, I started my season and did well and a couple injuries set me back a little bit. All I could do was learn from that.”
Isbel said the experience of 2019 has helped him get better through some tough lessons.
“My preparation in the training room had to get way better,” Isbel said. “I would show up to the field and get all my baseball stuff and get ready for the game rather than taking care of my body before I do my baseball stuff.”
While Isbel didn’t have a season last year, he participated in big-league camp in 2020 before the pandemic shut down spring training. He also took part in spring training 2.0/summer camp, and he spent the summer at the alternate training site competing with and against the organization’s top prospects.
The stories out of the alternate training site were that Isbel and Khalil Lee, who went to the New York Mets as part of the three-team deal that brought Benintendi to the Royals, took turns robbing each other with spectacular highlight-reel catches in the outfield.
Baseball America ranked Isbel the sixth-best prospect in the Royals farm system.
Isbel clearly believed coming into camp that he’d gotten better from his experience last summer even if he didn’t play in any official games.
“We got a lot of at-bats, not as much as you would in a full season” Isbel said. “But we’ve got some of the best young arms in the minor leagues, facing them every day. We got to face a lot of guys that came down from the big leagues, and I think it was great. It was a great opportunity to get better, great opportunity to improve everyday.”
Isbel said his primary focus was simply to be a more consistent all-around player. He noticed that he got stronger and he was driving the ball more, hitting it harder last year in the alternate site.
This spring, Isbel has combined the quality at-bats Matheny mentioned with strong Cactus League statistics. Through 20 games (35 at-bats), Isbel has slashed .314/.390/.543 with two doubles, two homers, nine runs scored, four walks and 11 strikeouts.
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 10:09 AM.
