Why Bobby Witt Jr.’s promotion to the Kansas City Royals might not happen this year
The traditional September major-league roster expansion paradigm doesn’t apply this season. There’s a different circumstance than years past, and that just might be enough to keep the Kansas City Royals from calling up top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. before this season’s end.
Witt Jr., the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, moved up to Triple-A Omaha on July 20. Not only has he been regarded as the top prospect in the Royals’ farm system, but he’s also rated one of best prospects in Minor League Baseball by both Baseball America (No. 3 overall) and MLBPipeline.com (No. 5).
In past years, the September expansion has allowed teams to play their entire 40-man roster in major-league games. But active rosters this season will expand by just two players from 26 to 28 players in September.
The minor-league regular season traditionally concludes on Labor Day, leaving those players without a team to play for in September unless they are called up to the majors. But this year with a later start date, the regular season for a team like the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers will continue through the first weekend of October.
“I think it’s really going to operate just like it did in April, May, June, July and August,” said Royals assistant general manager J.J. Picollo, who oversees player development. “Guys are going to come up (to Kansas City) on a need basis.”
Bringing up young players or top prospects as September call ups has been standard practice across baseball. The final month of the regular season has been a chance for those players to get their first taste of the majors.
While all 15 spots typically weren’t used, five to eight additional players may have joined the major-league club in past years, and those circumstances often created a roster logjam and a scarcity of playing time.
This year will present front offices with a different set of considerations.
“Maybe you reach a point in time where you want to get some guys experience,” Picollo said. “But in the past if your Triple-A team wasn’t in the playoffs, those players you might want to get experience — they were going home or they were coming up. Now, you don’t have to make that choice.
“So do we truly have the ability to give somebody an opportunity in September? And if not, we know they’re getting another close to 100 at-bats over the course of September. So I think it’s totally different, and I think the dynamic has completely changed. You could do something one week. You could do something else the following week because there’s games to be played at Triple-A. ... I think the restriction on the number of players that can come up is way more impactful than people realize.”
Do those changes mean Witt won’t debut this fall? Picollo declined to comment on Witt’s potential promotion and deferred to general manager Dayton Moore.
In his first 21 games with Omaha, Witt has slashed .290/353/.613 with eight home runs, 18 RBIs, nine walks, 21 strikes and four stolen bases.
This is still Witt’s first full season in professional baseball. Since the start of August (10 games), he has slashed .262/.367/.667.
“With only being able to call up two players, it makes it a lot more challenging,” Moore told The Star. “You certainly aren’t able to give as many players as you’d like an opportunity.
“You’re probably going to need to call up a pitcher. If you’re going to have 15 pitchers on the roster, you certainly have to give strong consideration to a catcher. You have to give strong consideration to guys that are already on the (40-man) roster. (Salvador Perez) has caught a lot of games (Cam Gallagher) has been on the IL.
“I don’t know what we’ll ultimately decide. It’s very difficult to call up players. We just don’t have as many opportunities as we once had.”
Neither Witt nor first base prospect Nick Pratto are on the Royals’ 40-man roster, though the Royals had one open spot as of this week.
The Royals will have to add players to the 40-man roster this offseason to protect them from being snared by another organization in the Rule 5 Draft. Catcher MJ Melendez and Pratto will be Rule 5 eligible for the first time this winter if they’re not on the roster. Witt will not be eligible for another two years.
Another factor in the roster crunch is the pending return of shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, who is on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Omaha. He’s not on the active major-league roster.
Outfielder Edward Olivares has shuttled between Triple-A and the majors five times this season and would be another candidate to join the club if there were room on the active major-league roster.
