Here’s the Kansas City Royals’ plan for Adalberto Mondesi, who homered in return
Kansas City Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi’s mounting injuries and numerous missed games certainly provide reasons for frustration and doubt. But when he’s healthy and playing, he also creates an abundance of excitement and intrigue.
After having played in just 10 of the Royals’ first 131 games, Mondesi returned from his third stay on the injured list prior to Wednesday’s game against the Cleveland Indians at Kauffman Stadium. As the designated hitter appearing in his first game since June 20, all Mondesi hit 2 for 4 with a home run, a stolen base and two runs scored.
“We all know what kind of talent he is and what kind of spark he brings to the lineup when he’s in it,” Royals All-Star second baseman Whit Merrifield said. “So he just stepped right back in and got a couple knocks, stole a bag and hit a homer. Just kind of a ho-hum Mondi day. It was great to see him back, and we’ve got to keep him on the field.”
Through the Royals media relations department, Mondesi declined to speak with reporters Wednesday.
Royals manger Mike Matheny described Mondesi as a “special talent” in his postgame press conference.
Mondesi didn’t play in the field on Wednesday. When he does return to the field, he’ll see time at a new position — third base.
In Mondesi’s absence, Nicky Lopez turned in the best season of his young career and surprised the Royals brass by how well he has handled shortstop on a daily basis. Lopez entered Wednesday night leading the American League in batting average since June 15 (.341). He’s hit .292 for the season.
Merrifield, a natural second baseman, has played all around the diamond since reaching the majors in 2016. This season, has been among the best defensive infielders in the majors, statistically, as an everyday second baseman.
“We talked a lot about how to handle Mondi coming back and what that might look like,” Matheny said prior to the game. “To be honest with what we’re seeing with our middle infielders, specifically Nicky and Whit, how well they’re doing. … The conversation was about the right thing for these guys as well as how can we get Mondi re-initiated into our lineup because we know when he’s out there we have a chance of seeing some special things.”
Matheny and the front office were very conscious of wanting to “respect” what both Lopez and Merrifield have done so far this season, each having made strong cases to be among the top candidates for Gold Gloves at their respective positions based on defensive metrics.
Mondesi’s playing time will be “very structured” based on input from the medical team, Matheny said. Regular days off will be part of his schedule.
Mondesi began this season on the IL because of a strained right oblique he suffered on the last day of spring training in Arizona. That kept him out of games until May 25. He then went back on the IL from June 16-24 because of a left hamstring strain. His most recent IL stint began on June 21 because of a left oblique strain.
“To be real clear, the most important thing is just kind of integrating him back in with a consistency that’s going to keep him healthy,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said.
“I think if we could do it all over again, we may have just been a little more methodical with how we began to put him in games and what have you. But he was ready to go and wanted to play and the medical team felt good about it. Obviously, we had some setbacks and hindsight is always 20/20.”
Matheny didn’t rule out Mondesi playing shortstop if Lopez gets a day off, but the focus for Mondesi will be on third base.
Both Matheny and Moore said there were no plans on Mondesi playing the outfield this season.
“I don’t see that right now,” Moore said of Mondesi in the outfield. “I just don’t. I don’t see that at this point in time for a lot of reasons that I’m not necessarily going to get into at this point in time. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.”
The Royals also have one of baseball’s top prospects in former No. 2 overall draft pick in the 2019 MLB Draft shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. Both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com currently rank him the sports’ No. 3 prospect.
Moore wouldn’t make any declarations about the future in regard to where Mondesi might play or the potential infield configuration. Instead, he said the offseason will serve as a reset, as it always does.
“The thing to focus on is we have three really talented shortstops that are either major-league producers or close to being major-league producers and that is Nicky Lopez, Adalberto Mondesi and Bobby Witt Jr.,” Moore said.
“That’s a really special place to be as an organization. With that type of talent and that type of athleticism, all three guys have the ability to hit in the upper part of the order and it’s our job and Mike’s job, ultimately, to figure out how to mix and match and put the best team that he can each and every night. To me, that’s the takeaway in all of this. We have three really talented shortstops.”
Thus far, Witt has played primarily shortstop and third base in the minors.
As far as having potentially four players to squeeze into three positions on a regular basis among Merrifield, Lopez, Mondesi and Witt at second base, third base and shortstop, Moore called it “a good problem to have.”
“I don’t sweat it a whole lot,” Moore said. “I know that all those players want to win. Everything is a competition. That being said, we have players that are on this roster in 2021 who have earned their playing time and they’ve accomplished a great deal and we’ve seen lots of progress. We’re going to reward that and we’re going to respect that. That’s where we’re at. We’ll worry about next year when we have to make those decisions.”
