Mondesi starts third straight game as Kansas City Royals wrap up series in Baltimore
.jpg "Kansas City Royals’ Adalberto Mondesi watches his three-run double against the Chicago White Sox during the third inning of a baseball game, Friday, Sept. 3, 2021, in Kansas City, Mo.")
Adalberto Mondesi slotted into the Kansas City Royals’ starting lineup for the third consecutive game on Thursday, albeit as the designated hitter.
Injuries have wiped out the vast majority of Mondesi’s season and have limited him to 16 games entering the team’s 140th game of the year, their series finale against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. Mondesi has also played in 19 minor-league games this season while on rehab assignments.
Including a pinch running appearance late in Monday afternoon’s series opener in Baltimore, Mondesi will have appeared in all four games of the series at Baltimore, with two starts at third base and one as the designated hitter.
“We’ve always anticipated and were hopeful that whatever plan is out there, that he’s pushing the limits of it,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Mondesi’s usage. “That’s always ideal, that the player is handling whatever the workload is and says I’m ready for more. That’s always a great sign. Right now, he’s handling everything really well.”
When Mondesi returned to the majors as rosters expanded at the start of September, both general manager Dayton Moore and Matheny said Mondesi’s playing time would be managed in a structured way with days off built into Mondesi’s schedule.
He’d started just three of the first seven games after he returned from the IL.
Mondesi began this season on the IL because of a strained right oblique 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, and he remained out until rosters expanded on September 1.
Both Moore and Matheny also declined to give specific details or outline the plan for Mondesi’s playing time other than the fact that he’d primarily play third base when in the field.
Thursday, Matheny described Mondesi’s progress as “right on track.”
In 16 games this season, Mondesi has slashed .298/.310/.649 with five doubles, five home runs, 12 RBIs, seven stolen bases and 10 runs scored in 57 at-bats.
The sports science and training staffs monitor everything down to measuring how much ground a player covered in the field over the course of a game. Being in the lineup as the designated hitter also factors into the consideration differently than him playing nine innings in the field.
“A lot of it isn’t this hard-line on, off, on, off,” Matheny said. “It’s on and let’s see what kind of action he has to put a tangible number to the amount of work he has done, going along with (batting practice), same thing with early work, what he’s doing in the weight room. Let’s take all these different things. What’s the work level look like? If he’s good, let’s roll. If he goes a couple days, what does that hard number look like? Does he need a day, or can he DH? Let’s roll.”
Even with the metrics and data, how Mondesi feels on a daily basis will also play a big part in determining his workload.
Holland returns
One day after the Royals used relief pitchers Joel Payamps, Josh Staumont and Jake Brentz each for 25 pitches or more and Payamps for 31 pitches over an inning plus the start of the next inning, the Royals optioned third baseman Emmanuel Rivera to Triple-A and reinstated right-handed relief pitcher Greg Holland from the injured list.
Rivera, who made his major-league debut earlier this summer, had just seven at-bats since the start of September.
Holland went on the injured list on August 16. He missed 23 games with right shoulder impingement syndrome.
