KC Royals rookie Massey shared a special moment with family after his first MLB hit
Kansas City Royals rookie infielder Michael Massey had a strong fan club that made its way to Toronto to see him put on a big-league uniform for the first time. About 14 friends and family crossed the border into Canada to be in the stadium on his first day in the majors.
One of them stood out a little bit more than the others. After all, his father Keith had molded him as a ballplayer from the beginning. Massey followed in his old man’s footsteps at the University of Illinois and still even plays the same position as his father did, second base.
So after Massey collected his first two hits in the majors in Saturday’s 6-5 extra-inning loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, one of the first things Massey did — even before he fully peeled off his uniform — was to get his bat included with a message for his father and then run back out to the field so he could present it.
“I just gave my dad the bat,” Massey said while standing in front of his locker in the clubhouse. “He’s been my best hitting coach, my biggest support, both my parents have. The stuff that happens today, you don’t do that stuff by yourself. The amount that they’ve sacrificed for me to be able to be in this spot is really special to me, so I personalized a message and gave the bat to my dad.”
Massey said there weren’t a lot of words exchanged when he gave the bat to his father, but it was definitely meaningful. They looked into each other’s eyes and, as Massey put it, “I think we both knew what we were saying without having to say it.”
Massey went 2 for 4 with a pair of line-drive base hits, the first with an exit velocity of 105 mph, using that swing his father helped him develop.
“It was really special,” Massey said. “There was a lot of nights growing up where it was just me and him in a batting cage. He’d work a 9-to-5 and then come home and chow down his dinner, and he was throwing batting practice by 6 o’clock. It was probably not the first thing that he wanted to do, but both my parents have sacrificed so much and really my entire family in general for me to have this opportunity. So I was just really grateful to them.”
Massey, who Baseball America ranks as the third-best position player prospect in the Royals farm system, got his first taste of the majors on Friday night when Royals manager Mike Matheny used him as a pinch hitter against Blue Jays ace Alek Manoah with runners on the corners and one out.
Massey, one of eight newcomers who joined the team from the minors for the trip to Toronto, worked a 3-2 count before he swung and missed at a nasty slider for a strikeout.
On Saturday, Matheny wrote Massey’s name into the starting lineup for the first time.
“I was telling the guys in the dugout that I envisioned it about 100 times last night,” Massey said. “I woke up at 4, 5, 5:15, 6. I was just anxious to get out there. Every kid growing up dreams of getting a hit in the major leagues. To have that dream come true was really special.”
A fourth-round pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, Massey spent the first couple seasons of his professional career trying to get healthy after a back injury hindered him at the end of his collegiate career.
The left-handed hitting, 6-foot, 190-pound Illinois native bounced back in a big way last season when he tied for the batting average crown in the High-A Central (.289) and also ranked among the league leaders in RBIs (second, 87), slugging percentage (second, .531), doubles (second, 27) and home runs (fourth, 21).
He also won a Minor League Gold Glove as the best defensive second baseman in the minors regardless of level.
This spring in Arizona, Massey got his first exposure to the big-league staff in spring training exhibition games.
In the minors this season, he began at Double-A Northwest Arkansas but has already moved up the ladder to Triple-A Omaha. In 78 games combined between the two levels, he has slashed .317/.373/.535 with 15 home runs, 23 doubles and 73 RBIs.
Asked before the game about the reports on Massey from the player development staff, Matheny said: “He’s killing it. He’s having a great year. He’s the kind of guy that keeps getting opportunities at different levels and keeps proving that he’s legit.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2022 at 8:44 PM.
