How KC Royals are turning a group of young hitters into brightest part of the future
Drew Waters is standing in a major-league clubhouse, a spot in which few thought he would stand this year, recapping the most unusual month and a half of his life as a professional baseball player.
Just six weeks earlier, the Royals acquired him from the Atlanta Braves, a rare trade involving a draft pick sent the other way. Waters had been in a season-long funk — though who’s to say this wasn’t simply who he was, closer to a second-round bust than a success story?
For what it’s worth, even in a year of doubt, that’s the part he says he still knew — there was something still in there, ready to be unlocked. And so when he joined the Royals organization last month, initially with Triple-A Omaha, he basically threw his palms to the sky.
Help me.
His actual words: “Obviously you guys traded for me for a reason. You guys saw something. So, like, I wanna know.”
On the day of the trade, Keith Law, one of the more respected evaluators of MLB prospects, explained Atlanta giving away a player who only a couple of years earlier appeared poised to be an everyday centerfielder: “Waters’ approach, or lack thereof, doesn’t work.”
A funny thing, though: Six short weeks later, Waters stands here, his name etched onto a name plate above a locker inside the Royals’ clubhouse, and when you hear his explanation for how he made an about-face in results after the trade, it can be boiled down to one word.
Approach.
This is the future, and the Royals have become pretty good at it, overshadowed as it might be by some present standings frustration.
Waters is a shining example of the club’s hitting-instructional process in that sense, one that has revitalized the careers of some of its own prospects. Actually, he might be their best example yet because there is a distinct before picture and after picture to his story.
Before the trade, Waters had a .698 OPS (on-base plus slugging) with Atlanta’s Triple-A Gwinnett, with only 0.28 walks for every strikeout. After the deal, in which the Royals also acquired infielder C.J. Alexander and right-handed pitcher Andrew Hoffman in exchange for the 35th overall pick of last month’s draft, Waters posted a .940 OPS with Omaha and a 0.49 BB:K ratio. Omaha participates in the same league as Gwinnett, meaning the primary change for Waters rested with the uniform he wore.
Let’s get this out of the way early: Waters’ big-league career is not promised after that short burst in the minor leagues; the only thing we definitively know to be true is what’s already happened. And what’s happened with Waters smells a lot like what’s happened to those who have come before him — you could chalk up his path to some good fortune if he wasn’t merely a follower of those already called to Kansas City this season. Take a look at the minor-league arc of MJ Melendez and the reasons behind it.
At the lowest of the minor leagues, long before hitters reach this stage, the Royals are prioritizing the process over results, and approach — there’s that word again — over mechanics. This has become the brightest piece of their future. It’s the reason all of this might eventually work out (and, yes, it would be helpful if the pitching side could find a process that produces the same consistency).
A day after he joined Omaha, for example, Waters met with Royals hitting coordinator Drew Saylor, ready to implement a change to the mechanics of his swing. After all, that’s all he’d thought about when he stepped into a batter’s box for the previous three-plus months. But he was introduced to another idea.
“There were a couple of things I was doing mechanically, but honestly, the big thing that I feel like has really changed for me is they’re big on hunting your zone and looking for pitches you can do damage with,” Waters said.
It’s impossible not to oversimplify the description of the methodology here. There are so many more layers to it that part of the jobs of the Royals’ coaches is to determine exactly how much information they can pile onto a player. That varies depending on the person.
Figure out the pitches you crush, and hunt those pitches. That’s not just the difference between a ball and a strike. More often, it’s the difference between a strike and a more hittable strike.
“You can’t cover the whole plate,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo said. “I think the guys who have adapted well to what we’re doing, you handle a certain part of the plate, and you swing at good pitches.
“It’s not cookie-cutter (to where) every left-handed hitter is going to look for these pitches, and every right-handed hitter is going to look for these pitches. It’s understanding what you do want to hit and what you do hit hard.”
The players are educated on which pitches they hit well, and those they hit poorly. Other game-planning implementation depends on the player — some want to know the vertical break of a pitcher’s arsenal. For others, the preference is pitch shape. Maybe it’s pitch identification. They’re provided all of it.
And each day, they try to match their own strength against the information of an opposing pitcher.
Put together, the concept is to have an idea of what you want to do before you even step into the batter’s box — and then stick to it, no matter the situation. Among a rookie-loaded lineup, Vinnie Pasquantino seems to best fit the description.
“It’s just a more holistic approach for what we do as hitters,” rookie first baseman Nick Pratto said. “It’s unique to every player. One of our hitting mantras is ‘Know Thy Self’ — just kind of understanding what you handle well and what you want to go after and how it overlays with the pitcher.”
At this level, you won’t be shocked to learn, not every pitcher will locate a pitch in the zone you’re hunting. That’s where some adjustments must come into place.
Nobody wants to be told to be patient, but that’s the piece that will require the most time. Better to get that time now, though, in a season that will quite evidently not include the playoffs, as opposed to later. Even if it means the standings might not improve.
That shouldn’t be construed as doubt that the minor-league processes can translate to the majors, because I believe they will. The general success rate of major-league hitters itself prompts doubt, but the Royals are on the verge of increasing their own percentages with this group.
“The pitching is clearly better here (in the big leagues). But again, if you stick to that plan, and you don’t get off that plan, and the plan is essentially to swing at good pitches, you’re going to be OK here, too,” Picollo said. “It’s just that they’re going to repeat pitches more here. So the cat and mouse game comes into play at little bit quicker.”
The hints that a guy might be grasping it all are pretty easily spotted: What pitches prompt a swing? Do they fall in line with the game plan — and the hitter’s recognized hot zone?
There’s one particular pitch for which Picollo looks. Can a hitter lay off a ball just below the zone?
On Monday, as Waters made his MLB debut, he drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth inning that put the Royals ahead and eventually proved the game-winning RBI.
He managed to refrain from offering at a 3-1 pitch. Its location? A inch or two below the zone.