Royals Rumblings - News for November 22, 2021

Royals Rumblings - News for November 22, 2021

Bradford Doolittle of ESPN lists early award candidates for next year, and Bobby Witt, Jr. is his favorite for Rookie of the Year.

Early indications are that Witt seems like a no-brainer to break camp with the Royals next spring. There’s simply nothing left for him to prove in the minors, and the Royals are trying to win, so if Witt is part of their best configuration, they’ll want him out there as often as possible. Rutschman’s ETA is a little more unclear than that, and the Orioles are not yet pushing toward contention. It would be great to see a season-long battle between Witt and Rutschman, because it could be a memorable one.

David Laurila at Fangraphs writes about his discussion with Royals minor league hitting coordinator Drew Saylor.

“MJ has done an incredible job of being able to understand the tools of intelligence, and how you can leverage those little pieces of information on both sides of the ball. For me, it was just a really joyful process to be able to watch the season that he put up this year. Yet another guy that works incredibly hard. I don’t want to try to do the same superlative that I did with with Bobby [Witt Jr.], but MJ is very much up there, too. God bestowed upon him tools that he didn’t bestow on anybody else. Now he’s learning how to be able to play with those tools consistently. That’s why he was able to have the season that he had.”

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter thinks we could see some more players taken off the 40-man roster.

That being said, with Carlos Santana still on the roster, Pratto added after a strong Double-A and Triple-A campaign, and with Hunter Dozier a key part of the Royals’ future, it just doesn’t seem like O’Hearn will still be on the Royals 40-man roster after 2021 ends. After all, the Royals weren’t willing to pay an estimated $1.8 million for Jakob Junis in arbitration (which led to him being non-tendered). Thus, it seems tough to think that Dayton Moore and the Royals front office would be okay offering O’Hearn an estimated $1.4 million, especially since O’Hearn has produced a lot less on an fWAR basis than Junis.

Jerry Edwards at Inside the Royals gives his reaction to the new Royals uniforms.

Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki will be posted today.

The Pirates sign pitcher Jose Quintana to a one-year, $2 million deal.

The Brewers sign catcher Pedro Severino to a one-year, $1.9 million deal.

The Braves are about to get a big increase in TV revenue.

The Mets are ready to spend big.

Can we get excited about the Baltimore Orioles yet?

What was the effect of MLB’s crackdown on foreign substances?

The Oakland Athletics put in a bid on a plot of land in Las Vegas for a potential ballpark.

The standouts from the Arizona Fall League championship game.

The KT Wiz win their first ever KBO title in Korea.

Will the knuckleball ever make a comeback?

Sporting Kansas City defeats Vancouver to advance to the Western Conference semifinals.

Paul Pierce changed his story on pooping his pants in 2008 NBA Finals again.

Character actor Art LaFleur - who played Babe Ruth in The Sandlot - dies at age 78.

What designers of video games understand about real cities.

How Apple’s Foundation overcame the vastness of its story.

Your song of the day is Huey Lewis And The News with Heart And Soul.