I like Bobby, MJ and Vinnie, but Nate is my fave of the rookies. I just love the way he plays the game: He hustles, is a solid defensive player, has a cannon for an arm, is a good baserunner and is at least an average hitter. You may say, "Small sample size. He only had 106 at bats this season." But the small sample size rebuttal actually serves to bolster my point: If he accumulated 1.0 WAR in just 106 at bats, then he could’ve had over 5 WAR if he had played as much as Bobby Witt this season!

Nate Eaton accumulated more WAR than all of the other rookies except Vinnie Pasquantino. I compared the value of six Royals rookies (see table below) based on their 2022 WAR. It helped me to compare them by calculating how many at bats were needed for each rookie to reach 1.0 WAR. Nate Eaton’s excellent overall play puts him at the top of the class. He actually reached 1.0 WAR with less than 100 at bats, but he didn’t add any WAR with the last few games of the season. The new manager should start him in right field to maximize his defensive value. He is too valuable to be simply a utility player who starts once or twice a week. If Eaton were to be a starter in 2023, he could conceivably end up bringing WAR comparable to Freddie Freeman (5.9 WAR, 612 at bats) or Francisco Lindor (5.4 WAR, 630 at bats).

I’m gushing about Eaton like he was a first round draft pick! Actually, Eaton played college baseball at the Virginia Military Institute and was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 21st round of the 2018 Major League Baseball draft. The chance of ever making it to the major leagues being drafted in round 20 or later is about 7% or less. Based on WAR, the best player ever drafted in round 21 is Nick Punto (Phillies, 1998). The Minnesota Twins gave Punto about 100 at bats in both the 2003 and 2004 seasons. His production proved enough in 2004 (see chart below) that the Twins gave him an average of 400 at bats over the next five seasons. Punto ended up playing fourteen seasons in his big league career, amassing 15.4 in WAR. If the preview the Twins got of Punto was enough to give him significant playing time over the next five years, the Royals should be convinced to make Eaton a starter in 2023.

I contend that if the Royals would make Eaton a starter, he has the potential to shatter Nick Punto’s record. On average, it took Punto over 200 at bats to accumulate every 1.0 of WAR. Eaton reached 1.0 WAR in less than 100 at bats. It is not unreasonable to think that Eaton could surpass Punto in value if given an opportunity to play consistently over the next four or five years. But even if Eaton serves mostly as a utility player, he could carve out a nice career and be extremely valuable to the Royals as they seek to return to postseason play in the next couple of years.