Royals Rumblings - News for July 5, 2022

Royals Rumblings - News for July 5, 2022

The Royals blew a lead on Sunday to drop the series opener against Houston.

“That’s one of the tougher ones of the season,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of the loss. “(Jonathan) Heasley comes out and responds after the offense comes out and gives us some room to work. The guys were doing a great job of keeping the pressure on.

“Heasely kept getting the shutdown (innings). I thought he threw as good as we’ve seen him throw. We were able to add that one late with MJ being able to tack that on to give us a little bit more of a lead. You like the chances of us being able to finish that one off.”

Brady Singer tied a career-high for strikeouts on Saturday, but could not get through the fifth.

“I think that was probably the best stuff I’ve had all year,” Singer said. “... It’s extremely frustrating. I definitely want to go deep in the games as much as I can and felt like I had the stuff to do it. I just kind of hit a roadblock in the fifth.”

Amir Garrett refuted Javier Báez’s claim he didn’t want to face him.

“How would he know? I asked Skip to go out again,” Garrett said. “But at that time, we needed (me) to be up today. I’ve pitched a lot in the last few days. So we’re going to see them again. I’m going to see him again. It might not be today. You never know. I definitely asked for it, though.

“What do you want me to do? You going to tell my man, ‘Hey, I’m going to go out there again.’ You know what I mean? You just say yes or no. He made the decision and I was okay with it. I’ll see him again, so that’s not a big deal for me.”

Lynn Worthy writes that Andrew Benintendi is aware of the trade rumors surrounding him.

Benintendi is as ready as anyone can be if a deal comes together before the deadline. He’s already touched base with general manager J.J. Picollo about the possibility. “I’ve had a conversation with J.J., and I’m almost sure that they’ll keep me in the loop which is nice,” Benintendi said.

“Obviously, you don’t want to be blindsided by anything. It’s a drastic move all within a span of 24 hours. So whatever happens, happens. I just try not to even think about it and take it a day at a time.”

He also wrote about Wyatt Mills’ whirlwind path to the Royals.

“The trade happened while I was on an airplane from Houston back to Tacoma,” Mills said. “We land and my manager comes up and is like, ‘Have you been checking your phone?’ I’m like no. ‘Well, you’ve been traded to Kansas City.’ So that’s how I found out.

“Most people leave from the airport to go back home instead of taking the bus back to the field, so I didn’t really get to say bye to many people.

“Right to Omaha, played in one game and then called up kind of unexpectedly. I thought that I was going to have a little time to get acclimated, but no complaints here on the call-up.”

Alec Lewis thinks a Benintendi trade with the Brewers makes sense.

The theme has been obvious for the Royals in recent drafts, too: Acquire pitching at all costs. This is the result of a philosophy that formed once the Royals parted with the core that propped them up on the baseball mountaintop in 2015: To sustain success in the next wave, they would need to amass and develop homegrown pitching.

This is something the Brewers are quite familiar with, right?

David Lesky wonders if John Sherman will be financially creative at the trade deadline.

In my head, this is about Andrew Benintendi, who is a nice piece to move but also is a free agent at the end of the season, which limits his value. But if the Royals are willing to take on some salary, maybe a team would be more willing to give up something else. Think about the Yankees. No, they don’t need the help financially, but what if the Royals were willing to take back Joey Gallo in exchange for Benintendi? Could they get Hayden Wesneski in return? I don’t know, but that would be better than what they’d get without eating any money in return. What if they took back Marcell Ozuna? I’d hate to have him on my team, but if they just cut him, why not? That’s a lot of money since he’s signed for a couple more years, but that’s the idea here.

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter is appreciating the final month of Benintendi with the Royals.

Ronald Bolaños clears waivers and accepts assignment at Triple-A Omaha.

The Royals sign a Korean teenage catching prospect.

Fernando Tatis Jr. is open to a position change.

The Yankees trade pitcher Manny Bañuelos to the Pirates.

The Braves trade pitcher Touki Toussant to the Angels.

Is Shohei Ohtani getting even better?

With Joe Maddon gone and Phil Nevin suspended, the Angels have an interim interim manager in Bill Haselman.

The science behind the rise of the slider.

Catcher Austin Barnes signs a two-year, $7 million contract extension with the Dodgers.

While on rehab assignment, Max Scherzer was very generous to his minor league teammates.

Former Royals catcher Brayan Peña, now a minor league manager, is a big Real Madrid fan.

Draft prospect Kumar Rocker had shoulder surgery last September.

The daughter of Blue Jays first base coach Mark Budzinski dies in a tubing accident.

How Kevin Costner got the film Bull Durham made.

How does Rudy Gobert fit with the Timberwolves?

Why Notre Dame can afford to wait out college realignment.

How many hot dogs would it take to kill you?

Kids are dressing up in suits to attend the new Minions movie.

Here’s what Stranger Things has revealed about the “Upside Down” so far.

Your song of the day is Howard Jones with Everlasting Love.