In April the Royals showed up to the season with a lineup full of veteran players, and a couple of fresh faces sprinkled in. On opening day five of the nine slots were taken by someone over the age of 30. Since then, we have seen the departure of Whit Merrifield, Andrew Benintendi, and Carlos Santana, along with Adalberto Mondesi being unavailable due to injury. Replacements have generally been of the rookie prospect variety, and the rest of the season will be much more fun to watch for baseball nerds such as myself.

The average age of the opening day lineup was 29.6 years old, ages as of August 3rd. The average of yesterday's lineup was 25.7, a reduction of nearly 4 years! Only Perez and Taylor were over 30 of the starters yesterday. Before the year is over, we may see some even younger lineups out there at the K. In yesterday's group there were five rookies. Every other time a batter came to the plate, I cared about the outcome, even when the game wasn't going very well.

Down on the farm, there are a couple of guys that are likely going to play their way onto this team late in the year, though the September roster expansions of the past are gone and make this a little less likely with only two additional players coming up. The first is Drew Waters, who was picked up from Atlanta in the first ever trade of a draft pick only three weeks ago. He is a center fielder, and he is crushing in Omaha with a .338/.423/.677 slash line in his first 17 games. That could add another 23 year-old rookie to the mix, and maybe provide the impetus for a Michael A. Taylor trade in the offseason. The other player is Nate Eaton, a 25 year-old who has managed a .303/.373/.524 line in Omaha this year in 49 games. Eaton was up briefly during the now infamous Toronto series. He is of a similar age and profile as the recently departed Emmanuel Rivera, but he can play third, so he could be useful with no true third baseman on the team right now. If you replace Lopez and Taylor with those two, the average age goes to 24.6 years in the lineup.

The probability that all seven of these rookies are actually going to stick in the majors as every day players is basically zero. But the idea that they make up four or five of the starting nine for several years is a distinct possibility. We will be watching the future for the next two months, and we can start seeing what holes are filled, and which ones still need some attention. I, for one, am looking forward to the rest of the 2022 season.