Royals Rumblings - News for May 10, 2023

Positive news on Ryan Yarbrough, all things considered:

“He had a follow-up (visit) this morning and the doctor cleared (him) as far as no surgery needed,” Quatraro said. “He will, as he can, start to introduce light activity, and then he has a follow-up appointment in a month and at that point would be hopefully cleared for more strenuous activity. But between now and then he can do what’s tolerated as far as light activity.”

OKAY, Bobby.

This note on Max Castillo stood out to me as something to watch for, from David Lesky’s Substack:

What I do want to note, because I think it’s important, is the work Max Castillo did. Greinke exited in the sixth inning and gave way to Jose Cuas, who got the win with two pitches. Then Cuas was replaced by Amir Garrett, who got Elvis Andrus looking and then he lost his pregame meal on the field. And Garrett is no Jonathan Heasley, so he left the game and was replaced by Castillo, who was the third pitcher to be called up on this homestand because the bullpen needed some length. With a big lead, Matt Quatraro turned to Castillo to just take it home. And he did it.

The odds were that the game was never going to be in question, but we saw some rough outings from Castillo last year after he came over in the Whit Merifield deal. He gave the Royals 2.2 innings, which allowed them to not have to use any of their top bullpen arms (other than Garrett). Carlos Hernandez, Aroldis Chapman, Scott Barlow, Joshes Staumont and Taylor and Taylor Clarke all got the night off. In a four-game series, that could play big. And Castillo was keeping the White Sox off balance. His slider was very sharp, getting four whiffs and four more called strikes. The sliders they did hit were hit softly too. He’ll probably be rewarded with a return trip to Omaha at some point, but it was nice to see that.

At FanGraphs, Dan Szymborski says the Royals should make haste to extend Vinnie Pasquantino:

Vinnie Pasquantino, Kansas City Royals – Seven years, $54 million

Pasquantino is not a superstar, but the Italian Breakfast has turned out to be the most developed of the team’s hitting prospects. Whit Merrifield is gone, and Salvador Perez is entering his mid-30s, and as the Royals continue to shift away from the last of their World Series winning roster, Pasquantino should spend the next five or six years hitting in the middle of the order. Locking him up now keeps him at a Royals-friendly price throughout his likely prime years.

LOOK AT SKY:

MiLB.com did a feature on Omaha’s Take Meowt to the Ballgame, aka the best promo night ever. In its honor, today’s Rumblings Dog is a cat!

A whole bunch of former Royals showed up on MLB Trade Rumors:

• Catcher Meibrys Viloria cleared waivers and is now a free agent.
• The Reds selected Ben Lively, who just pitched six strong innings against Omaha with Triple-A Louisville last week.
• The Guardians released Roman Quinn.
• Looks like the Rays will sign Jake Diekman.

Storm Chasers radio broadcaster Nick Badders did a delightful interview with Omaha catcher Logan Porter than you can watch on YouTube right here.

GIVE THIS DOG A BITE:

The A’s are now looking at sites in Las Vegas other than the one they announced they would build a new stadium on.

The Cardinals are struggling, and Nolan Arenado struggling is really adding insult to injury. Jay Jaffe at FanGraphs has a lot on that.

Shohei Ohtani passed Babe Ruth in strikeouts last night.

Mookie Betts booked an AirBNB in Milwuakee rather than stay at a hotel that might be haunted.

Really weird scenario unfolding in Tampa, with sports Twitter (and Deadspin, back in the day) legend Tim Burke having his house raided by the FBI. His wife, Lynn Hurtak, is a city council member and her road to election was a hard-fought one. The linked article goes through a series of possibly-interconnected stories, but it’s not really clear yet what the hell is going on.

Pretty classic issue for this letter writer at Ask a Manager: my coworker talks non-stop and we can’t take it anymore.

Today’s Reddit question: What is the oldest thing you own?

Have you started replacing any of your passwords with passkeys?

A woman wrote a children’s book to process the grief of her husband’s death, but now she’s been charged with his murder.

SOTD: The delightful Alex Melton covering Taylor Swift’s Mirrorball. Turns out it’s incredible as a pop punk song too.