Elbowing Away Fun at the K
Oh my, do the Kansas City Royals need Adalberto Mondesi to be a breakthrough star now. It appears more likely than not, that after an MRI showed ligament damage in the elbow of Salvador Perez, the franchise will spend the entire season without the on-field excellence and ebullience of their All-Star catcher.
Perez will seek a second opinion on Tuesday, but the Royals have already confirmed that surgery is a possibility, and others are saying it has been recommended. That will effectively have Perez off the field until 2020.
From a franchise perspective, in the purest baseball sense, having Perez miss this season isn’t the absolute worst thing in the world. The Royals aren’t going to contend this season, although they should surely be improved from last year’s dumpster fire. But if they are going to start to slowly turn the corner, next year and beyond are far more important, and a season with no wear and tear on other parts of Sal’s body might not be the worst thing in the world. If, of course, surgery doesn’t take away one of Perez’s top weapons, his lethal throwing.
But from a pure entertainment and fan standpoint, this couldn’t be worse news. The most familiar faces on the squad are Perez, Alex Gordon, and Whit Merrifield, and while the latter two are in some regards fan favorites, their charisma factor is mighty low. Each is a lead-by-example type, and each regards being a public face as far more an obligation than a pleasure. Salvy eats up being in front of the camera like a spoon. Gordon would rather have a spoonful of lard, and Merrifield’s biggest strength, the boulder-sized chip on his shoulder, is hardly a marketing delight.
I’m far from ever feeling sorry for a giant corporation, but I’m assuming Perez will be a part of the Hy Vee marketing campaign again this year. His smiling face as he assists customers at the grocery store will only pour salt in the wounds of Royals fans as they watch Cam Gallagher work nightly behind the dish.
Which brings me to Mondesi. He showed in the last couple of months last season the flashes that make him what is often said, but seldom seen, a true five-tool ballplayer. He is also a bouncy, athletic player with a great smile, and he speaks rather good English. All of these things could well provide a little salve for fans in 2019. But, of course, he has to go do it, and do it without getting hurt, which has been the biggest concern about him all along.
But one thing Mondesi can’t provide is a real connection to the Royals pennant teams. Oh, he was on the roster in 2015 for no discernible reason, but he wasn’t part of the wonderful story. Kansas City fans weren’t really rewarded for their patience through miserable baseball with a run, merely a couple of moments in time, and were sent all too quickly back to miserable baseball last year. But the sight of Perez out there with the more occasional Gatorade bucket dump, was a nice reminder of those great times that passed so quickly.
Gordon has become more a cautionary tale than anything else, and Merrifield wasn’t even on the team, actually so pissed at the organization he has openly said that he didn’t even watch the playoffs in 2015. So even though he now has been given a decent contract, he hardly is someone that embraces the whole thing.
Maybe some kind of new stories can be created this season. Maybe Brad Keller really is a star, maybe Ryan O’Hearn is a legitimate power hitter, maybe thus far first round busts Kyle Zimmer, Bubba Starling, and Hunter Dozier change those narratives. But that would have been far more fun if they were doing it with the lovably goofy Perez being part of the party.
Because in this still moribund free agent market for all those but the Machado’s and Harper’s of the world, there still are legitimate players available, the Royals have viable veteran options. And in this specific case, the Royals have reportedly reached out to Martin Maldanado, who in 2017 won the only Gold Glove that Perez hasn’t in the last six years. But he can’t hit, so the Royals might just be better suited to play Cam Gallagher and save some money.
But to me, unfortunately, the Royals seem more interested in not being embarrassed than actually building for the future. The absolutely galling performance until the last month in 2018 was unexpected to everyone, and even more so within the organization, and has created some oddities like trying to field a track team as much as a baseball one. Yes, the Royals won the World Series with a team that had strong pitching and defense, but you could win many a bar bet with the knowledge that their offense (7th in baseball) was better than their pitching (10th).
Maybe this year the Royals will surprise us as much in a good way in 2019 as they did in an awful way in 2018. But even if that happens, unless they REALLY surprise us, there won’t be as much fun to be had at the ballpark, with the only real face the franchise has spending the year rehabbing.