Royals announce Minor League rosters

With the Minor League season less than a week away, the Royals announced preliminary rosters for their four affiliates on Thursday, headlined by the club’s top prospect and No. 7 prospect in baseball, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who will start the season at Double-A Northwest Arkansas when the season begins May 4.

Witt, 20, made solid impressions in Spring Training and was in the running for an Opening Day roster spot before being sent to Minor League camp in late March. He participated in the Royals’ alternate training site camp over the past month and he has continued his progression; on Wednesday, he knocked in the go-ahead runs with a single in the Royals’ 3-1 win over the Rangers’ alternate site club.

“There’s a lot of arguments to be made,” assistant general manager/player development J.J. Picollo said about the conversations surrounding Witt. “Should he go to Triple-A? Go to Double-A? At one time, it was, ‘Is he ready for the Major Leagues?’ But when you really think about where he’s been and trying to prepare guys for the Major Leagues, we just want him to continue to build on the good foundation that he already has.”

After his first season with the Royals’ rookie affiliate in 2019, Witt is expected to move quickly through the Minors this season, with many believing that he’ll make his debut at some point in '21. As they’ve shown before, the Royals won’t hesitate to promote a top prospect when he’s ready, and there’s ample playing opportunities for him on the big league club. He will get reps in at shortstop and third base to maximize his versatility for when he’s ready for the Majors.

“We just want him to be as prepared as he can be,” Picollo said. “Just keep building the foundation -- let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Give him the best chance to succeed so when he gets to the Major Leagues, he doesn’t ever go back to the Minor Leagues.”

After having no Minor League season last year, teams will be cautious with their young arms handling a full season of innings. The Royals will have tandem starters for at least the first month at their High-A and Low-A affiliates. That includes their No. 3 prospect, Asa Lacy, who is scheduled to start the season in High-A Quad Cities. The lefty is built up to three innings now and will be the starter in every tandem pair.

The Royals are especially excited to see him in front of opposing hitters after so many intrasquad games this spring.

“He’ll throw a curveball where he locks up the right-handed hitter because it’s a late-breaking power curve, and he’ll throw the slider to the right-handed hitter to get under bats,” Picollo said. “When he’s doing things like that, it’s pretty fun to watch. We got to get him out there pitching.”

The top prospects missing from the rosters sent out Thursday were pitchers Austin Cox (No. 10) and Noah Murdock (No. 16), as well as outfielder Erick Peña (No. 6). Cox (arm soreness) and Murdock (minor pectoral strain) were slowed this month with injuries, but both are healthy and being built back up to join clubs in mid-May.

Peña will stay in Arizona at extended camp for now, as this is the 18-year-old’s first real season stateside after signing with the Royals in 2019. He was at the alternate training site last year and big league camp this year, so this will be the first time that he’s going to play with his own age group.

“Everything has been moving really fast,” Picollo said. “His baseball experiences are far different than any player I’ve been around. … There’s been some challenges, but he’s handled it well. And I think he’ll get better footing and be more prepared when the time is right to go out to Columbia.”

Here are the full rosters, broken down by affiliates and positions. The numbers in parentheses are the players’ prospect ranking on MLB Pipeline:

Triple-A Omaha

Catchers: Nick Dini, Sebastian Rivero, Meibrys Viloria

Infielders: Gabriel Cancel, Lucius Fox (No. 26), Kelvin Gutierrez, Kevin Merrell, Emmanuel Rivera

Outfielders: Kyle Isbel (No. 5), Erick Mejia, Anderson Miller, Edward Olivares, Bubba Starling

Pitchers: Scott Blewett, Ronald Bolaños (No. 24), Kris Bubic, Grant Gavin, Carlos Hernández (No. 11), Jake Kalish, Jackson Kowar (No. 4), Daniel Lynch (No. 2), Jake Newberry, Michael Shawaryn, Andres Sotillet, Gabe Speier, Jace Vines

The Omaha pitching staff is stacked this year, especially the rotation with Lynch, Kowar, Bubic, Hernández and Bolaños set to start there. All are expected to either make their Major League debuts this year or have helped the Royals before and will again soon.

Double-A Northwest Arkansas

Catchers: Nathan Esposito, MJ Melendez (No. 14), Freddy Fermin

Infielders: Brhet Bewley, Dennicher Carrasco, Angelo Castellano, Nick Pratto (No. 9), Bobby Witt Jr. (No. 1), Clay Dungan

Outfielders: Dairon Blanco, Brewer Hicklen (No. 25), Travis Jones, Rudy Martin

Pitchers: Derrick Adams, Jonathan Bowlan (No. 8), Dylan Coleman, Yefri Del Rosario (No. 30), Josh Dye, Peyton Gray, Jon Heasley (No. 13), Alec Marsh (No. 12), Marcelo Martinez, Andres Nunez, Carlos Sanabria, Collin Snider, Stephen Woods Jr.

Bowlan, Heasley and Marsh all impressed during big league camp this spring and continued that into the Minor League portion. Del Rosario will be the only tandem starter behind Woods Jr. at this level through May as the Royals decide what his future looks like as either a starter or reliever.

High-A Quad Cities

Catchers: Tyler Cropley, William Hancock, Logan Porter

Infielders: Nathan Eaton, Jimmy Govern, Jeison Guzman, Nick Loftin (No. 7), Michael Massey, Vinnie Pasquantino

Outfielders: Eric Cole, Tyler Gentry (No. 22), Seuly Matias (No. 17), John Rave

Pitchers: Dante Biasi, Garrett Davila, Jonah Dipoto, Mitch Ellis, Grant Gambrell, Zach Haake (No. 19), Will Klein (No. 27), Asa Lacy (No. 3), Adam Lukas, Yohanse Morel, Drew Parrish, Anthony Veneziano, Nolan Watson, Angel Zerpa (No. 29)

Where to start Matias was another tough decision for the Royals. The power-hitting outfielder struggled at Class A Advanced Wilmington in 2019, with 98 strikeouts in 189 at-bats. But he made improvements at the alternate site last year, so now it will be about translating that into game action this season.

“It’s not that we need him dominate that league, master that league, that's not what our message was,” Picollo said. “It’s the consistency of the at-bats, showing that he can lay off the better breaking balls and get into more advantage counts so he has a better chance of hitting the ball hard and [can] swing and miss less.”

Low-A Columbia

Catchers: Kale Emshoff, Felix Familia, Omar Hernandez

Infielders: Maikel Garcia, Herard Gonzalez, Rubendy Jaquez, Brady McConnell (No. 20), Jake Means, Matt Schmidt, Tyler Tolbert

Outfielders: Tucker Bradley, Darryl Collins (No. 23), Diego Hernandez, Juan Carlos Negret

Pitchers: Adrian Alcantara, Ismael Aquino, A.J. Block, Delvin Capellan, Christian Cosby, Luis De Avila, Ben Hernandez (No. 15), Rylan Kaufman, Emilio Marquez, Cruz Noriega, Anderson Paulino, Walter Pennington, Patrick Smith, Matt Stil, Nathan Webb, Marlin Willis