2022 Fantasy Baseball Insertion Ranking - Kansas City Royals
Creating my 2022 fantasy baseball rankings one team at a time
Explanation & Other Team Links Here
Hitters to Rank
Whit Merrifield
Salvador Perez
Adalberto Mondesi
Bobby Witt Jr.
Andrew Benintendi
Nicky Lopez
Whit Merrifield
Prior to the joke 2020 season, Merrifield had never hit homers at even a league-average rate. In that dumb 2020 season, he hit 10 homers in 265 PA, which was good for a 29.4 PA/HR, right around the average. A regression there was expected but in 2021 it fell to a whole new level of bad as he hit just 10 homers in 720 PA. His barrel rate was just 3.5% and he maxed out at 109.3 miles per hour.
So we can definitely view Merrifield as a liability in power, but he maintains top-fifty value for runs, batting average, and steals. He once again was one of the best contact hitters in the league last year with a 14% K% and an 84% contact rate, which gave him another competitive batting average of .277, and that was on a normal .317 BABIP. There’s definitely some room for him to inch back towards .300 in batting average, but .280-.290 seems like the most likely spot for him to land in. He’s 33 now, but foot speed isn’t typically something that goes away overnight (over... winter?) and he stole 40 bags last year.
Notably, the projection systems aren’t buying that. He has projections of 30, 29, and 25 steals from the three projection systems in my super-sick combined projections dashy. Only Mondesi, Marte, and Trea Turner have higher steals projections than Merrifield on ATC, and he’s the third cheaper of those names - so that’s why you’re taking Merrifield. I would still prefer to try to compete in steals without needing a “specialist”, so he’s low on my priority list - but I get it.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Jazz Chisholm, Tim Anderson
Salvador Perez
He stayed healthy, swung a ton (second-most in the league at 58.9%), and hit 48 homers. His barrel rate was great (16.3%), but not exactly at 50 homer level (16 hitters had higher barrel rates, but only Vlad matched him in homers). The swing rate helped there since he was putting more balls in play overall than other people since he only walked 4% of the time.
He was more “really good” than “elite” until August or so:
On July 31st he was at 26 homers, which was 11 behind Shohei Ohtani for the league lead. Then he hit 22 more from August 1st on with a .597 SLG.
Now you have to use a high pick (ADP of 32 right now on NFBC) to get an aging catcher (although hold up this guy is only 31, that’s pretty amazing to hear!). You are relying on him to stay healthy, which of course is true with any player you draft, but catchers are a bit more of a risk in that regard. And then you’re hoping that he keeps hiting homers at a high level because he’s not going to hit for a good batting average or steal any bases.
If he does do anything like last year, the pick will be justified because he will provide so, so much value than the rest of the catcher position, but taking a catcher this early is very risky - and that’s not the path I like to tread.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Franmil Reyes, Hunter Renfroe
Adalberto Mondesi
He saw just 136 PAs due to injury, but there are tons of playing time questions even if this guy is healthy. He’s just not that valuable as a real-life hitter with his 30%+ K%, and he has been more like a league-average power guy since 2018 (PA/HR of 49.2, 38.8, and then 22.7 last three seasons).
I’ve been saying it a lot, but one of my main priorities in drafts is just to get steals locked in early so I don’t have to go this route. The good news is that Mondesi is much cheaper than last year, mostly because the cat is out of the bag about his playing time. I’m not going here.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Myles Straw
Bobby Witt Jr.
No MLB data to look at, so let’s just kick it to our friends with the projections, I’m guessing they bake in as much as I ever could in a paragraph or two.
All eyes will be on the Royals management this spring to see if he can make the team out of camp, and I’d imagine there will be a wild ADP swing as soon as that would be announced. The projection systems seem to be expecting the late April call-up. Even now, he’s going in the top 100 picks.
What I want to see from a minor league dude to draft him as a rookie are low K%, high BB%, a really good HR/PA, and a bunch of steals. Last year in AAA, he went for a 22.5% K%, a 9.1% BB%, 17 homers in 285 PA (16.7 PA/HR), and 15 steals. So yeah that’s a quad-fecta, for lack of a better (or a real) term.
K% sticks pretty well between the minors and Majors, but nothing else really seems to. We know that the Royals love to run, so you’d think he could steal some bases. It’s always tough to put faith in a guy without any Major League playing time, but Witt fits the model of a guy I’d be willing to put some chips on.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Ke’Bryan Hayes, Gleyber Torres
Andrew Benintendi
After being dust for three seasons, Benintendi had a pretty decent season in 2021, very quietly. He hit .276/.324/.442 with 17 homers (31.6 PA/HR) and eight steals. He had an average barrel rate at 8.9%, but with a very nice 80% contact rate and 18% K%.
If he repeats all of that, he’s a guy that will contribute decently in everything but not really have much upside in anything either.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Yoan Moncada, Lourdes Gurriel
Nicky Lopez
Same story with the comps you’ll see below. Guy has no pop (0.7% Brl%!!!), but hits everything (13% K%, 86% Contact%). If he leads off he can steal enough bases and score enough runs to matter, but he is crater-crater in HR/RBI and that matters quite a bit.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Nick Madrigal, Luis Arraez, David Fletcher
Pitchers to Rank
Scott Barlow
Well, this probably isn’t going to be a good season for the Royals.
Scott Barlow
A closer on a pretty bad team, but ht’es quite cheap in drafts and was good last year (30% K%, 8.6% BB%, 76 PA/HR). I actually do like going to these kinda guys for my closers since saves opportunities are more random than people think, and you can get these guys after the rest of your team is more or less fully built.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Corey Knebel, Mark Melancon