Royals Rumblings - News for January 15, 2025

The wait for Arizona action continues.

MLB’s Anne Rogers details the catching hierarchy for the Kansas City Royals heading into spring training.

But as we’ll see below, catching is a real strength of the organization. It’s also fair to wonder how many games Perez will catch. He logged 765 innings behind the plate last year but also a career high in innings at first base with 392 1/3. There’s no doubt that helps Perez stay fresher, allowing him to perform better offensively.

Regardless of what the future holds, Perez is the Royals’ catcher in 2025. And who knows what he has in store? He keeps surprising everyone; this year will be no different.

Christopher Hennessy at ClutchPoints named four “bargain bin free agent targets” for the Royals, including suggesting a reunion with Whit Merrifield.

Bringing back a fan favorite can work when it is in a limited role. What Royals fans do not want to see is Merrifield come back and get too many at-bats and struggle. But in a bench role where he plays once per week, he could thrive. It did not work for him with the Phillies last year but his numbers with the Braves were slightly better. In 42 games he had a 92 OPS+ in Atlanta compared to a 62 in 53 games in Philly.

MLB Pipeline named their top catching prospects, with Kansas City’s Blake Mitchell landing at sixth on the list. But another top Royals catching prospect received kudos on the list.

Keep an eye on: Carter Jensen, Royals
More evaluators across the game are buying into Jensen’s profile after he clubbed a career-high 18 homers between High-A and Double-A during his age-20 season last year. The left-handed-hitting backstop worked on being less passive at the plate to hunt pitches he could drive, but his uptick in aggression didn’t hurt his overall chances of being a high-OBP type. With another solid year in 2025, Jensen would likely beat Mitchell to Kansas City, and he might just be good enough to hold him off to be Salvador Perez’s long-term successor.

Kevin O’Brien at The Royals Reporter continues ranking Royals prospects, with new 40-man addition Eric Cerantola landing at 22nd on his latest update.

Cerantola never held the closer’s role in Double-A or Triple-A, but he arguably sported the best stuff of any reliever in the upper Minors of the Royals system. The former Mississippi State product was a strikeout machine in both Northwest Arkansas and Omaha, sporting a 31.4% K rate across both levels. That punch-out ability is why the Royals added him to the 40-man this offseason, as a club could’ve taken a chance on Cerantola in the Rule 5 Draft with his “swing-and-miss” stuff. The main drawbacks with Cerantola are that he’s primarily a two-pitch pitcher (he heavily relies on his four-seamer and slider) and he walks way too many batters. Conversely, Cerantola will get an opportunity to work on that repertoire and command in Spring Training and in Omaha in 2025.

Baseball Prospectus reveals their top 101 prospects ahead of the 2025 season, with Jac Caglianone being the lone Royals representative at #34.

MLB announced the first spring training workouts and photo days for each team ahead of next month’s ramp up.

The Royals announced several promotions on their baseball operations staff. The list included Colin Gonzales as the Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting, and Brandon Nelson is now the Assistant Director of Research and Development.

MLB’s Will Leitch names the Cleveland Guardians as the AL’s least likely repeat division champions.

A.J. Puckett, a second-round pick by the Royals in the 2016 MLB Draft, drew rave reviews following Tread Athletic’s Pro Day this week. The righty didn’t play in affiliated ball last season but posted a 2.17 ERA and 1.121 WHIP across 49 relief appearances in Mexico in 2024-2025.

Tune in for a closer look at the Royals farm.

Former Royals pitcher Jonathan Heasley reportedly joins the Chicago White Sox on a minor-league deal with a non-roster invite to spring training.

Check out Robbie Poulain’s work for the Royals this past season.

The Kansas City Star’s Eric Adler ($) takes a blunt look at homelessness in Kansas City.

The Martin City Telegraph’s Diane Euston details the mysterious and temporary disappearance of a Kansas City priest in 1926.

Toonami’s relaunch later this month brings Sailor Moon back onto the airwaves.

Apparently, they are selling recycled toilet paper in Japan...made from used diapers.

Today’s song is Kolby Cooper with his single “Mama.”