A history of Royals infielders moving to the outfield

Can the Royals transition more infielders to the outfield?

The Royals had one of the worst outfields in baseball offensively last year. Their solution to that was to not acquire a single regular outfielder, but instead try converting some of their infielders into outfielders. The team plans to use spring training as a crash course in “how to play the outfield” for Maikel Garcia, Michael Massey, and Jonathan India, none of whom have played more than a few innings of outfield at the professional level.

Moving to a corner outfield spot is a move down the defensive spectrum, so it shouldn’t be hard at all. Tell ‘em Wash!

Garcia seems to have the athleticism for the move, but much of his value has been tied up in his infield defense. It remains to be seen whether he can develop a bat that would serve as an upgrade over what the Royals have been putting out there. Massey could benefit from a move to the outfield as bending over for ground balls has exacerbated his chronic back issues. India grades out with a well below-average arm, so it remains to be seen if he can adjust to the outfield, but his bat would definitely play out there. Early on, well it’s still a work in progress.

Moving players to the outfield isn’t new. Teams have used the outfield as a place to stash players who couldn’t cut it as infielders, or who were beat out defensively by another player. Here are some past examples of Royals players who moved to the outfield.

Mark Teahen

When the Royals traded Carlos Beltrán, then-general manager Allard Baird insisted on getting a third baseman in return. They settled on a three-way deal that netted them third base prospect Mark Teahen from the A’s. He started at the hot corner for a year before the Royals found themselves with the #2 overall pick in the draft and a chance to draft a midwestern college star who happened to play third base - Alex Gordon.

It turned out that insisting on a third baseman was perhaps short-sighted. Gordon was in the big leagues by 2007, raising questions on what to do with Teahen. The Royals had him try right field.

My recollection was that Teahen was not a good defender - he had a tall build and a strong arm, but didn’t seem particularly fast. In a July 9 game against the Rays he did lose two balls in the sun, allowing two runs. But the metrics say he was actually pretty good! He was tenth among all outfielders in UZR/150, was positive in Defensive Runs Saved, and rated as one of the best outfield arms. He had 17 outfield assists - fourth most in baseball.

“I don’t know how much better he can play out there,” outfield coach Luis Silverio said. “This guy has done everything. He goes to his left well. He goes to his right well. He charges the ball well. He gets to the wall.

“They’re challenging him right now, but they’re going to have to think more about that.”

The Royals signed Jose Guillen to play right field, moving Teahen again, this time to left. That experiment did not work out at all. Teahen was awful in left, and worse yet, his bat slumped. Being asked to move all over the field may have taken its toll. Later in the year, the team moved back to third when Gordon was demoted, and they even tried having him learn second base in 2009 before trading him to the White Sox after the year.

Alex Gordon

Gordo is perhaps the most famous and successful example of an infielder moving to the outfield. A much-heralded prospect that was named Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year, Gordon initially struggled at the big-league level. He was demoted to the minors late in 2009 and again in May of 2010. Upon the latter demotion, the Royals announced he would move to the outfield to get his bat going.

“We need Alex to play. He is going to go down and do some work in left field, get some playing time in the field, some at first base,” Hillman said. “Not going to ditch third entirely, but I’m hoping that a change in position will give him an opportunity to swing the bat a little bit better. For right now, we’re better with Callaspo at third and with Getz at second. Hopefully both will contribute offensively.

“We will see how it goes.”

It went about as amazing as you could have hoped. Gordon took the assignment seriously, power-shagging fly balls during batting practice and learning everything he could about the position under the tutelage of coach Rusty Kuntz. The move also helped his bat - his OPS jumped over 200 points in 2011, and he led the league in outfield assists, winning the first of eight Gold Gloves in left field.

Hunter Dozier

Dozier was drafted as a shortstop out of college, and played third base in the minors. But the Royals could never seem to figure out where he belonged on the field. Standing at 6’4’’, he was too big at shortstop, but had a strong arm and pretty good sprint speed metrics. His MLB debut came in right field, but by the time he stuck in the big leagues in 2018, he was at first base.

He was back at third base in 2019, when his bat broke out and he hit 26 home runs with a 124 OPS+, good for 2.8 rWAR. But the Royals had a young third baseman (Cheslor Cuthbert) and young first baseman (Ryan O’Hearn) they wanted to get in the lineup. So late in the year Dozier went back to right field.

“Whatever they need me to do, I’m totally on board with. Like I’ve always said, I just want to be in the lineup and wherever I need to play, I’ll play.”

In 2020, the Royals signed Maikel Franco to play third, and committed to playing Dozier in right field. It was a weird pandemic-shortened year in which Dozier’s performance may have been compromised by a COVID infection. But in 2021, he was just flat-out awful. His defense was worth -10 Defensive Runs Saved, and his offense cratered, leaving him worth -2.4 rWAR, worst in baseball. The Royals moved him back to first in 2022, but his bat continued to flounder, eventually leading to his release in 2023.

MJ Melendez

Melendez came up as a catcher, hitting 41 home runs in 2021 as a minor leaguer. Of course, the Royals already had an All-Star behind the plate in Salvador Perez, so while Melendez spent some time at catcher in his rookie year in 2022, he also played left field.

But in early 2023, the Royals decided he would primarily be an outfielder, to focus on offense. In addition to Salvy, Freddy Fermin had emerged as a viable backup at catcher, leaving little need for MJ to play the position.

“It’s not a move because he hasn’t done well defensively. We think there’s been a lot of improvement. But he’s a big part of our offense. If we can jumpstart him that way — plus we have Freddy, who we believe in as well, it gives him a chance to get some experience at this level.”

Melendez had rated poorly as a catcher in pitch-framing and blocking, so there was some reason to move him out from behind the plate. But his outfield defense was pretty rough in 2023, as he had the fourth-worst Defensive Runs Saved in baseball. He improved in 2024, although he was inconsistent (the Wild Card series against the Orioles was the perfect example of this when he had a terrible misplay in Game 1, only to come back with a terrific catch in Game 2). But the bat has yet to get going, leaving him as a below-replacement-level player and he now stands at a career crossroads.