Royals Rumblings - News for April 8, 2025

Hey, a win streak!

Jaylon Thompson writes about Kyle Isbel’s big night against the Twins.

Isbel’s three hits Monday fell one short of a career best, set against the Twins in 2023. “I’ve been working hard in the (batting) cage pre-game,” Isbel said.

“I got a pitch he hung a little bit and I put a good swing on it.”

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was ejected for arguing a pitch clock violation.

Baldelli told reporters after the game that since Woods Richardson didn’t get a response from Lentz after tapping his ear, he realized he needed to try and get the pitch off before the clock expired.

“So he got back on the mound and tried to make a pitch,” Baldelli said. “What else is he going to do? He was forced to that. And with two seconds left and he’s trying to make a pitch on the mound and he gets a pitch clock violation called on him. And the clock hadn’t even expired.”

Anne Rogers reports that the umpires took some issue with Lucas Erceg’s glove having a strip of grey.

She also writes about Tyler Tolbert’s long road to the big leagues.

“When I got drafted, I knew that my legs could carry me to the big leagues,” Tolbert said. “Everything else had to develop. But I really try to be elite with my baserunning.”...

“God has His timing, and everything has a reason,” Tolbert said. “... It motivated me more to get here. Stay on the grind, build it brick by brick and then one day, it’ll all come together. My journey may take longer than others. We had to go to different places to get there. But I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

David Lesky wraps up the weekend, including games from the minors.

I suppose I could make you all wait until the end of this section, but let’s start with Jac Caglianone. He went 3 for 5 yesterday with a double and hit a ball way out of the stadium on Saturday night. He’s now hitting .385/.412/.692 in three games. The sample is impossibly small and four strikeouts is a touch high for 17 plate appearances, but he’s doing exactly what he did all spring. I’m not saying this point is after three games, but I hope they are willing to update their timetable if he keeps this up. He should be working in right field like yesterday.

Craig Brown also recaps the weekend and the slow start of MJ Melendez.

The Royals will need to make a move soon on MJ Melendez. I was hopeful that the reworked batting stance would yield results, but that’s just not happening. He has reached base four times in 24 plate appearances while striking out eight times. That’s a line of .100/.250/.100 with a 14 wRC+.

It’s obviously very early days, so take all Statcast metrics with the appropriate grain of salt, but his average exit velocity is 85 mph, about seven mph lower than his career average. He has yet to barrel a pitch. And he’s really, I mean really, getting under pitches with more pop-ups than your favorite food truck. Sometimes, you look at a .167 BABIP (and again, I have to stress that it’s far too early to be looking at these numbers as gospel), and you can see that it’s not bad luck that it’s so low. It was arrived at for a reason.

The Blue Jays sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a 14-year, $500 million contract.

Astros pitcher Spencer Arrighetti breaks his thumb during batting practice.

The champion Dodgers visit the White House.

Red Sox catcher Connor Wong fractures his pinkie.

The Brewers acquire pitcher Quinn Priester from Boston.

Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor collects his 1,500th career hit.

MLB players and coaches chime in on the torpedo bats.

The physics of the torpedo bats.

How this winter’s free agent class looks.

Boston outfielder Jarred Duran opens up about his suicide attempt.

Tigers Assistant GM Sam Menzin resigns due to an investigation into lewd photos sent to colleagues.

Florida defeats Houston to win the men’s college basketball championship.

Southampton becomes the first Premier League team to be relegated with seven games to go.

Scientists claim to have brought back the dire wolf back from extinction.

Do fish oil supplements work?

A Minecraft Movie smashes box office projections.

Your song of the day is Prince with Partyup.