Royals Rumblings - News for May 22, 2025

Salvador Perez hadn’t homered in a while.

Salvador Perez is climbing the all-time AL catcher home run leaderboard:

The list of names ahead of him include Hall of Famers Carlton Fisk (376), Yogi Berra (358) and Ivan Rodriguez (281). Eight-time All-Star Lance Parrish (289) is also on the charts.

It’s conceivable, and reasonable, to expect Perez to move up a few slots on that list. During 13 seasons in the Major Leagues — he did not play in 2019 due to a elbow injury — Perez has averaged 21 home runs.

Daniel Lynch IV was satisfied with how he pitched in his first start in almost a year:

Lynch issued three walks in 1 2/3 scoreless innings. The silver lining is that he didn’t allow a run and thus navigated the Giants’ lineup unscathed.

“I feel like those walks at the end, I just ran out of gas,” Lynch said. “I think you don’t want to make excuses. But also, part of being confident is being realistic.

“I pitched four out of six games and got up to 40 pitches. I haven’t done that in a while. I don’t look at it as I was being inefficient. You body has limitations, but I felt the first 30 pitches I executed extremely well.”

Davy Andrews at FanGraphs explores how injuries will test Kansas City’s rotation depth:

Quatraro’s quotes emphasize that the Royals are still figuring out a short-term plan to get through these injuries. They’re still very much developing their long-term plan, too. In an ideal world, the team would have enough healthy starters to push Lorenzen back into the bullpen, where he has historically pitched better, but that seems unlikely to happen. Two other Kansas City starters, Alec Marsh and Kyle Wright, were already out hurt with shoulder injuries and won’t be back any time soon. Even when they do return, both players project to put up ERAs above 4.00. Cameron was the only starter performing well in Omaha (though Luinder Avila has pitched to a 3.63 FIP that belies his 4.74 ERA). As such, the team is looking further afield.

Rich Hill was carving kids less than half his age down at the complex:

Kiley McDaniel has an updated top 50 prospects list, with Jac Caglianone coming in at #18.

Andy McCullough evaluates which teams are actually trying to win. ($)

Detroit has the best record in baseball through 50 games.

An enterprising young man named Joseph Lasala dug deep into the data to try to quantify the effectiveness of each pitch type. (h/t Jeff Zimmerman for reposting this)

Luis Robert Jr. is not bullish on his trade value ahead of this summer’s deadline.

The Mets are scuffling and people are going nuts about Juan Soto.

Andruw Jones will manage Netherlands in next year’s World Baseball Classic.

NBC has made a bid for the MLB broadcasting rights previously held by ESPN.

Pittsburgh right-handed pitcher Jared Jones and infielder Enmanuel Valdez are both undergoing season-ending surgeries.

San Francisco right-handed pitcher Justin Verlander is heading to the IL with a pec injury.

Washington outfielder Dylan Crews is heading to the IL with an oblique injury.

Kansas reenters the college baseball top 25 as conference tournaments get underway.

Sources: Tempers flare in tense tush push debate. I cannot take a sport seriously in which that is a serious headline.

The NFL will allow players to compete in flag football at the 2028 Olympics.

The NBA is in an era of chaos.

In keeping with that, the Indiana Pacers made an enormous comeback late to steal game one against the New York Knicks.

The Dallas Stars mounted a comeback of their own to take down the Edmonton Oilers in their game one.

Your song of the day is Last One To Know by Steve Aoki, Mike Shinoda, and Lights.