Royals Rumblings - News for June 10, 2025

Congrats to AL Player of the Week Vinnie Pasquantino!

Vinnie Pasquantino is named American League Player of the Week.

The Royals welcome the New York Yankees to Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday evening. Pasquantino, who owns a nine-game hitting streak, looks to continue his torrid stretch at home. “Vinnie has been swinging the bat really well for like six, seven weeks now,” Quatraro said.

“I don’t know if that has much to do with where he is hitting in the order. If it does, good, but he has been on a pretty good hot streak here for a while now.”

Anne Rogers writes about how the Royals found themselves fortunate to have Jac Caglianone fall to them in the 2024 draft.

Bridges had targeted Caglianone for a long time, but it wasn’t until closer to the Draft that he realized he might actually fall to the Royals. When Bridges heard the A’s, picking at No. 4, were going to select Nick Kurtz, a first baseman out of Wake Forest who made his debut in April this year, the path to Caglianone became clearer.

“[Travis] Bazzana was going No. 1 to Cleveland, and then the Reds going with a pitcher [Chase Burns at No. 2 out of Wake Forest], I thought there was, really, conceivably one team that could stop it,” Bridges said. “That was Colorado [picking third]. Say what you will about the Rockies, they draft a lot of good hitters. That’s the one team who could stop it. And when they took Charlie [Condon, out of Georgia], I was like, ‘It’s going to happen.’”

David Lesky finds some of the managerial criticism of Matt Quatraro to be misplaced.

The bunt on Friday was because the Royals had runners on first and second with nobody out. Garcia has bunted quite a bit in his career. He’s gotten two sacrifice bunts down this year and 17 in his career. In a 2-2 game late, the Royals felt that runners on second and third and one out with Pasquantino at the plate was the situation they wanted. I’ll preface what I’m about to say with the fact that we can’t know what would have happened next, but if Pasquantino hits that 104.9 MPH rocket with a runner on third, the infield is in and it scores two runs. Garcia didn’t execute.

And that’s what it comes down to. The players aren’t executing enough. If Garcia gets that bunt down and the Royals win, I’ll bet at least half of the people upset about it wouldn’t even give it a second thought. I saw a lot of comments about how unlikely it is he’d have hit into a double play given his season. He hit into one on Saturday and one yesterday, though. He may or may not have on Friday, but the bunt was designed to ensure that two players, both with speed, were in scoring position for one of the hottest hitters in baseball. I get it. Again, the player didn’t execute.

David Schoenfield at ESPN has Bobby Witt Jr., Maikel Garcia, and Kris Bubic on his AL All-Star team.

Pitcher Rich Hill has a June 15 opt-out in his contract.

Carlos Beltrán plans to ask Jac Caglianone to play for Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic.

Every Royals/Yankees game this week will be on national TV for you out-of-market fans.

A Missouri state senator introduces a measure to proclaim the Cardinals as the state’s “official baseball team.”

Boston calls up top prospect Roman Anthony.

Braves rookie AJ Smith-Shawver undergoes Tommy John surgery.

The teams that could find internal help to the offense from the farm system.

The Phillies believe Jesús Luzardo has been tipping his pitches.

Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler may be the best pitch-blocker in the Statcast era.

How Atlanta’s Battery Park has become a model for other teams to follow.

The field for the NCAA College World Series is set.

The Savannah Bananas are the hottest ticket in sports.

ESPN is launching the Dick Vitale Invitational, matching top college basketball teams.

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s epic French Open final marks a new era for men’s tennis.

Warner Bros. Discovery is splitting into two companies.

Midlife crisis is coming for millennials.

Ben Stiller may bring back the Twilight Zone to movies.

Your song of the day is Sly & The Family Stone (RIP) with Everyday People.