Kansas City Royals DVOA, Stats, & MLB Rankings

Kansas City Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino smashed his second home run of the season on Saturday as part of a nice 3-for-4 performance that picked his batting average up to .212 with a .291 wOBA. Vinnie P. has started the season slowly for the Royals but had a big day Saturday. His fourth-inning blast was the only run the team could put on the board against Luis L. Ortiz, though, and ultimately, the Royals lost to Cleveland, 6-3. Both teams are hovering right around .500, headed into the series finale on Sunday, where the Royals will look to avoid the road sweep. Pasquantino will hope this home run is the start of a power surge since he had just a 30.2% hard-hit rate coming into Saturday's game after posting over a 40% hard-hit rate in each of the last three seasons.

The Kansas City Royals announced on Friday that they placed right-handed reliever Hunter Harvey (shoulder) on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to April 8) with a right teres-major strain and recalled right-hander Steven Cruz from Triple-A Omaha in a corresponding move. Harvey was diagnosed with a Grade 1 strain, which is the most mild, so he could be ready to return to the Royals' bullpen when his 15 days are up. Veteran Carlos Estevez has settled in as KC's closer early on in 2025, with Lucas Erceg serving as the primary late-inning setup man. With Harvey on the shelf for a little bit, expect John Schreiber to be leaned on more in high-leverage setup spots. Although he won't see many save chances, if any, Harvey is a key member of the Royals bullpen and had tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings with no walks and seven K's in his first six outings this year.

Kansas City Royals relief pitcher Lucas Erceg pitched a perfect eighth inning to help the Royals emerge from Thursday afternoon's matchup with Minnesota with a 3-2 victory. Erceg took over in the top of the eighth after the Royals rallied for two runs in the seventh to take the lead on a sacrifice fly from Bobby Witt Jr. Erceg made the narrow lead stand up by getting three straight groundouts and handing the lead over to Carlos Estevez to close it out. The hold was Erceg's fifth of the season, and the 29-year-old righty has given up just two hits and no runs in 6 1/3 innings across seven appearances this season, with a total of four strikeouts. He'll continue to be a high-leverage setup option for the Royals, who head to Cleveland on Friday to start a series against the Guardians.

Kansas City Royals outfielders Kyle Isbel and Hunter Renfroe and second baseman Michael Massey are all sitting in Thursday's series finale against the division-rival Minnesota Twins. Drew Waters is starting in center field and batting ninth, Cavan Biggio is in right field and hitting fifth, and Maikel Garcia is at the keystone and is batting sixth against Twins right-hander Bailey Ober. Isbel has gone 8-for-30 with a homer, double and three RBI in his first 11 games, while both Renfroe and Massey have struggled to get going early on in the 2025 season for the Royals. Garcia is probably the best DFS bet as a sleeper on Thursday, as he's hitting .308 (12-for-39) with two homers, three doubles, six RBI and a steal in 12 games so far this year. He's hit just .143 in seven career at-bats against Ober, but it's come with a home run and two RBI.

Kansas City Royals pitching prospect Noah Cameron tossed six shutout frames en route to picking up his second victory of the campaign on Tuesday evening over St. Paul. Cameron allowed just two hits and one free pass while striking out five. In his first start of the season, Cameron logged five innings of two-run ball (one earned) with a 3:6 BB:K. The 25-year-old was in the mix to earn a spot on the MLB roster during camp but eventually fell short in the competition. However, given his strong start to the Triple-A regular season, the southpaw could be in the mix for an early MLB debut. Last summer, Cameron logged 54 1/3 innings with Triple-A Omaha and held a 2.23 ERA with a 1.01 WHIP. Across this stint, he held a strong 11:62 BB:K. If he continues to perform well, he could enter stash territory.