Heading into the 2022 season, the Royalsâ farm system ranked fifth in baseball. It was led by superstar-in-waiting Bobby Witt Jr. and also included future big leaguers Vinnie Pasquantino, Michael Massey and Alec Marsh.
Now, Witt is one of the best players in the sport, while Pasquantino, Massey, Marsh and others, including MJ Melendez, Kyle Isbel, Angel Zerpa and Maikel Garcia, have contributed to a big league team that finished the first half in the thick of the American League wild card race.
Once that group graduated from prospect consideration, however, things began to go south. Kansas Cityâs system ranked 29th in 2023 and entered this season dead last in BAâs organization talent rankings.
There was nowhere for the Royals to go but up, and a system-wide overhaul has helped expedite that process. And although the results are only now starting to shine through, the first hints of change came in 2021, when the Royals overhauled their minor league hitting department.
One of those key additions was Drew Saylor. Hired away from an assistant hitting coordinatorâs role with the Pirates, Saylor joined the Royals after the 2019 season and really set to work implementing his vision once the minor leagues resumed in 2021 following the lost 2020 season.
A major part of his plan involved what he tabbed âtraining to the truth.â âWe wanted our guys to be able to hit velocity,â Saylor said. âWe got them more comfortable with being uncomfortable, and we wanted them to be able to learn how to hit certain pitch shapes and movement profiles and kind of started there.
âThen weâre able to kind of start to bake in, âOK, well, this guyâs movement profile says this. This guyâs strength profile says that. Hereâs how weâre going to build and put together all those pieces. Hereâs how weâre going to forecast what this should look like. And then, (later), weâre going to reevaluate that.â â
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