3 Kansas City Royals who could make significant leap in 2020

As the Kansas City Royals continue to rebuild, these three players are in line to make a significant leap in 2020.

For the Kansas City Royals, 2014 and 2015 surely feels like eons ago. Keeping the teams that made back-to-back World Series trips, with a win in 2015, was going to be hard for a small budget team. But back-to-back 100 loss seasons is still the kind of low point that couldn’t be expected.

Fortunately in some way, the Royals won’t be able to lose 100-plus games in a 60-game 2020 MLB season. The rebuild doesn’t appear close to complete, but gains can still be had individually and collectively in a short season. With the randomness of small samples in mind, maybe the Royals find the right mix and make some unexpected noise in the short sprint of a season.

Under new manager Mike Matheny, these three players could make a significant leap for the Kansas City Royals in 2020.

These Kansas City Royals who could make a significant leap this year

3. 2B Nicky Lopez

Lopez made his major league debut in May of 2019 and finished the season with a .240/.276/.325 slash-line with 22 doubles over 402 plate appearances (104 games). His minor league track record suggests he won’t walk or strike out much, and that held up in his first big league action (12.7 percent strikeout rate; 4.5 percent walk rate). He also stole at least 15 bases in 2016, 2017 and 2018, so he should automatically run at a higher rate this year under Matheny (just one steal in two attempts with the Royals in 2019).

Before typical spring training was taken away this year, Lopez was hitting .360 in the Cactus League.

Lopez was a .296 hitter in the minors, with enough pop (.403 slugging percentage, 85 extra-base hits) to be extra dangerous. After seeing time at both middle infield spots last year, he’s expected to be the Royals’ primary second baseman in 2020. A spot toward the top of the lineup would help to foster a breakthrough offensively.