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Because of the unfortunate oblique injury that will prevent Jarrod Dyson from starting the regular season in right field for the Kansas City Royals, KC needs another outfielder for Opening Day. After contributing at the big-league level last year, Paulo Orlando stayed active far longer than most MLB full-timers by playing a bunch of winter ball this offseason. His quick bat and smooth defense make that advantage clear and earn him the inside track for the starter’s job so far. Orlando passes the eye-test right now, which probably means more than his .824 OPS through a sample size of just 17 at-bats.
Just keeping his production at around .750 should give KC better-than-average production from right field. In case you were wondering, the Royals earned a World Series title last year while the cumulative production from right fielders resulted in 46 runs batted in and a .617 OPS, the league’s lowest in both regards. The sky isn’t falling in KC any time soon, even if Orlando and every other fill-in struggles to start the year.
Now that Orlando emerges as a clear front-runner for the right field gig, who steps in as the fourth outfielder? KC still has numerous options to consider and analyze through March, but Reymond Fuentes seems to fit the bill. The No. 28 overall pick in the 2009 draft already showed off the speed, defense and potential to hit for contact that makes him a worthy fill-in for Dyson right now. Through his eight games and 14 at-bats in the Cactus League, Fuentes has six hits, one home run, one double, one stolen base and two runs batted in. Perhaps more important than his solid offensive production is the faith the KC coaching staff has in Fuentes’ base-running and defensive skills.
Bubba Starling‘s two hits in 17 at-bats won’t spark much consideration for a promotion yet, even if one of those hits was a laser-shot off the outfield fence that resulted in the crazy-athletic Starling rounding the bases for his first Cactus League inside-the-park home run. Expect Starling to start the regular season at the Double-A level if he doesn’t turn things around and show more consistency with the bat. At this point, he can be added to the long list of younger outfielders with room to grow that won’t quite make the cut for Opening Day. If Fuentes and Orlando can keep it up, they’ll still be in the bigs this April.
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