Kansas City Royals: Richard Lovelady, RP
The promising left-handed reliever did not get called up late in 2018, but it is believed that he is MLB-ready and will spend plenty of time in the big leagues in 2019. The Royals currently have a poor bullpen, and they don’t look likely to improve it for the rest of the offseason. Not only will Lovelady have a clear path to get innings, but he could get high-leverage innings considering Wily Peralta is Kansas City’s current projected closer.
His AAA performance is definitely of note as his enters Spring Training. In 46 relief appearances, Lovelady pitched 73 innings, and had a 2.47 ERA with a 2.45 DRA to back it up. In 3 full minor league seasons, Lovelady allowed only 4 home runs, and one of his best skills is producing ground balls. From May 30th on, Lovelady had a 1.46 ERA while pitching multiple innings nearly every performance, and that’s backed up by an impressive 24.3 K-BB%. A reliever capable of going multiple innings and perform as well as Lovelady did is very intriguing.
Lovelady’s best pitch is his fastball, which went from low-90s velocity up to 93 to 97 mph once joining the Royals organization. Lovelady pairs that fastball with an above-average slider which is effective against both lefties and righties. He commands his pitches well, and also has a changeup that he likes to mix in. It’s not the most impressive arsenal, but he has MLB-talent and has performed very well at the highest levels in the minors. He could be the next multi-inning reliever to make a name for himself.
Minnesota Twins: Willians Astudillo, C
The fan-favorite Willians Astudillo had always been an interesting minor-league player, but never quite had the raw talent to get himself onto prospect lists. Astudillo went through 3 farm systems before making himself to the Twins as a minor-league free agent. Nobody thought much of the 27-year-old chubby catcher, but once he got called up to the MLB roster to play 30 games, he caught everyone’s attention.
Willians Astudillo may have broken every single one of baseball's unwritten rules on one home run 🤣 pic.twitter.com/LD6e73C1Eh
— ESPN (@espn) January 9, 2019
Astudillo has a very unique profile. He’s the anti-three-true-outcomes player if there ever was one. He never had a season in which he struck out 5% of the time or more in the minors, which is unheard of. He also rarely walks, and never really had much power in his profile. Astudillo in also 5 foot 9 inches and weighs 225 pounds, so it’s a bit surprising to see him able to play 7 different positions in 2018, including pitcher in a blowout. He’s primarily a catcher, but Astudillo’s super-utility ability makes him a valuable player even without a great bat.
Most scouts figured his ability to hit would not translate into the high minors and especially not the MLB. Although that could still end up to be true, it wasn’t in his short stint last summer. After hitting at nearly every level, Astudillo continued to not strike out in the MLB and even tapped into some power output. Overall, he had a 139 wRC+ and was worth 0.7 fWAR, even without a crazy amount of luck as his xwOBA as only .005 lower than his actual wOBA. Among players with at least 80 plate appearances, not a single MLB player made contact with as many pitches as Astudillo, percentage-wise. His elite skill certainly translated, and although he might not match his performance for yet another season, he is definitely worthy of playing time moving forward.
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