The Royals may already have the cleanest answer at first base sitting in-house. They just don’t seem interested in using it.
Vinnie Pasquantino’s year has followed a frustrating script. He opened slowly, got hurt, and only recently has looked like the hitter Kansas City expected.
Since returning for good on August 17, he’s put up a loud .292/.367/.611 line with nine home runs in 31 games. That’s the version of Pasquantino the Royals wanted to see all along.
But a 31-game heater doesn’t erase what came before it, and it doesn’t change the bigger roster picture. Over 162 games, those early struggles matter.
So does the fact that Jac Caglianone is in right field to make room for Pasquantino, and so does Pasquantino’s rising salary. Taken together, it leaves Kansas City with a real first-base question.
The simplest answer is also the one the Royals almost certainly won’t touch: a platoon.
That means using two different players at first base based on the handedness of the opposing starter. It’s not a glamorous solution, but it works. The split between same-handed and opposite-handed pitching is real, and in many cases it’s worth 30 to 80 points of offense.
Pasquantino is exactly the kind of hitter who makes that idea appealing. Against right-handed pitching this year, even with his rough start, he’s hit .267/.356/.458, which comes out to a 125 wRC+.
Against lefties, though, he’s only at .203/.269/.322, good for a 63 wRC+. The trend isn’t new, either.
Over the last three years, he’s posted just a 68 wRC+ against left-handed pitching, and in his career he’s been worse against lefties every season except his short rookie year.
That’s where Salvador Perez enters the picture. Perez has hit .266/.314/.418 against left-handed pitching this season, compared with .213/.254/.355 against righties.
His 97 wRC+ against lefties isn’t eye-popping, but it is a whole lot better than Pasquantino’s 63. And over the course of his career, Perez has also been better against left-handed pitching than right-handed pitching.
On paper, the fit is obvious: Pasquantino handles righties, Perez handles lefties, and the Royals get better production at first base. Maybe significantly better production.
There’s also the reality that Perez is no longer a true everyday catcher, or even a regular backup one. He has caught in just 44 of the 149 games he’s played this year, and he hasn’t caught since August 11. At this stage, he’s not getting any younger.
And yet none of that makes the idea any more likely. The Royals have spent this season treating Pasquantino like a core piece, and Perez remains a Kansas City icon who can basically have the playing time he wants. Shifting Perez away from catcher and into a first-base platoon is the kind of move that sounds logical in a front office meeting and dead on arrival everywhere else.
Still, it’s the sort of choice good teams have to make. The numbers don’t support both Pasquantino and Perez playing every day against both righties and lefties. The results haven’t supported it either.
If the Royals aren’t going to spend prospect capital or free-agent money on a new first baseman, and if they aren’t willing to move Pasquantino or Perez to open the door for Jac Caglianone, then they need to find value somewhere else. A first-base platoon would be one way to do it. Whether Kansas City will actually consider it is another matter entirely.
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