Kansas City Royals’ Fuentes blocked by Gordon signing
Alex Gordon’s return to Kansas City means Reymond Fuentes is the odd man out in the outfield.
Now that Alex Gordon is back with the World Series champs, the dominoes in the free agent market have begun to fall. What was once moving at a glacial pace has picked up the past 48 hours: In addition to Gordon accepting a home-town discount to stay in Kansas City, Denard Span is heading to the left coast to be the newest member of the San Francisco Giants outfield.
The Royals and Giants were not mentioned when I discussed teams that could turn to their minor league system to address outfield concerns. The Giants don’t have any highly-ranked outfielders in their system and the Royals were looking for cheap free agent options to replace Gordon. Perhaps I should’ve mention the Royals, because they had Reymond Fuentes in Triple-A. He’s not near the caliber of player Gordon is, but he has the potential to be a very effective role player.
Unfortunately for Fuentes, the Gordon re-signing means he might be the odd man out in KC.
Fuentes, 24, is your prototypical Royal: a high-contact speedster. He hit .308 with a .360 on base percentage and stole 29 bases in 35 attempts for the Omaha Storm Chasers in 2015. Fuentes has stolen 216 bases in his minor league career and has been successful in 80.3 percent of his attempts, a very efficient pace. That speed also serves him well chasing fly balls in the outfield, where he rates as a quality defender. The Royals built an historically good outfield defense the past few seasons using players such as Fuentes—think Lorenzo Cain, Jarrod Dyson, Gordon, etc.—so Fuentes fits that mix perfectly.
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Offensively, Fuentes has no problem consistently putting the ball in play. He struck out in only 16.2 percent of his plate appearances in Triple-A in 2015, down from an already low 17.2 percent between two levels in 2014. For his career his strikeout rate is 19.5 percent.
Fuentes is leading his winter league in hitting, posting an admirable .326/.397/.426 SLG line with eight stolen bases, so Fuentes is off to a good start in his preparation for 2016. But with Gordon back to occupy his usual post in left field and the MVP-candidate in Cain in center, right field is the only spot up for grabs. Fuentes’s arm strength does not profile well for right, however, and the gossip says the Royals will use a Paulo Orlando/Dyson platoon in right.
If this is true that leaves little opportunity for Fuentes to see significant playing time in 2016. As noted by Sports Illustrated’s Cliff Corcoran in the article linked above, Dyson and Orlando combined to hit .266/.325/.372 against opposite-handed pitchers—Dyson hits from the left side while Orlando hits from the right— which would be an upgrade offensively over Alex Rios, not to mention the defensive improvements the platoon would provide.
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Fuentes shouldn’t be written off just yet, though. He’s improved with each step up the minor league ladder and if he has a strong showing during Spring Training, he may play himself into the mix. And even though the Royals are unlikely to carry five outfielders on the roster, Gordon missed significant time due to injury and Orlando is far from a sure thing. If an injury should occur, Fuentes will be the first player to step up and fill in the fourth outfielder role.