The Royals are bad, but the losses wouldn’t be quite so unbearable if many young players were taking a step forward this season. Instead we’ve seen many players stall in their career progression, regress, or suffer frustrating injuries. If there has been a bright spot, however, it has been the season of infielder Maikel Garcia.
Garcia comes from a great baseball family, the cousin of former shortstop Alcides Escobar and part of the same family that produced a number of big leaguers including Kelvim Escobar and Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. The Royals signed him out of Venezuela for a bonus that was so insignificant, I can’t find any reports on how much it was.