A few weeks ago in the twilight of July, the Royals made a rather surprising move by calling up first base prospect Ryan O’Hearn. Other than the Royals being decimated all over the roster, along with having plenty of expendable options, nothing on the surface suggested that he deserved this call up to the next level.
While the Royals have an overall lack of future major league regulars in the upper-minors, you’d figure they’d give someone like Frank Schwindel a shot before O’Hearn. None of the options for 1B/DH plate appearances at the time were thrilling, but the surface numbers spoke for themselves, as pushing a 25-year-old first baseman with an 87 wRC+ in his second season in hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League would seem ill-advised.