The KC Royals entered the season with a veteran roster that had won the 2015 World Series. There seemed to be little room for rookies to contribute as more than garbage time relievers and bench bats. Instead, rookies like Whit Merrifield and Cheslor Cuthbert have filled regular jobs in the lineup, while the fill-ins have played better than expected.
With five rookies contributing to the big club in 2016, it’s clear that analysts under-rated the Kansas City Royals farm system pretty significantly last winter.
The big oversight was utility man Whit Merrifield. Merrifield was mostly ignored as little more than minor league filler after hitting a mere .