The Kansas City Royals have very few “up for grabs” spots in Spring Training. Some players are going to have to really impress to crack the opening day roster this year.
Catcher Adam Moore is making an early attempt at impressing.
Photo by Charles Sollars/i70baseball
Make no mistake, despite his soon to come departure to the World Baseball Classic, Salvador Perez is the Royals catcher and rightfully so. However, the team has kept an open mind to who will travel with the team as his backup this season. July of last year shows a waiver transaction that had the Royals claiming Moore from the Seattle Mariners. He would appear in four games last year and compiling only twelve plate appearances.
This Spring, Moore has appeared in three of the four games that the Royals have played. He has shown consistent defense, which is his “calling card”. A good glove, a strong arm, and a suspect bat.
Two out of three ain’t bad.
Moore forgot that he was supposed to have a suspect bat. Small sample size and over-analyzing Spring stats will lead you down a dark path, but what you can see is a player that is playing with passion. In Monday’s 16-4 drumming of the Diamondbacks, Moore hit is second home run of the young spring. In addition, he held his batting average at .500 (again, small sample size, he has six at bats). He came into today’s action as a designated hitter, replacing Billy Butler in the process.
None of this means a whole lot at this point, but it does give Royals fans something to pay attention to. There is currently no guarantee who will be the backup catcher in a little over a month when the team breaks camp but one thing is for sure: starting catcher Salvador Perez leaves the team this week to represent his country in the World Baseball Classic. That will leave a lot of at bats, as well as a lot of time to get to know the pitching staff, to another player. That player will gain the opportunity to seize a roster spot and prove to manager Ned Yost why he deserves to be on the team.
Adam Moore can put a strong grip on that spot if he simply continues to do what he is doing right now.
Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
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