The Kansas City Royals, plagued once again by a maddeningly low-scoring offense, lost again Friday night. Their latest defeat, this time to Detroit 7-3, was their fifth in a row and dropped them 4.5 games behind the division-leading Tigers in the American League Central. But that wasn’t the extent of late-week Royals-related news.
Here’s some of the latest.
Top KC Royals prospect Jac Caglianone is deep in a slump of his own
Living up to his billing as Kansas City’s No. 1 prospect, Caglianone burst out of the 2025 box at Double-A Northwest Arkansas — six games into the season and playing above High-A ball for the first time in his short professional career, Caglianone was slashing .346/.406/.615 with two home runs, a double, and 11 RBI.
But his early-season good times aren’t rolling anymore. After going 0-for-5 in the Naturals’ 4-3 extra-innings loss to San Antonio Friday night, Caglianone has managed only two hits, including a homer, in 28 at-bats (.107) across the seven games following his torrid start. He’s now batting an ugly .204.
The dry spell will probably end soon — Caglianone is far too talented a hitter for it not to. For now, though, the slump proves he’s human and should give pause to fans crying out for the Royals to bring him up to the major leagues now.
History-making former Royals infielder receives dreaded DFA
Nicky Lopez, the versatile former Kansas City utility infielder who in 2021 made the best of his first chance to play full-time by becoming the first shortstop in Royals history to hit .300, lost his latest big league job Friday — after picking him up when the Cubs let him go in spring training, the Los Angeles Angels designated him for assignment.
The move shouldn’t shock anyone. The Angels rarely played him, he was hitless in six at-bats, and they needed to clear active roster space for shortstop Zach Neto, who they brought back from the Injured List before Friday night’s game against San Francisco.
The Angels have seven days within which to trade Lopez or place him on outright waivers. If they can’t find a willing trade partner and no one grabs him off the waiver wire, they can outright him to the minors. But because he has sufficient big league service time, Lopez can decline such an assignment and test free agency.
Lopez has played in the regular season for the Royals, the Braves (with whom he received his only taste of postseason play), and the White Sox.
Former KC Royals player-turned-manager has new role with the Rockies
Once touted as a young baseball phenom, Clint Hurdle never lived up to the hype he brought to Kansas City when the Royals promoted him to the majors in 1977. In parts of 10 seasons, he homered only 32 times and hit .259 across stops with the Royals, Mets, Cardinals, and Reds.
But since then, he’s made a better mark as a big league manager. He landed his first major league managing job with Colorado in 2002 and led the Rockies to the National League pennant and a World Series appearance against Boston in 2007 (the Red Sox swept the Rox). Colorado fired him after a dismal 18-28 start to the 2009 campaign.
Hurdle took over the Pirates two seasons later and skippered them to a 735-720 record before the club fired him just hours before the final contest of the 2019 season. He was National League Manager of the Year in 2013 and took the Bucs to the playoffs three times.
Now, he has a new job. A special assistant in Colorado’s front office since late 2021, Hurdle is moving back to the field as the Rockies’ hitting coach after the club let Hensley Meulens go earlier this week. Hurdle will remain in the role for the rest of the season.
