Royals Add Pitching and Speed With September Roster Moves
Royals Add Pitching
The Kansas City Royals add pitching as they claimed RHP Sam Gaviglio today on outright waivers from the Seattle Mariners. He will likely be used in low-leverage relief situations. The corresponding roster move was the release of Neftali Feliz, who had been on the DL. They also reinstated RHP Trevor Cahill from the 10-day DL. He is currently not scheduled to pitch. RHP Andres Machado was brought up as part of the roster expansion. LHP Ryan Flynn was moved to the 60-day DL and joins fellow pitchers Danny Duffy, Joakim Soria, Miguel Almonte, and Nate Karns. Duffy is scheduled to return late next week, but may receive a short-term suspension as a result of a recent DUI charge.
We have made several roster moves today. We have claimed RHP Sam Gaviglio off waivers from Seattle and released RHP Neftali Feliz…
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) September 1, 2017
Speed Moves
The other September call-ups for the Royals are C Cam Gallagher, SS Raul Mondesi Jr, LF Terrance Gore, and RF Paulo Orlando. Gallagher made the most of a recent opportunity in the bigs when Salvador Perez was injured. He hit .385/.500/.692 in 16 plate appearances, including a grand slam.
Mondesi, Gore, and Orlando will give the Royals a lot of speed off the bench. Mondesi and Orlando are quality defensive substitutions. Gore, who has never had a hit in seven MLB at-bats, will be used primarily as a pinch runner. He has 19 steals in 22 attempts at the MLB level. Manager Ned Yost likes to put pressure on opposing pitchers with speedy baserunners. We should see a lot of pinch-runners in high leverage situations.
That gives the Royals 31 active players on the 40-man roster. The moves give some depth and stability to a pitching staff that has been plagued with injuries all season and add late-game pinch-runner options. Expect additional roster moves in the coming days. RF Jorge Soler, 3B Hunter Dozier, 2B Ramon Torres, and OF Billy Burns are likely to be added to the active roster in the next few days.
Will It Be Enough?
The Royals are 4.5 games out of the second Wild-Card spot held by the Minnesota Twins. The Royals face the Twins seven times in the next 10 games. Those seven games will likely determine the postseason destiny of the Royals. In comparison to other moves made by the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels, the moves are modest but they give Yost additional tools work with.
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