Nelson

Velazquez

Velázquez was jettisoned from Kansas City’s 40-man roster back in late March and was hitting .202 through 33 games this season at Triple-A Omaha. The 26-year-old former top prospect has hit .212/.286/.433 with 31 homers and seven steals in 194 games in the majors since 2022. There’s presumably another organization out there willing to roll the dice on his talent.

Pratto and Velázquez were subjected to waivers, but both managed to go unclaimed and will remain with Kansas City. The Royals have cleared three 40-man roster spots with Carlos Hernández being claimed by the Phillies. Pratto and Velázquez will serve as minor league depth in case the Royals have an injury at the major-league level.

The Royals scored nine runs off Bryan Shaw and John Murphy in the eighth to win this one. Velázquez is hitting .208/.345/.250 in 29 plate appearances this spring. The Royals will likely carry him initially, since he’s out of options, but he’ll be limited to playing against lefties unless he can force their hand.

Velázquez suffered the injury while attempting to track down a fly ball near the right-field wall. The 26-year-old corner outfielder was 1-for-2 prior to exiting and is batting .125 (2-for-16) this spring in Cactus League play.

Velázquez was hitting .200/.274/.366 in 230 plate appearances. He’s cut back on the strikeouts a bit this year, but his power production has also dwindled, as his hard-hit rate had come in at 38%. Last year, he was at 48%. He’ll get another chance if he can fire in Triple-A, but with his lack of defensive value, he needs to provide a lot of offense to justify his spot.

No word yet on the reason for the change. It’ll be Nelson Velásquez taking over at designated hitter and Nick Loftin moving up to the leadoff spot in Frazier’s absence during Sunday’s game against the Rangers.

Salvador Perez is the designated hitter for Sunday’s tilt against the Mariners, so Velazquez will retreat to the bench for the finale. The outfielder went 1-for-7 over the first two games of the series and has hit just .133 with a .544 OPS in the month of June.

Velázquez didn’t start the game, but he was brought on to face left-hander Yuki Matsui in the ninth inning and drilled a 109 mph triple off the center field wall to tie the game. It was a ball that could have left the yard in 18 of 30 MLB stadiums and continued Velázquez’s trend of only getting hits in big situations. In his last 11 games, Velázquez has gone 8-for-43 but five of those hits have been home runs and two others have driven in runs. The slugger is hitting just .219 on the season, which will dampen his fantasy value, but the power is for real.

Velázquez took Bailey Ober deep twice with one soaring an estimated 437 feet. He’s often been a streaky player and perhaps this is the start of his next hot streak.

Velazquez got Kansas City on the board with a solo homer in the second inning off Aaron Civale. Nine innings later, the 25-year-old outfielder doubled in the go-ahead run in the 11th to make it 5-4. Velasquez has gone deep five times with just 16 RBI so far in 2024, but Saturday was a nice day for the right-handed hitter.