After 105 minor league homers, 27-year-old Clint Robinson was promoted to the majors by the Royals for the first time Thursday.
Robinson, a 25th-round pick out of Troy University in 2007, has been tearing up the minors for 2 1/2 years now. In 2010, he hit .335/.410/.625 with 29 homers and 98 RBI in 477 at-bats for Double-A Northwest Arkansas. In 2011, he came in at .329/.399/.533 with 23 homers and 100 RBI in 503 at-bats for Triple-A Omaha. Back at Omaha, he was hitting .314/.418/.500 with eight homers and 37 RBI so far this season.
Still, Robinson has never been taken very seriously. In fact, he was pretty lucky not to be released after such modest seasons in A ball at ages 23 and 24 in 2008 and ’09. He finished with OPSs of .806 and .819 those years, and if the Royals had other first base prospects they needed to play, they could have let him go.
Unfortunately, late bloomers with little defensive value generally don’t get many chances, if they get any at all. The Royals already have Eric Hosmer at first base and Billy Butler at DH, and those two simply aren’t budging. Robinson isn’t a candidate to play the oufield, so barring an injury to one of those two guys ahead of him, he’ll be little more than a pinch-hitter for the Royals, making it doubtful he’ll stick around for long.
Still, it’d be nice to see Robinson get a real chance. Unlike some quad-A players, he’s not a big strikeout guy. In fact, this year, he’s fanned just 31 times versus 38 walks in 220 at-bats. Robinson probably isn’t Bryan LaHair, but he’d deserve a look as a stopgap first baseman or designated hitter should any team need one.