Royals Fan-Favorite Slugger Predicted To Become 'Breakout Star' In 2025
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The Royals' biggest need these days is for someone to pick up the slack behind superstar Bobby Witt Jr.
Is first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino destined to become that second fiddle?
Pasquantino has become a fan favorite in Kansas City, and it's easy to see why. He takes great at-bats, he's a gregarious personality in the public eye, and he's got one of the best nicknames ("Pasquatch") in all of baseball.
Could Pasquantino mean even more to the Royals in 2025 than he has in the past? One Major League Baseball analyst believes that will be the case.
On Tuesday, Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report named a potential "breakout star" for every MLB team in the upcoming season, and he designated Pasquantino as the Royals player most likely to take a giant leap forward.
"Perhaps this is wishful thinking, but pardon me for looking upon Pasquantino as a fun hitter. For evidence that he is delightfully good at his craft, I submit his 96th-percentile whiff rate and his 92nd-percentile rate for squaring the ball up in 2024," Rymer wrote.
"The only question is whether power will continue to be about as elusive as Pasquantino's nickname-sake. The 6'4", 245-pounder isn't a weakling by any stretch, but he'll need to get better at hitting the ball on the sweet spot for homers to come in more ample bunches."
Last season, the 27-year-old compiled a .262/.315/.446 slash line, good for a 111 OPS+, with 19 home runs and 97 RBI in 131 games. Those are solid numbers, to be sure, but as a bat-first first baseman, Pasquantino was only worth 1.1 bWAR in 2024.
If Pasquantino can find a way to approach the 30-homer mark this year, which isn't too much of a stretch if he stays healthy and hits the ball in the air a little more frequently, he could elevate himself to All-Star status. And frankly, it's hard to overstate how much that could mean to these Royals.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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