Assessing the Royals' Need to Grow a Hunter Dozier Replacement
Following the Kansas City Royals requires a lot of time and patience, along with the willingness to accept that the team very well could lose more games than it wins. With that said, despite patience being a prerequisite, time should be running out on Hunter Dozier being a member of the core going forward.
The bad news is that the Royals' current solutions are a pair of players in Hanser Alberto and Emmanuel Rivera that will clearly not be everyday caliber players in the long run. The good news is that elsewhere, there is always the everlasting ray of hope for minor league prospects. They make many people fantasize about future All-Star Game appearances and possible clutch playoff performances.
With that in mind, and to take our attention away from the Royals' mostly hapless performances as of late, we’re going to be looking around the organization's minor league system and examining how these future hopefuls can reach the majors as quickly as possible.
Our first case study will be reviewing Nick Loftin: a player that, unlike Bobby Witt Jr., Nick Pratto and MJ Melendez, likely needs an introduction. Loftin was taken 32nd overall by the Royals in last year's draft as a shortstop out of Baylor and finds himself currently in Single-A, where he recently hit for the cycle in the most epic way possible. His current slash line sits at .263/.364/.439 with seven home runs and 37 RBIs.
While Loftin doesn’t necessarily possess a standout tool, he possesses the ability to be roughly average at just about everything. That's almost as valuable as having one go-to trait. In some cases, it may be even better. This brings us to the conundrum at hand: What position should the Royals focus on developing Loftin at to get him to the MLB club as soon as possible? My answer would be third base, or perhaps making him a utility player with a slight emphasis placed on third base.
Back to Dozier. There is no need to explain just how bad he has been this year at both the plate (despite recently heating up) and in the field. However, it is worth a reminder that the Royals recently made a financial commitment to him until 2025. From a business standpoint, getting rid of him would be easier said than done.
With the Royals not currently having a third baseman in their top 30 prospects and because we all know they will not splurge in the offseason for someone like Kris Bryant, they will probably have to grow their own Dozier solution.
The former Baylor Bear, Loftin, will most likely have to get through Nicky Lopez and Bobby Witt Jr. to contend for consistent reps with the Royals at shortstop. The same cannot be said for third base, which is where his express lane to the big leagues almost surely lies.
It should also be noted that Dozier’s defensive issues are a bigger problem than people realize. If Witt Jr. were to take over at third base, the Dozier buck would just get passed off to right field. The good news is that Loftin already is taking some reps at third base for Quad City this year and currently has a perfect fielding percentage.
However, this brings us to the real question which is whether his arm will play at third base. While he might have a perfect fielding position at third base, he has only manned the hot corner in four games this year with his other 50-plus defensive starts coming at shortstop and second base. This is where the "jack-of-all-trades, master of none" trait can be a bit problematic. In some instances, it might require you to mash the oval-shaped utility man peg into the round hole of third base.
If Loftin were to reach his full potential, he projects as a Jean Segura-esque type player — someone whose power and average might vary a bit, but someone who could provide surprisingly good value in a random season where everything clicks at once. If you're looking for a past Royals comparison for Loftin, the best one would be Joe Randa. Randa's power didn't necessarily profile him as a third baseman, but he did everything thing else well enough to stay in the starting lineup.
All-in-all, it's safe to say that if the Royals had a time machine and could add the 1999-2003 version of Joe Randa into today’s lineup, the team would be sitting much closer to .500 than it currently is right now. If Dozier can't parlay his recent hot streak into sustained success, the need for a long-term solution at third base will only become more and more pressing.
