Today, the Kansas City Royals and Miami Marlins are playing baseball on the surface of the sun. It is triple digits and humid here at Kauffman Stadium today. Even in the shaded dugout, I was wilting as I stood listening to the Matt Quatraro and JJ Picollo press conferences.
There are a couple of interesting pieces of news. Quatraro revealed that Carlos Estevez, who has been out since April with a shoulder injury, will have surgery soon. That wasn’t so surprising.
The other interesting piece of news
is Kansas City’s September roster expansion. The Royals are calling up Nolan Hoffman for the first time, recalling Euston McGee, and selecting the contract of Drew Waters. What is interesting is who was not called up: Gavin Cross, Carson Roccaforte, or Brett Squires, all of whom were hitting very well in Omaha as of late.
But I asked JJ about this, and if the looming lockout impacted who they decided to call up. He said it didn’t, and that they didn’t want their outfield to be too left-handed heavy. To be fair, they do have John Rave, Kyle Isbel, and Jac Caglianone as their de facto starting outfield, with Isaac Collins a significantly better from the left side, too.
I suppose we may see them later, but who knows.
