Minnesota Twins: Breaking Down the 2022 AL Central Rivals-Kansas City

Minnesota Twins: AL Central Rival 2022 Predictions

Unlike several of the other Minnesota Twins’ rivals, the Kansas City Royals have several Top Prospects that are coming up the pipeline. The team needs that group, Witt especially, to be ready to succeed right away for this team to have a strong year. Mike Gillespie agrees:

"The best case for the Royals is to have a season like 2013, when they broke out, sniffed a playoff spot until late in the season, and returned to winning. It will take a lot but could happen if everything falls into place–the rotation is too shaky to make a .500 season a lock."

Unfortunately, there’s a whole lot more room for thing to go wrong. If there are any injuries, there’s no depth on the team. If the prospects aren’t ready and disappoint early, the team’s lineup will struggle. If the young arms don’t perform to their potential either, this team could drop 100+ games. That’s the worst case. Here’s Gillespie’s more realistic prediction:

"The Royals are close, but it will take a lot of things to go right for a plus-.500 season. Fourth in the Central is definitely realistic but if the starters and Witt come through, Perez comes anywhere close to what he did last season, Mondesi stays healthy, Lopez proves his .300 hitting last year wasn’t a fluke, and Scott Barlow and Josh Staumont hold down the back end of the bullpen like they did in 2021, third isn’t out of the question, and a sneak into second isn’t impossible."

2022 is a key year in the Kansas City Royals’ rebuild, and it’ll be interesting to see how the team does this year. They won’t compete for the division crown, but this team should be a whole lot better.