Last year, top Royals hitting prospects took baseball by storm, with Bobby Witt, Jr., MJ Melendez, Nick Pratto, and Vinnie Pasquantino earning praise from talent evaluators. The question now is when these players will infiltrate the Royals lineup. If the ZIPS projections developed by Dan Szymborski at Fangraphs are any indication, they are all ready to contribute now.
Szymborski released his ZIPS projections for the Royals today, and four of the projected top five hitters on the team by OPS+ are the quartet of hitting prospects, joining Salvador Perez. Pratto and Pasquantino top the list with a 112 OPS+, with each projected to post an on-base percentage over .