Remember when the Royals were on the cutting edge of defensive positioning and employing the shift at an enormously high rate? They’re not doing that so much anymore.
That’s not to say they’ve completely shelved the shift as a strategy. It’s that they’re not deploying it as frequently as they once were. For the year, they are employing the shift in 18.6 percent of all plate appearances with the bases empty. That’s still a high rate, but well below the league average of 25.2 percent. According to data collected by Baseball Savant through Tuesday, the Royals shift at a rate that ranks them 19th out of the 30 clubs.