Michael Massey has a chance to take a job and run with it

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While Jonathan India is on the injured list, can Michael Massey take a job and run away with

it?

We'll tell you next on Lockdown Royals.

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The Royals are off tonight and everybody's focus is on the NFL draft, including me, so

I'm trying to squeeze this in right before the draft actually happens.

And I already went back in my word.

I know last night I said I was going to get this out in the morning, but when you work

in the sports radio business, draft days can be a little bit chaotic.

So I had to postpone it a little bit later in the day.

Good news for you guys is maybe it gives you a little 30 minute episode to watch in between

Chiefs picks at 9 and 29.

That is, of course, if you are Chiefs fans listening, if you're fans of other teams, then

maybe you just wait until the draft is officially over.

The first segment though today is going to be diving into the second-based role in Kansas

City.

And I wanted to give Michael Massey some praise because I think in the last two games,

he's really emerged as one of the more consistent bets while they're going through this low

offensively.

Now, it's a two game sample size and prior to that, Michael Massey was not hitting well

whatsoever.

But what we saw these last two games is what we saw from Michael Massey at the tail end

of last year.

And though I'm not going to put all the stock in the world into it, there has to be some

belief in just seeing that he has the ability to hit for some power again, you know, work

a professional at bat every once in a while and showcase why he's better than Jonathan

India.

So that's what I want to make this episode about.

I probably need to walk back saying Michael Massey has been one of the more consistent

bets because two games is two games.

Anybody can play well for two games, even if your guy that's slumping as bad as Vinnie

Pasquantino was or Salvador Perez was, I'm more so trying to highlight this about what

they can do moving forward.

We have seen Michael Massey at his best be a league average bat with good defense.

That was in 2024, though we also dealt with the back injury that kept flaring up.

And that has always been a concern of his career.

He's not really a 150 game a year player.

He's more of a will give you a spurt every once in a while, then he'll wind up on the

injured list, then it takes him a while to work back into things.

And that can be frustrating when you're putting together a lineup every single night.

Jonathan India, on the other hand, has kind of had a similar experience first time in

Kansas City.

He's had some stretches where he's been a little bit hot.

He's looked like the Jonathan India of Cincinnati.

And there's times that he's been ice cold and also dealing with injuries.

And we discussed the outlook for Jonathan India in the off season.

What we really wanted to focus on was the injury concerns.

And I had said, and clearly now that's not going to happen.

But I had said that last year there was just a slew of these freak injuries where you

had the shoulder subluxation.

You got the first series of the year where he's hitting the head.

He gets spiked on the knee so he's got a sore knee that he's dealing with.

He's got a groin issue or I think it was a quad issue.

Let's just call it a lower body issue earlier on in April.

He's playing multiple positions.

I thought that going into this year, just focusing on second base, his offense was going

to improve a little bit.

We have seen more patients out of him.

We have seen a higher on base percentage, but he's still hitting sub 200 and the defense

isn't all that noticeable.

It's better than it was last year, but the bar was incredibly low.

And I don't know how much longer, even though it's early this season, you can continue to

say, well, we're always going to try to work back to get Jonathan India as our everyday

second baseman.

This is an opportunity for Michael Massey because with the shoulder that the Royals worked

on last year, being the root of this injury again, that gives me a lot of concern.

That that thing is just not properly healed.

And he's not going to be himself until that thing is 100% healed.

And when you're talking about an injury that happened last year, you can see why I have

a lot of concern there.

Michael Massey has better defense than Jonathan India.

Michael Massey, due to recency bias, is seen as more of a positive player than Jonathan

India is.

But you're always trying to look back to one year and say really with these two guys

and say, if they can return to that form, the Royals have something go in their second

base.

With Michael Massey, it's obviously 2024.

And I would say with Jonathan India, it's 2024 as well, being a 340 to 350 on base guy,

hitting around 245 to 255.

And you'll take that over and over again.

Because the other guys in the infield should be doing the heavy lifting.

The issue is the last couple of years, that second base has been a black hole.

They have not gotten any form of production in 2025.

They didn't get a great production.

I would say for a large portion of 2024 until Michael Massey really caught fire.

Remember Adam Frazier wasn't doing anything there.

They tried a couple other pieces there.

But Michael Massey hit his stride late in the year as he did last year as well, which

made you feel better.

This segment is about trying to get through to Michael Massey.

I'm sure he doesn't listen to what I have to say.

I mean, I've interviewed Michael before, but it's not like he's a loyal listen or anything,

not that I know of at least.

But what I would try to say though is this is probably the best opportunity he's ever had

in his entire career to take a job and kind of become the focus of that position where

every single time out you're saying he's going to be the second baseman, because there's

no guarantee that Jonathan India comes back and he just takes over the starting job.

If Michael Massey goes out there and hits well and plays good defense, why would you make

things complicated by saying, well, we are paying Jonathan India nine million to be our

second baseman.

No.

It's time he's healthy.

Michael Massey's going to have a large sample size to tell us whether he can be the starting

second baseman or if he needs to be your utility guy.

And this little flash that he showed in the final two games of the Baltimore series,

we know it's still in there.

We know that he can tap into power a little bit, especially with defenses being drawn

in.

I mean, you go back to 2023.

That was a 15 to 20 home run second baseman.

There can be that player in there.

It's about consistency with him.

And I'm not sure he's ever been healthy long enough to really lock into being that consistent

player.

But the stats in 2024 indicated, no, this was a guy that you were kind of banking on

a little bit last year, even though Jonathan India was brought in to be your lead off guy,

your second baseman.

Think about this though, they moved Jonathan India to left field and third base so that

Michael could play second.

Now he's got this chance though to play really well while Jonathan India is out and force

the hand of the organization.

Jonathan India is a free agent after this year.

Michael Massey still has some years of control.

You play well from now until the time India is off the injured list, all of the sudden

those roles are flipped where you become the guy that Jonathan India has to work around.

Or maybe when there's a lefty on the mound, India gets to play, but you're a strong-sided

platoon second baseman.

When there's a righty on the mound, you're in the game and you've got better defense than

Jonathan India.

Those are all things that are working in favor of Michael Massey.

And I'm not trying to say that it's a shoe in that he does it, that I have 100% confidence

because I don't.

I still have in the back of my mind that if he starts playing well, the injury could

always flare up.

That back injury is a concerning thing to me because when I spoke to him in spring training

two years ago, he had kind of referenced that injury as something that he just constantly

has to deal with to make sure that it doesn't flare up, he can keep it calm down because

I can't imagine playing a 9-in-in game when you've got back problems.

Think about how much standing around you have to do.

Think about rotating your body when you're swinging.

When you don't have a back that is feeling good, you are not going to be able to have any

torque with your swing.

You're not going to have any pop with your bat.

You're not going to be as great as a fielder.

And that's why I think we've seen some of these slumps look as ugly as they have.

Maybe for him, he needed to see those moments in the last two games.

The home run that tied the game on Tuesday night.

Getting a double to the opposite field.

Following that up with another multi-hit game.

That's what you want to see from second base.

And it gives you a little bit more length at the bottom of the order.

Don't get me wrong.

I know we're talking about somebody who's never been in the above average player or even

really an average player at the big league level.

All I'm trying to get at here is this is his time to shine if he's ever going to take

a job and run with it.

I don't see Jonathan India coming back really anytime soon.

He needs to show that they don't need to be looking elsewhere for any help at second

base.

Do you think Michael Massey has it in him to take this job at second base and run with

it while India is out?

Let us know in the YouTube comments below.

When we come back, it won't be tomorrow, but on Saturday, Cole Reagan's is going to

have to pitch well in my opinion.

Not just for the royals to win, but for the long term look for or outlook for this rotation.

That's coming up next on Lockdown Royals.

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We're back here on Lockdown Royals and the Lockdown podcast network.

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I want to jump ahead to game two of this series because I believe it's the most pivotal

of this weekend set against the Los Angeles Angels.

It's important to win on Friday night to get Noah Cameron back into a groove because

he's had back-to-back bad outings, but it is far more important for the Royals to get

a dominant Cole Reagan's outing on Saturday.

As I said on Monday for a lot of the people that had doubted Cole Reagan's, that had

doubted the J.J. Bacool not doing enough for the offense, you absolutely have every right

now to take a victory lap because you have been 100% accurate to open up this season.

The Royals have not been good.

The offense has been bad and so is Cole Reagan's.

You can take the victory lap right now and I'm not meeting that sarcastically I am being

very genuine with that statement.

Cole Reagan's was given the top spot in the rotation.

He was the opening day starter and basically the Royals decided to not acknowledge 2020

5 and say, what you did in September, that's what we know you're capable of and all

the injuries you dealt with, we're going to brush that off.

We know that that 2024 form is still in there and it just hasn't been there in 2026.

Even when he's had good starts, he had the 6th inning shut out performance against Detroit

where he gave up one hit, but he also walked four guys.

His last outing was probably the worst outing of his professional career and walking eight

guys.

That was something that hadn't been done since 2023 with Brad Keller and I remember how

much heat back then people were giving Brad Keller of how can you even call this a starting

pitcher at the big league level, somebody that walks eight guys, I don't care how terrifying

that lineup is, that is inexcusable at every single level I might add.

That's inexcusable in high school.

That's inexcusable at the minor league level and certainly in the big leagues.

For Cole Reagan's to have that lack of command, my mind went to, he's not healthy, he's

dealing with something, but you have a chance to maybe calm that narrative and get by for

another turn in the rotation.

If you go out there on Saturday and you strike out eight or nine guys, you walk only one

or two and you get through six endings and have a quality start.

To me, that can calm things down a little bit because what he showed against the Yankees,

what he showed on opening night against the Atlanta Braves.

That's not a number one and that's somebody that you can't be giving starts to that many

more times, I would say.

I'm not trying to be that reactionary.

I'm not trying to be that dramatic here.

But you are paying him and it's not a large salary just yet.

But I should probably say you are looking to him to be that number one, that when you

need a stopper, when you need somebody to win a series or to pull off a sweep, you want

the ball in his hands, you want him to light up the radar gun, you want him to get the

swing and miss and he just doesn't get the swing and miss right now.

There are games that he's gotten a lot of strikeouts, but it's just not as consistent enough

for what you're expecting him to be.

You can't ever be walking eight guys in any start.

I don't care if they have the lowest chase rate in baseball and they have a bunch of guys

who have the best eye at the plate or the umpires got a terrible zone.

Now with the ABS challenges, that really shouldn't matter all that much.

And on Saturday, if things go south again and he gets lit up and he can't make it through

five innings,

I may want to see them skip him for a turn in the rotation or to come out and say we're

putting him on the injured list.

He's clearly not right because of everybody in the rotation.

He's the one that is performed the worst and it sucks to say because he's so electric

when he's on and I even said that it was never a matter of ability for me.

It was a matter of can he stay healthy?

He stays healthy.

The numbers are going to be good.

He was a top five betting favorite to win the Saiyung for the American League side.

And so it's not just me, you know, buying into all the hype, it's clearly Vegas that

thought Cole Reagan's was going to be much better than he is right now.

And he's not the only frontline guy that's struggling.

I mean, look at what's happening to Garrett, Crochet and Boston, it's almost like he's

tipping pitches right now and why he's struggling.

With Cole Reagan's, he can't find the zone.

Nobody's swinging at his pitches that are, you know, chase pitches, nobody's falling

for the waste pitches.

He's having to pound the zone with fastballs and his fastballs aren't his accurate right

now.

And he doesn't have the velocity that can blow it by hitters or at least not consistently.

We've seen Cole Reagan's at his best, sit 97 to 100, but that was also two years ago.

What's happening now is the now, it's the reality.

But he's not pitching like a number one.

And we've already seen everybody but Seth Lugo in this rotation get roughed up a little

bit in a start.

We saw Noah Cameron who's throwing tomorrow, get roughed up at Yankee Stadium and roughed

up the start before that.

We've seen Cole Reagan's get roughed up numerous times.

We saw Michael Walker get roughed up the other day.

We've seen Chris Babich get roughed up a little bit.

And that's going to happen from time to time.

But that needs to happen to your two, three, four and five guy.

You're going to get roughed up as an ace, maybe two or three times on the season if you

really are an ace.

I can go back to 2024 and say the start that Cole Reagan's had in Anaheim really roughed

up.

That was one that stood out to me.

There also was a start that he had.

I think against the Yankees and go figure the royals have lost 12 consecutive games to

the New York Yankees.

There was one against New York that he didn't pitch that well and I'm no, I'm blanking

on one more.

Maybe it was Boston that he got roughed up a little bit at home.

I think that was right now that I think about it because it was Reagan's first crochet.

That to me, you know, can't happen too many more times if you're going to be calling

him the number one.

And if he can't figure things out this year, now the royals have a severe, severe problem

with their rotation.

As Chris Babich is said to be a free agent, walk in Lugo or under contract, but they're

not getting any younger and Noah Cameron is not a true number one.

Does that mean someone like Ryan Berger or Stephen Kohler has to elevate their game to

the next level?

Sure, but I'm also not putting that type of pressure on it.

It would mean to me that this off season, along with adding a couple of offensive pieces,

you need to go find a true number one.

And the same way the royals had to deal with James Shields going back to 2013, where

you had to make that move to get a game one star, somebody that is a 200 inning guy.

And Cole Reagan's having the injury concerns in the past.

And then now, you know, having the breakout 2024, the further away you get from that season,

the more it starts to look like an anomaly, where the stuff can be there.

And you can be somebody that everybody talks about is this electric piece.

I mean, one guy that comes to mind to me is Noah Cinderguard, of course.

And I remember that first year that he broke onto the scene with the meds.

People were talking about, you know, this meds rotation being one of the greatest of

all times, it mirrored what the braves did in the 90s.

They had all these hard throwers with Harvey and DeGrom and Cinderguard.

And then they also had Stephen Mats, who was very good.

But Cinderguard popped off and then kind of disappeared and bounced around the league

a little bit and never really caught on again.

I'm not trying to really compare the two.

It's not quite apples to apples with more apples to oranges.

But Cole Reagan needs to show that what's happened to start the year in 2025 is not who

he really is.

But as I just mentioned, reality is real.

What we're living in right now is the now.

And hearing about the old stories, it's not going to get you that far anymore.

What's going to help the narrative.

In the same way we talked about it with Michael Massey helping his narrative, you got to play

well now.

You got to pitch well now.

And he's going to have a tough lineup that he's going up against with Mike Trout, who's

on a heater.

Joe Adele, who always kills the royals.

No one shan you well, who can be tough on came to City, Zach Netto's another one.

Hey, so where's somebody you're going to have to worry about?

You got to pitch well, and it's not just eaking by six settings, right?

Where you strike out two guys and walk four.

You need to look like a frontline guy on Saturday.

And this is probably the biggest start of Cole Reagan's in the last two years, I would

say.

I mean, if we're just going to cut it off at the end of 2024, I mean, I would say next

to opening day in 2025 and maybe opening day this year, this is one of the biggest

start studies had because he has to prove that it was all mechanical issue.

He's got to figure it out and he's ready to go from here.

Otherwise, the royals have a serious problem on their hands.

Do you see Cole Reagan's turning it around on Saturday?

Let us know in the YouTube comments below.

When we come back, we're going to preview this upcoming series against the Los Angeles

Angels.

That's next on Lockdown Royals.

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You're wrapping up this Thursday evening edition of Lockdown Royals and the Lockdown podcast

network.

I'm your host Jack Johnson and you can listen to us on wherever you download your podcast.

It is NFL draft night.

So hopefully you guys are going to be enjoying it and maybe in some downtime of the draft

after Kansas City selects at nine or maybe they move up.

You can listen to this and you're up for Royals baseball that begins tomorrow a three game

series with the Los Angeles Angels.

And they're going to have another off day on Monday before they head to Sacramento and

take on the athletics.

But as for the pitching matchups on Friday night with the Royals wearing their new city

connect uniforms.

It'll be Noah Cameron taken on you say Kukuchi who they have a ton of familiarity with the

Angels come in at 12 and 14.

The Royals come in with the worst record and major league baseball at eight in 17 through

25 games here are the matchups looking at the lineups and their numbers against those

pitchers for the Royals against you say Kukuchi Jack Caglione is over one with a lock

Isaac Collins is over three Elias Diaz actually has ten at bats in his career against Kukuchi.

He is two per ten with an RBI Michael Garcia is just one for ten off of Kukuchi.

But he also has a home run and two runs driven in Kyle Isbell is one for four Nick Lofton

is over five Starling Marta is one for four Michael Masio for two Benny Pasquantino one

for five Salvador Perez has 17 at bats against Kukuchi and he's sitting two thirty five

and Bobby would junior is a staggering over twelve the only guys to not face Kukuchi in

their career Lane Thomas and Carter Jensen though it is weird because last year I want

to say it was because I know I just said that they had good numbers and a ton of familiarity

with Kukuchi prior to last year the Royals had some really good numbers against Kukuchi like

he had a five or a six plus ERA at Kaufman Stadium but last year he really responded pretty

well pitching well both times that he faced Kansas City as for Noah Cameron nobody's done

really any kind of damage at all against him Joe Adele was over two Zach Netto is one for

three Logan O'Hoppy is one for two Oswaldo Parasa is over one Tedulsio is over two and Mike

Trout is over one in their careers off of Noah Cameron so Cameron comes in with a one and run

one in one record with a 5.4 OERA and 17 strikeouts Kukuchi is 0 and 2 with a five six three ERA

and 27 strikeouts on Saturday the start that we just talked about in the second segment Cole

Reagan's going up against the long time actually not the long time journey man this is a Walbert

Uranus who the Royals have never seen before and he recently just broke on to the scene he's only

got seven and two thirds career endings under his belt and those have all happened this year he's

appeared in three games and he's oh and two with a 2.35 ERA but a well above league average whip

at 1.83 just 22 years old is Walbert Urania I thought for a second that might have been

Jose Urania but this will be the rookie throwing for Anaheim on Saturday night and Cole Reagan's

will take his O in four record and 6.00 ERA I might also mention that following the eight walks

that he had in New York Reagan's now has a 1.67 whip on the season which is well above league

average as well so as I mentioned the Royals have not seen Urania so far at all because this is his

big league season or his first big league season and the Royals will be taking out the angels

for the first time beginning tomorrow night as for the angels against Reagan's Joe Adele is hitting

273 with an OPS of a thousand he has one home run and three driven in Adam Frazier the former

royal is 0 for one Vaughan Grissom is not faced him neither has Josh Lowe Yuan Moan Kata is one for

in his career against them Zach Netto has a home run and seven at bats against Reagan's Ohapi

is 0 for seven Parasas over three Nolan Shanuel is two for five with an OPS of 1.225 to Doseo

or Teo Doseo I think is how I should pronounce it he's got a home run in his career off of

Reagan's but that's also just into it bats and Mike Trout is hitless in five career bats

against the Royals left hander first pitch on Saturday will be at 610 and then a reminder to

everybody because this will be not throwing everybody off it's a 620 first pitch on Sunday so where you

are I guess more comfortable with the 110 first pitch or the 1235s it's going to be Sunday night

baseball for the Kansas City Royals and the Los Angeles Angels this will be on peacock though so

it's not going to be on ESPN if you've got the streaming service of peacock you will be able to

watch the game it's going to be Reed Demers and his one and two record 4.08 ERA going up against Seth

Lugo who statistically has been the Royals best pitcher he is one in one with a 1.15 ERA here are

the numbers of the lineups as for the Royals against Demers Caglione Collins and Elias DS have not

faced him before Mike Elgarcia is 2 for 4 Kyle is Bells 0 for 2 Nick Lofton's 0 for 2

Starling Marta is 1 for 2 Michael Massies 2 for 5 Vinnie Pasquantino has two homers and four driven

in in five career bats against Demers Salvador Perez is 1 for 6 and Bobby with Jr is 1 for 8 but

that one hit was a home run against the Angels left hander as for the Angels against Lugo

Joe Adele is hitting just 222 in nine career A.Vs Adam Frazier's 0 for 4 Yuan Moncata is 1 for 2

Zach Netto's 0 for 6 looks like Logan O'Hoppy is 2 for 6 Paras is 0 for 2 no one's

Samuel is 1 for 3 Jorge Soler is 0 for 5 Mike Traut this blew me away Mike Traut has never

faced Seth Lugo in his professional career when you think about how long these two have been around

Sunday night will be the first time they square off a Mike Traut is not in the lineup then

also Travis Darnow has three runs driven in in six career bats and he's hitting 333 against Seth

Lugo so that game first pitch 620 it'll be on peacock Lugo against Reed Debt Merce that's

going to do it for another edition of Lockdown Royals in the Lockdown podcast Network I've been

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until tomorrow for a mailbag Friday you take it easy Kansas City