The joy of baseball

Whew. That was thrilling, wasn't it? And joyful! What an absolutely enthralling ballgame on Tuesday in Miami as Venezuela charged from behind to defeat Italy by score of 4-2.

This game was baseball at it’s absolute best. Every single pitch was loaded with meaning. High stakes. An elite crowd. That the game was chock full of Royals—and former Royals—gave the whole thing a heightened local vibe. I have nominated that the name of the tournament be changed to the Royals Baseball Classic.

Sadly, there were no beans or espresso shots on Tuesday for Vinnie and Jac. And Salvy, on the bench, was merely a cheerleader. Yet there was Luinder Avila, looking dominant out of the bullpen in the middle innings to keep Venezuela within striking distance. They uncoiled in the seventh against former Royal Michael Lorenzen, plating three runs total to provide the final margin. The last run was brought home via a Maikel Garcia single. Hell, Andrés Machado who pitched two innings for the Royals in 2017, got two punchouts protecting the lead in the eighth. The last of which hit 100 mph. Smoke? Indeed.

Was this what is was like when Richard Williams watched Venus and Serena square off in a tennis tournament? Truly, I could not bring myself to root for either team, yet I was transfixed, hanging on every single pitch. I just wanted a good showing from the boys. I feel bad for Lorenzen, but good for Garcia. It's too bad that Vinnie and Jac aren't going to play in the final, but I sure hope Salvy gets in the lineup. I loved those espresso-chugging Italians. I don't think they were underdogs. This was a legit team with plenty of talent.

But those Venezuelans...they make you feel something. You knew they had a run in them. You knew they were going to make things very uncomfortable for Italy. That game should've been the final.

In the postgame, Garcia said he wanted that moment in the seventh to show everyone “what Maikel Garcia is about.” Consider that statement delivered. How can you not love that kid?

Venezuela may have been victorious, but the Italians showed us plenty. What a game. What a tournament. Fun baseball is fun.

Take a moment to read this transcript from Pasquantino's pregame press conference on Tuesday.

I don't know...is there really anything anyone can add to that? Fans of this Royals team can be proud of these guys.

More Pasquantino...How cool was it that both captains for the Italy-Venezuela semifinal are Royals? Very cool.

Can you tell I'm extremely locked-in to this WBC? So much better than sweating the eighth spot in the Royals bullpen over meaningless games played in Arizona.

Fine! Speaking of bullpens...In the Cactus League, the Royals have been intent on getting work from relievers who seem to be on the fringe of the 26-man roster. These are the relief pitchers with the most exhibition game innings thrown through Sunday.

Black - 8 IP
Morgan - 7.2 IP
Cuas - 7 IP
Lange - 7 IP
Sanchez - 7 IP

We’ve discussed Black in this space as having the potential to start for the Royals, but since Matt Quatraro said the club sees him primarily as a reliever—and because all six of his appearances this spring have been from the bullpen—I’m lumping him in this group of relievers. And yes, I acknowledge that pitching in relief in Spring Training does not mean that’s a role for the regular season, but it’s clear where the Royals are going with Black at this point.

Of that group of five, Lange would be the most assured of a role in the Opening Day bullpen given that he’s out of options.

Let’s move on and I think you’ll see where I’m going with this.

The next group of relievers are those who are pretty much assured of making the club, again ranked by innings pitched this spring.

Lynch - 6.2 IP
Mears - 6.1 IP
Schreiber - 5 IP
Strahm - 5 IP
Cruz - 4.1 IP
Erceg - 4 IP

Of the guys listed who have five or fewer innings, all but one frame from Schreiber have been delivered in the month of March. So while the overall total feels light with about a week of exhibition games to go, they are on an obvious schedule where they’re building up for the regular season. They’re relievers. They can get going with minimal fuss.

There’s one name missing from the lists above: Carlos Estévez. No surprise. He’s been with Team Dominican Republic since early March for the World Baseball Classic. Estévez threw a pair of innings for the Royals at the end of Feburary prior to departing camp.

All well and fine, right? I’m not so sure. Estévez has been missing in action in the WBC. He threw two innings before they were eliminated on Sunday night. He threw 13 pitches in an inning against the Tigers in a WBC warmup game on March 3. In the actual tournament, Estévez’s only appearance came on March 9 against Israel when he delivered 19 pitches in one inning.

So while his teammates have been ramping up their output since the beginning of March, Estévez has been lingering at the far end of the Dominican bullpen.

Again, these are relievers. They’re different. So while Estévez’s lack of work would be only slightly alarming, what concerns me the most at this point is he hasn’t had an opportunity to build up his velocity as we were told was going to happen, as part of his springtime preparation..

This table has Estévez’s average velocities in his four spring outings, along with his averages from 2025 for reference.

It wouldn’t be Spring Training data without adding the caveat that…this is Spring Training data. In Estévez’s outing against the Tigers, he apparently did not throw a single four-seamer. Instead they registered three of his pitches—at around 90 mph—as changeups. And there were three others in that outing that had no recorded data at all. So that’s skewed the changeup velocity.

There is an obvious progression, so Estévez does appear to be finding some of that velocity. What is most concerning to me at this moment is that he’s thrown in just two competitive games this month. But hey…he’s a reliever. As I said, they’re different. We will forget about this in two weeks if Estévez is closing games for the Royals with a 95 mph fastball.

After an off day on Monday, the Royals return to Cactus League action on Tuesday. By the way, they are 3-12 since most of their key players departed for the WBC. Here are the pitching plans for the next two games.

Tues vs LAD - Bailey Falter, Lucas Erceg, John Schreiber, Aaron Sanchez, Hector Neris 

Wed at TEX - Kris Bubic, Matt Strahm, Alex Lange, Daniel Lynch IV, Nick Mears

Tuesday's game will be on Royals.tv, but who's going to watch that with the WBC final going on at the same time?

Ahhhh, hell...I'll probably split-screen it. Falter is running out of opportunity to show some improvement over how he pitched when he came to Kansas City last August. It hasn't gone well and that fifth starter battle that I've been wishing would develop this spring has pretty much fizzled out. At this point, it's possible that Falter pitches himself off the roster entirely. A solid showing against Dodgers is practically a must.