With the playoff contention all but closed, Kansas City is spending September finding out who actually belongs on next year's roster.
The Kansas City Royals open a three-game series against the Miami Marlins tonight at Kauffman Stadium, and the record tells most of the story going in.
Kansas City sits at 62-76, in fifth place in the American League Central and seven and a half games back of the final wild card spot with less than a month left to play.
A trip to the postseason is not realistic at this point, so the rest of this season is about figuring out which players deserve a real role next year, and that is a more interesting question than the standings anyway.
The Kids Get Their Reps
Jac Caglianone has been the easiest part of that project to like.
Caglianone is hitting .284 with 23 home runs and 66 RBIs this season, numbers that put him firmly in the middle of the lineup going forward rather than as a name fans are simply hoping pans out.
Around him, the bench and bullpen are full of players auditioning for jobs.
Josh Rojas was in the minors as recently as two weeks ago before getting called back up and driving in runs against Cleveland.
Anthony Gose, a 36-year-old reliever, picked up his first big league win of the year last week.
Isaac Collins, John Rave, Carter Jensen, Tyler Tolbert and Nick Loftin round out a roster that looks a lot more like a scouting report than a finished product, and that is by design with the season decided.
The Trade Return Pieces Are Still Cooking
The front office spent the trade deadline clearing out the roster rather than adding to it, sending Lane Thomas and Bailey Falter to the Atlanta Braves for pitching prospects Carter Holton and Lucas Braun, and shipping Kris Bubic to the Los Angeles Dodgers for right-hander Carlos Duran.
Only one of those three arms has reached Kansas City yet, and neither has first baseman Jacob Berry, who came over from the Marlins for cash a few days later and has yet to make his Royals debut.
That gap between the current 62-76 record and whatever the return package eventually becomes is the real measuring stick for how the deadline gets graded next spring.
The bullpen kept shifting too, with Kansas City recently losing right-hander John Schreiber to a waiver claim by the New York Yankees, which shows how little job security a reliever has on a last-place staff.
Injuries Keep Complicating The Picture
Second baseman Michael Massey remains on the injured list with a concussion, and third baseman Maikel Garcia is still out with a hamstring strain, which has forced even more of the audition onto players who were not part of the original plan.
Right-hander Tony Gonsolin, signed last month after elbow surgery, continues to build up on a rehab assignment in the minors rather than pitching in Kansas City.
None of it changes the larger point.
The Royals have a full month left to find out who sticks, starting with the Marlins this week and a weekend series against the Toronto Blue Jays right behind it, and every game between now and the end of September is really about next year.
