- 2 months ago
Royals Insider Jaylon Thompson checks in.
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00:06and that is pounded to right field way out of here one nothing royals two pitches into the top of
00:16the first and now digging deeper with the teams you follow it's another sports daily insider
00:24interview on kfh that insider jalen thompson kansas city star follow him on x at jalen thompson
00:32jacob all brock brady bowman here it is sports daily jalen i never had carter jensen as the lead
00:39off guy when we were starting this season that's been a role he's taking nicely that that pop right
00:45off the top has been a positive for sure how are you this morning i'm good how are you guys
00:51doing
00:52yeah we're good we're good we're entertained by the royals which is all we could ask for jalen
00:57now we came in last week and what was what was the number we get what did we say would
01:02get us back
01:03interested if they won i don't know we we gave it what did we say they they needed to win
01:1020 and 7
01:10i think all well yeah 20 and 7 to get to 500 and now they're you know down to to
01:15six they can only
01:16lose six to get to 500 well i i think you said something about if they go out next week
01:23and win
01:23all those games that you were going to say they were back and they did that almost did that
01:28actually they did technically are they back jalen i have to ask now you said it i have to ask
01:34you there
01:35are they back i can't give them that because they don't have the pitching to be back yeah but
01:44is it fun yeah is it is it is it worth a good night around town with your friends yeah
01:54but
01:55will they make the playoffs you better win these three games against the guardians or that's not
02:01happening okay yeah that's true i was looking at the wild card standings again and it looks like
02:06the guardians i mean they're on a seven game one streak right now i believe it's last i saw so
02:11they're they're doing what they need to do for sure but boy it does make it a lot more fun
02:16and jalen
02:17just is there anybody more relieved right now than probably the royals front office that this is
02:23happening to uh give us this if anything if we can at least keep this up a little bit if
02:29anything to
02:29kind of give us some excitement going into next season instead of just kind of going on and
02:35thinking about oh why didn't we do this at the trade deadline etc etc yeah brady i think that
02:40it's good enough for them to believe that hey at least we put together the right pieces going forward
02:48to 2027 but also they can't be complacent because you did struggle this year you did not have a great
02:56season until this last finish or flurry that you're on right now so honestly for them making
03:04the playoffs if that is a possibility and they pull this off i don't it'll be a great story for
03:11the team
03:12but the front office really still has to look at the roster and we got to fix some things for
03:162027
03:17regardless of what happens at the end this season i know that a lot of the players in the clubhouse
03:23believe that they can make a surprise late finish run towards the playoffs but
03:29like i said it's gonna have you have to win these three games in cleveland you just well that's but
03:34isn't that that's a positive sign for the organization if they really do and they're genuine in that
03:39that means that they've never let the misfortunes of this year get the better of them right like that
03:47that has to be a good sign for them to still have that sort of belief there because that you
03:54know
03:54that at least tells you the locker room's in good shape no issues there right there has it's been a
03:59weird year but there will be positives to take out of it it will we're gonna have a really interesting
04:05conversation in a week or two jalen if they keep playing like this if it's like they get kind of
04:12close
04:12but don't get there and cost themselves the chance at an early pick like that'll be a fascinating
04:16conversation as we watch bobby witt jr and jack caglione kind of lead the way both the royals were
04:24sort of gifted very early in the draft yeah they won't have that opportunity if they get too good
04:30here now uh so you you better push them all in and be ready to roll because you never know
04:34what
04:34that's gonna mean that'll be that'll be a fun conversation but i think and i would tell people
04:39to hell with all that like they're they're playing well enjoy that let them play well let them try to
04:45carry it over because at this point that's all they can do they made a conscious decision to run this
04:52thing back so them playing well now is a good thing i agree with that i i do i think
05:00that
05:01in the grand scheme of things you're seeing everything that you wanted to see this year
05:06albeit just at the very end of the season you're seeing carter jensen be one of the best rookie
05:12catchers that this organization has ever had really one of the best rookie catchers that you've seen in
05:17the last 20 years in in mlb history for what he's putting up you're seeing jack caglione emerge into
05:26that 30 home run guy that everyone knew he could be maybe even 40 home runs depending on how he
05:32continues to swing the bat i mean he has a really good case to be the august player of the
05:38month
05:38for what he's been doing with the royals and yes you're you're seeing many past quintino come back
05:45around after the handmade injury and he's adding some dynamics and it's less talked about but you got
05:53career years from michael massey and nick lofton you got a lot of things are going noah cameron was
05:58looked like the best left-handed pitcher in the league since he started calling his own pitches
06:02so you have guys that are really playing well right now and will that carry over into 2027
06:10that's what you hope you hope those young guys can carry it over you hope that bobby wick jr can
06:16still be bobby wick jr next year and with those guys that carry it over you hope michael garcia can
06:22come back next year and be better from an injury field year and carry it over right so they're
06:29honestly the core pieces are playing like they should have been playing all year it's just a
06:33matter of do they have that late kick i'll tell you what though if bobby wick jr goes on one
06:39of those
06:40torrid runs that he's known to do at this point in the season with everybody else clicking
06:46then you might conceivably see them rattle off another nine game winning streak and be in the
06:53mix i just like i said if they're gonna do it they have to win these three games in cleveland
06:59and they gotta run the table at home against toronto and miami and they can do that now you you
07:06might be
07:07you might have something shaking before you go to boston cleveland's also won eight out of ten brady
07:12that so you know that's the group they played yeah look who they played there we go jalen that's
07:18right remember context yeah let's not get too excited about that we're fine uh kags you mentioned
07:25kags jalen yeah i can watch that home run he hit just over and over and over uh against the
07:32position
07:33uh pitcher the outfielder pitching uh last night it was it just looks so effortless it looked like he
07:39didn't even take a full swing he just kind of like flicked at it and it just went like almost
07:43out of the park yeah you you mentioned that tear that he's on i mean just just adding to the
07:50excitement
07:51i mean talk talk about uh what's been working so well for kags and you know also as far as
07:58i talked
07:58about how how good this second half play has been probably for the relief of the front office but
08:04probably also uh for the for the relief of uh the skipper there uh yeah i would say for kags
08:13they have found the way to get him out of his head and i know that's a hard thing for
08:19a lot of young
08:20players to to get through when you're struggling and your first year you come up you have all this
08:26immense pressure on you to be the guy and everybody's like he's the savior and it's a lot of
08:33pressure and you can get in your head right so this year they really just got him back to being
08:40fundamental to keeping it easy keeping it simple just take a clean swing you know and let your natural
08:47talent evolve and i think that never getting too high never getting too low i know those are cliches in
08:54baseball but for him it really is that case where you take the positives out of the day you take
09:01the
09:01negatives and you try to improve on them and you just keep turning the page and i think you're seeing
09:06that you're seeing the growth in his game he still has some work you're doing the outfield i mean judging
09:12some walls off the bat but that's what every young outfielder that is learning a position in the big
09:17leagues um but you're seeing the bat and the power really can align and he's taken to that
09:24third spot in the lineup and when you hit behind bobby way jr if you can hit bombs like he's
09:29been
09:29hitting bombs that's a really good recipe for what the ross are want to do offensively especially if
09:36you're going to go carter bobby and jack caglion is your one two three moving forward we we got to
09:43remember too because we talk about offensive potential michael garcia hadn't been there in forever
09:50he's been he's been great when he's out there he's been great this year when he hadn't been hurt
09:55benny pasquantino's added about i don't know 50 points to his average since he got off to the awful
10:00start go back and look since the end of may he's become more of the hitter we're accustomed to when
10:07he's been out he's obviously had his injury issues also but like you're talking about a top three there
10:13but plus garcia plus finny pasquantino we think about a guy like salvey who who likely down the
10:21road slots in down there maybe in the six or seven spot i i think it works i think it
10:28works well
10:29in fact if jack caglion and carter jensen catch up to not catch up to an overall ability to bobby
10:36with jr that's unfair but catch up to him and as far as development right getting closer to the
10:41players getting closer to them their peak selves it all comes down to that pitching though uh we know
10:47that most of the rotation for next year is set what have you seen though in this stretch out of
10:56the
10:56bullpen how many of these guys that are pitching they had a couple of nice performances last night
11:01how many of these guys are you thinking could carry over and and be helpful and handy next year in
11:08that pin how many guys do they need to go get basically this off season i think you have three
11:14to four guys that you can bring back next year from right now in this bullpen steven cruz and nate
11:20pearson looks like guys that can be your high leverage guys in that back end i think you need a
11:25veteran
11:26closer to go with them because i don't think neither one of them are ready to be that closer yet
11:31i agree
11:32and i think that daniel lynch as much as they want him to be a starter right now i think
11:37he's better
11:37served in the bullpen as a left-handed arm so i i would say those three and then depending on
11:44what
11:44they want to do with randy dobnek i i just think you have to keep him he's been too good
11:49to let him go
11:50away whether he's starting or in a long relief role you need that guy down there because he knows what
11:57to
11:57do when he has a ball in his hand and he's just a really good pitcher so i think those
12:02four with the
12:03potential to get a veteran closer next year with the potential to get a couple more guys in that
12:10bullpen that are veterans that can you know service to be serviceable i know people are high on alex
12:16lane and i think that he could be back but if you're the front office you want to get someone
12:21that's just
12:21as good or a little bit better than him and then he can be an option either and in on
12:28a fringe role
12:28or in a first up in triple a you know but you got to have somebody of his caliber or
12:33better down there
12:34to go with those four that we mentioned and then i think starting rotation wise you got to get two
12:39guys
12:39that can really lead the group i know you have michael walker and steph lugo but you can't you can't
12:45rely
12:46on them with their advanced age and them in the mid-30s to be your first two guys up you
12:51gotta get
12:52a couple of front line guys to lead with noah cameron and and and then you i think you got
12:58something and honestly quiet as it's kept i think them signing tony gonzolin was for a reason he could
13:06be a guy that slots into that role next year and you really don't have to spend as much because
13:12i would
13:12rather take him as a three or four and then you might go and get one front line guy you
13:18might be
13:18okay so it just depends yeah and maybe ursic comes back too uh and and gives him some good health
13:25all
13:25right maybe all right uh jalen we've got uh the games coming up here so they've got six to play
13:32with
13:32if they're going to get to 500 i still am not sure 500 is going to get it done but
13:37the big one starts now
13:39big massive series against cleveland that happens to be the team they're chasing uh you make up three
13:46games on them at their place waka lynch lugo let's go are you let's do it are you not entertained
13:54that's the picture that you want if you want to do it yeah let's go jalen we appreciate it let's
14:02talk
14:02again next week go find the work at kc star jalen thompson our royals insider see you guys next week
14:08we're coming right back headlines i missed when we return on sports daily