Solid starts for Adalberto Mondesi, John Heasley in Kansas City Royals’ spring opener
It was just a starting point — and a delayed starting point at that — as opposed to anything resembling prime time, but the Kansas City Royals’ exhibition slate started with Jonathan Heasley and Adalberto Mondesi getting out of the gates with solid first days.
The Royals tied the Texas Rangers 5-5 in the Cactus League opener for both teams Friday in front of an announced 4,940 at Surprise Stadium.
Mondesi, the club’s starting shortstop, played in just 35 games last season because of injuries. He’s hoping some changes to his offseason training program and a new season will bring more consistent health.
The switch-hitting Mondesi went 1 for 2 and blasted a line-drive solo home run in his second at-bat, a line-drive to left field while batting right-handed. He jumped on the first pitch from Rangers minor-league left-hander Cody Bradford.
“I’m always ready to hit and always looking for the fastball, and I adjust,” Mondesi said. “I put a good swing on it, not trying to do too much like I always say, and good results.”
Mondesi said he still has a lot of work to do with his swing to get it where he wants and to keep it consistent, but it felt good when he connected in the fourth inning.
Most of the Royals’ starting position players played the first three or four innings and made two plate appearances.
Whit Merrifield, who started in right field, also went 1 for 2. He legged out a double in the first at-bat of the game. First baseman Carlos Santana (1 for 2) drove in Merrifield with a two-out RBI single.
“I thought it was a good day overall,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “You saw a little bit of everything. You saw some offense. You saw some guys running a whole lot harder than I told them to run — like from the first pitch of the game.”
Matheny had cautioned players, because of the expedited pace of spring training, not to go full throttle in the opener after just four days of camp.
“It’s just so hard to take it out of them,” Matheny said. “... It was nice to see too. You could tell our big boys aren’t that far off with timing. All of them took some pretty good at-bats.”
Hunter Dozier (1 for 2) started as the designated hitter, and Nicky Lopez reached base twice (single, walk). Lopez started at second base.
Heasley, 25, made his major-league debut last September after having spent most of the season in Double-A. He’s one of five members of the Royals’ 2018 draft class who started games for the major-league club last season, an MLB record.
Of course, with the return of starting pitcher Brad Keller and the signing of veteran pitcher Zack Greinke, there will be heavy competition among the young pitchers for roles on the opening day roster as well as for spots in the Triple-A starting rotation.
Heasley left the game with two runners on and one out in the third inning. He allowed just two singles and a pair of walks, but relief pitcher Foster Griffin gave up a three-run home run that tacked those runs onto Heasley’s pitching line.
Heasley finished the day having allowed two earned runs on two hits and two walks in 2 1/3 innings. Both of his walks started innings.
“I know nothing is guaranteed,” Heasley said. “I’m here to work and hopefully earn a job. That’s my main focus right now, just to get better every time I’m out there and continue to build off of outings like this.”
Heasley’s fastball sat around 95 mph, according to the Surprise Stadium scoreboard. He said he made his changeup a focus of his offseason preparation because he feels that pitch is important to his future success.
“I think the biggest thing right now is to throw strikes,” Heasley said. “I wasn’t really happy with those two leadoff walks, but that’s going to happen. I think it was just small adjustments. I just felt like I was just a tad late out of the glove on my fastball.
“Things were just kind of right at the top of the zone, and then I felt like I got it down there against [Marcus] Semien in that last at-bat, I was getting down through the ball and it was coming out a lot better.”
Semien, who joined the Rangers this offseason as a free agent, flew out to center field in the third inning. That was the last batter Heasley faced.
Roughing up the rookie
Texas Rangers minor-league pitcher Jack Leiter, the No. 2 overall pick in last year’s MLB Draft, gave up three runs in 1 2/3 innings against the Royals bench players in his Cactus League debut.
Leiter, who entered the game in the sixth inning, recorded four of his five outs via strikeouts which came against the first four batters he faced during his outing.
However, Leiter gave up a single to Cam Gallagher, a two-run homer by Nick Pratto and back-to-back walks to Kyle Isbel and MJ Melendez with two outs in his second inning on the mound before leaving the game.
Remembering Art
Prior to the national anthem, there was a moment of silence at the ballpark in honor of former Royals scout and executive Art Stewart, who died in November.
His photo was shown on the video board. The Royals played their first game with the new uniform patches on their jerseys that feature Stewart’s signature.
Stewart was the longest-tenured associate in the Royals organization, having worked 52 years for the club, including the last 21 as the senior advisor to the general manager.
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Solid starts for Adalberto Mondesi, John Heasley in Kansas City Royals’ spring opener."
