Royals injury-plagued shortstop Adalberto Mondesi has rejoined the team in Kansas City after its 10-game road trip and with rosters set to expand from 26 players to 28 players on Wednesday.
Mondesi has been snakebit this season and only appeared in 10 major-league games because of a pair of lengthy stints on the injured list with oblique injuries as well as a hamstring injury that sidelined him after he made his season debut in May.
In Mondesi’s absence, Nicky Lopez has thrived as the team’s everyday shortstop and Whit Merrifield has been among the league leaders in defensive metrics at second base. Mondesi’s likely return raises questions about how he’ll be used in the final month of the season.
Mondesi had been on a minor-league rehab assignment with Triple-A Omaha. In his last four games, he hit 7 for 17 with two home runs, five runs scored and three stolen bases.
“He really kind of kicked it in his last couple games,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “He’s looking really good. We’re hopefully that today goes well and then we’ll see tomorrow.”
Matheny deflected questions about potential position moves by either Lopez or Merrifield, who have played other positions in the past. Lopez was a Gold Glove finalist at second base last year.
He said that a lot of conversation was had about how Mondesi would be reintegrated, positionally, and that it was a “major topic” internally. Though Matheny would not get into specifics.
However, Mondesi noticeably seemed to focus his early fielding work at third base, and he received instruction from coaches Vance Wilson and Tony Pena Jr. at third base prior to batting practice on Tuesday.
Royals general manager Dayton Moore said earlier this month that the club would not shape its roster next season counting on Mondesi as the everyday shortstop due to his recent struggles to stay on the field.
With Lopez performing better than expected at shortstop and the organization grooming one of the top prospects in baseball in shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. at Triple-A, the club may begin to view Mondesi as more of a multi-positional player than exclusively a shortstop.
In 10 Royals games this season, Mondesi has slashed .361/.378/.833 with four home runs, nine RBIs, five doubles and six runs scored.
Mondesi set his career high for games played in the majors with 102 in 2019. Only once in his professional career had he played more than 110 games in a season, and that came at the Low-A level of the minors in 2013 (125 games).
The 102 games Mondesi played in 2019 were interrupted by a two-week stint on the injured list with groin strain in late June, but then he partially dislocated his shoulder diving for a fly ball in foul territory at Kauffman Stadium in the middle of July.
He played in 59 of 60 games last season.
Mondesi began this season on the IL because of a strained right oblique that kept him out of games until May 25. He then went back on the IL from June 16-24 because of a left hamstring strain. His most recent IL stint began on June 21 because of a left oblique strain.
