Kansas City Royals Should Not Replace Terrance Gore When Jarrod Dyson Returns

In case you missed it, Kansas City Royals base-stealing maestro Terrance Gore did something amazing last Sunday. What could be better than seeing a huge impact from a base-runner, if not seeing it from two players in the same game? Despite the team’s overall success, KC will still benefit greatly by replacing the current part-timers with a healthy Jarrod Dyson. He should be more successful than Reymond Fuentes and Paulo Orlando in almost every aspect of the game.

The hometown media outlets understandably hype up successful moments from Orlando and Fuentes because they’re both hard-working guys with uplifting stories fans can rally around. A quick look at the numbers indicates that, through an admittedly small 28 at-bat sample size, this platoon produces at a level that’s well below-average. The Royals currently rank 21st in MLB when it comes to OPS recorded by right fielders. Orlando and Fuentes have combined for one walk and zero extra-base hits in 2016.

Less than a month of play won’t ruin either players’ future, so the Royals can be excited to replace one of them without feeling bad about it. Just think about all that fun Gore provided Sunday night, and remember that Dyson gives potential for that kind of excitement from the first pitch to the last.

The constant, looming threat of Gore’s speed, coupled with Fuentes’ ineffectiveness at the plate, should result in KC keeping Gore and demoting Reymond. I know nobody else uses a full-time pinch runner, and I don’t care. The Royals became great by being different, and they’ll continue to be great this year by staying that way. Forget what the so-called experts say — keep bunting, keep stealing bases and keep the biggest speed threat in the entire organization on the big-league roster.