The Royal Leaders By Nick Kappel, Manager, Communications & Broadcasting Photos: Jason Hanna and Amy Kontras/Kansas City Royals
Despite the team’s disappointing record, the Kansas City’s Royals’ 2019 season was highlighted by many outstanding achievements on the field. Last season, the Royals became the first team in 41 years to have a player or players lead the American League in hits, triples and home runs. Whit Merrifield led the Majors, in fact, with 206 hits, while he, Adalberto Mondesi and Hunter Dozier tied for the Major League lead in triples (10) with Arizona’s Eduardo Escobar. Jorge Soler completed the trifecta by becoming the first Royal to lead the American League in home runs, setting the franchise’s single-season record with 48.
Soler’s 48 home runs were 10 more than the previous record set by Mike Moustakas in 2017, and were one more than Rafael Palmeiro’s 47 in 1999 and 2001 for the most in a single season in Major League history by a Cubanborn player. Twenty one of Soler’s blasts came at Kauffman Stadium, matching Chili Davis (1997) and Dean Palmer (1998) for the most homers in one season in the 47-year history of the ballpark. For good measure, Soler also recorded a career-high 117 RBI, which were the seventh most in franchise history and the most by a Royal since 2000, when Mike Sweeney had a club-record 144 RBI and Jermaine Dye had 118. Soler’s breakout season came thanks in part to his ability to play every day. After playing in no more than 101 Major League games in a season prior to 2019, Soler joined teammate Whit Merrifield, Jonathan Villar and Marcus Semien as the only American League players to appear in all 162 games in 2019. Soler and Merrifield became the seventh and eighth Royals to play in all 162 games in a season, marking the second time in the last three seasons that the club had two players appear in all 162 games. Prior to Eric Hosmer and Alcides Escobar turning the trick in 2017, it hadn’t been done by an American League team since Seattle’s Raúl Ibañez and Ichiro Suzuki did it in 2008.
Another wHIT title
For the second straight season, Whit Merrifield led the Majors in hits, finishing with a career-high 206. After leading the Majors with 192 hits in 2018, Merrifield is the 40
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