Interesting passage from the Athletic including quotes from the Royals GM about their plan to keep him healthy:
Make no mistake: They still view Mondesi as a special talent. It’s just that the conversation has evolved from “here’s what he can be” to “here’s what we think will allow him to stay on the field to give him the chance to make the impact we know he can.”
That’s why [Royals' GM] Picollo outlined the offseason plan in early November. He focused on Mondesi transforming his training methods with experts in Florida. We’ll get to the where-will-they-play-him conversation soon, but Picollo also provided perspective as to how many games they hoped to get out of him.
“In our research and studies, we think we can help him (stay on the field) by not expecting him to play every day,” Picollo said Nov. 3 at Kauffman Stadium. “Now, how we go about that, how we approach him with that (given how much he’ll want to play), we need to have further discussions about that. … If we can get him to 130 games, that’s a huge win for us.”
Make no mistake: They still view Mondesi as a special talent. It’s just that the conversation has evolved from “here’s what he can be” to “here’s what we think will allow him to stay on the field to give him the chance to make the impact we know he can.”
That’s why [Royals' GM] Picollo outlined the offseason plan in early November. He focused on Mondesi transforming his training methods with experts in Florida. We’ll get to the where-will-they-play-him conversation soon, but Picollo also provided perspective as to how many games they hoped to get out of him.
“In our research and studies, we think we can help him (stay on the field) by not expecting him to play every day,” Picollo said Nov. 3 at Kauffman Stadium. “Now, how we go about that, how we approach him with that (given how much he’ll want to play), we need to have further discussions about that. … If we can get him to 130 games, that’s a huge win for us.”