The most bizarre season
Getting to the big leagues at all is an incredible accomplishment. Among the millions of college and professional baseball players who have stepped onto the diamond in the last century and a half, just barely 20,000 players achieved the status of Major League Baseball ballplayer.
Nick Pratto is one of those guys, and he’ll be able to proudly say that he was an MLB player to future generations. Even more impressively, he is one of the 9,222 humans in history who know what it feels like to swing a piece of lumber at a baseball and deposit it over the fence for an MLB home run. Pratto is an absolutely elite athlete, and to argue otherwise is beyond foolish.
This offseason, we’ve been rounding up the performances of Royals players in a series called 2024 Season in Review. It’s a look back at the most impactful players who donned a Royals uniform, for good or ill.
Pratto was definitely not one of the team’s most impactful players. In fact, he joins the likes of Ryan Freel and Eric Stout and Ryan Verdugo and Matt Reynolds in the “I totally forgot they played for the Royals that year” category. I didn’t think that he was ever on the team this year. In part, I thought so because Pratto struggled in Triple-A this season, hitting .242/.324/.410 with a 91 wRC+ in his fourth go-round at the level.
But Pratto was on the team, at least for a hot second, and he has the stats to show for it. No, not any hitting stats; he never made it to the plate. Pratto pitched an inning, the ninth inning of June 11. It was a game where the New York Yankees demolished Brady Singer (one small factor for why Singer barely pitched in the ALDS against them) to the tune of a 10-1 beatdown.
Pratto pitched. Not only did he pitch, but he got a strikeout—a strikeout swinging!
In doing so, Pratto joined an even smaller group of humans who have both hit an MLB home run and notched an MLB strikeout.
Unfortunately, Shohei Ohtani he ain’t. Pratto had a golden opportunity this year to make an impact, but just couldn’t get it done. At the end of August, Vinnie Pasquantino broke his thumb and was out until the playoffs. With expanded rosters in September and the need for a first baseman, the Royals never called Pratto, at one time the “first baseman of the future,” up to Kansas City.
It’s not everyday that you can see such a clear passing of the baton, but I think we’ve seen that here with the Royals and Pratto. I don’t see how Pratto can maintain a roster spot. The Royals moved on, preferring a 40-something-year-old Yuli Gurriel to their own former top prospect. That’s damning evidence.
Maybe Pratto would have gotten an opportunity if the 2024 Royals were more like the 2023 Royals. But with a different team and a different standard for excellence, that has changed. With so many elite athletes competing and with razor thin margins of success, MLB is a fascinating sport. I wish Pratto the best. Still: at the end of the day, Pratto played a day with an MLB team. That’s more than can be said about you or me.
