Why Michael Massey will be better for Royals in 2024

Second baseman Michael Massey played in 52 games in 2022 and showed just enough for fans to be excited to see what he would do in 2023. Unfortunately, Massey produced a wildly inconsistent roller coaster of a season. 

He had two awful months, two mediocre months and two good months. In each half of the season, he produced one of each variety. In the end, he finished with a dismal slash line of .229/.274/.381. His BA, OBP and OPS all saw fairly severe regression from his rookie season. 

Despite this, two positives emerged as the season wound down. One was that Massey cut down his strikeouts significantly in the second half of the season. In the first half, he whiffed 62 times in 220 plate appearances. In the second half, he struck out just 37 times in 241 plate appearances.

He obviously was making much more contact late than he was early. Unfortunately, Massey experienced some horrible luck on batted balls, and his BABIP was a pitiful .238 from July on, compared to .292 in the first half. If he can continue to improve his contact skills, he's in for a positive regression to the mean when it comes to outs turning into base hits. Look for a higher batting average from him this season. 

The other positive aspect of Massey's second half was his increased power. In the first half, he hit just four home runs, but in the second half, he belted 11. That improved power manifested itself in doubles as well, as he hit 12 of his 18 doubles in the second half. 

Another statistic that points toward the positive is the fact Massey is a line drive hitter. In his rookie season, 20.2 percent of his batted balls were line drives. That number jumped to 24.6 percent in 2023. Combine this tendency toward line drives with an almost certain improvement in his BABIP and Massey's average should take a healthy leap in 2024. 

The Royals recently signed Adam Frazier to be a veteran presence behind Massey, but the latter is a prime candidate for positive regression for the upcoming season. If he continues to be as inconsistent as he was last year, Frazier will be able to step in, but for now, it seems to be Massey's job. Either way, the Royals should be in good shape at second base in 2024.