Nicky Lopez

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Nicholas Lopez

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Biographical Information[edit]

Nicky Lopez hit his first big league homer for the Kansas City Royals against the Detroit Tigers on June 13, 2019, a month after his major league debut. Exceptionally, the game was played at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in anticipation of the 2019 College World Series, the first major league game ever to be played in Nebraska. He was quite familiar with the ballpark, as this is where Creighton University, from which he graduated, plays its home games, and he had in fact hit a homer there in his final at-bat for the college. In his rookie season, he played 103 games as the Royals' main second baseman and sometimes shortstop, hitting .240 with 2 homers and 30 RBIs. His OPS+ was 58, brought down by an anemic OBP of just .276.

During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he played in 56 of the Royals' 60 games in spite of hitting just .201 with 1 homer and 13 RBIs, his OPS+ falling to 51. This could have ended his budding career, but moving to shortstop in 2021, he had a much better season, batting .300 with an OBP of .365, 78 runs and 43 RBIs in 151 games. He still did not have any power - he hit just 2 homers - but was also successful on 22 of 23 stolen base attempts and posted an OPS+ of 104. That would be a high-water mark however. In 2022, he fell back to .227 in 141 games as he moved back to second base with the promotion of top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. to play shortstop for the major league club. He did not hit any long balls that year, drove in just 20 runs and scored 51, for an OPS+ of 59. Both that season and in 2021, he led the American League in sacrifice hits, with 12 and 10 respectively, another sign that he was an outlier in the modern game.

He played for the Italian national team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Starting at short, he hit .474/.524/.632 with 7 RBI in 5 games for them. He led the team in hits (2 more than Dominic Fletcher, Sal Frelick and Brett Sullivan), RBI (3 ahead of Fletcher and Frelick), average, slugging (tied with Fletcher) and OPS. He tied for 6th in the WBC in hits (9) and tied for 6th in RBI with Mike Trout, Kazuma Okamoto and Rixon Wingrove even though Trout and Okamoto each played two games due to their team advancing further. He was not the All-Star shortstop as Trea Turner hit even better. He then began the 2023 season as the starting second baseman with the Royals, but hit just .213 in 68 games, although his walk rate improved significantly (his OBP was .323 in spite of a low batting average). His OPS+ was therefore a lot better than the previous year at 70, although this was still well below average. On July 30th, he was traded to the Atlanta Braves for Taylor Hearn, a pitcher who had just been designated for assignment and would otherwise had been released. It was a sign that he was seen to have little or no value. The Braves were looking at him strictly as a defensive replacement, with their middle infield well in place, but he surprised with his bat in his first couple of starts. On August 12th, in the first game of a doubleheader against the New York Mets, he went 4 for 6 with a homer and 5 RBIs and even finished the game on the mound, pitching a scoreless inning in a 21-3 beatdown. On August 14th against the New York Yankees, he was 3 for 4 with another 3 RBIs in an 11-3 win. He was the first player to have 7 hits and 8 RBIs in his first two games for a team.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Pete Grathoff (Kansas City Star): "Former Royals infielder Nicky Lopez sets a second MLB record with Atlanta Braves", Yahoo! News, August 15, 2023. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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