It wasn't long ago that Kila Ka'aihue seemed like a promising piece of the
Royals' future. But the Hawaiian first baseman doesn't appear to fit into
their long-term plans any more, despite the career minor league on-base
percentage of .390 that has endeared him to the statistically minded. Kansas
City designated the 27-year-old for assignment to create 40-man roster space
for right-handed reliever Kelvin Herrera, according to Bob Dutton of the
Kansas City Star.
Ka'aihue has excelled in ten minor league seasons, posting a career line of
.266/.390/.458 that includes a .272/.379/.433 line this year in his fourth
stint at Triple-A. The 2002 draft pick has had some opportunities against
Major League pitching, but has just a .216/.309/.375 line in 326 MLB plate
appearances.
Though Ka'aihue has admittedly poor stats in the Major Leagues, he also
appears to have been unlucky on balls in play (.242 BABIP). It won't be
surprising if a small market team without a long-term answer at first base
claims Ka'aihue or works out a trade for him (the Rays have an open 40-man
spot; the Pirates don't).
春訓很火讓他開季就站了皇家的一壘，隨著Hosmer在3A的火熱以及他自己在MLB的勞賽
很快的皇家就決定拉上Hosmer來取代他，然後Hosmer就用棒子證明Kila再也沒機會了
在小聯盟總是打得不錯，不過已經27歲了
會跟Nelson Cruz一樣從個4A人變成大聯盟明星選手還是會默默消失呢
1B還在免洗中的球隊應該會有興趣