After Vinnie Pasquantino broke his thumb on Thursday night, ending his season, speculation began wildly about how the team might fill his spot on the roster. Many fans were content with Austin Nola, Nick Loftin or Nick Pratto stepping in, inevitably making the roster worse. Others wondered if the Royals might resort to the waiver list, since – in what seems to be becoming a new annual tradition – some teams that weren’t quite sure they were out have released several players in late July in the hopes that they could convince a team still in the running to take on the rest of their salaries. Those fans focused on outfielders Tommy Pham or Robbie Grossman, but there were fears that the Royals might not be there because of their waiver list priority or because they would simply ignore them.

Instead, the royals announced that both were added to the list today.

In corresponding moves, CJ Alexander and Austin Nola were designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster. No changes to the 26-man roster were announced, as neither player is expected to return until tomorrow when the roster expands to 28. At that point, it’s safe to assume Tyler Gentry will be demoted so they can add a fourteenth pitcher to the roster. The only remaining related roster question is who will lose their job when Hunter Renfroe returns from his hamstring strain.

The other questions have less to do with roster composition and more to do with lineup. Where do these two outfielders fit on the roster? The Royals may have given a hint when they noted before yesterday’s game that Hunter Renfroe will likely be in the running for playing time at first base when he returns. If he plays first, that leaves room in right field for Pham and Grossman to share time.

As for the order in which they’ll bat, the 36-year-old Pham had a career OBP of .348 and a season OBP of .321 this season. Grossman has a career OBP of .345 and a season OBP of .333. On the Royals, those OBPs are better than anyone except Bobby Witt Jr., Freddy Fermin, Salvador Perez and Paul DeJong. Neither of them has much power left, so they’ll likely end up as first hitters, as they’re significantly better suited to that role than anyone else on the roster. In fact, many people – myself included – were hoping the Royals could sign one of those players as first hitters at the trade deadline. Better late than never.

Both hitters should have plenty of power against left-handed pitchers. Although Grossman is a switch hitter and Pham is a right-handed hitter, Pham is the only one who is allowed to hit against right-handed pitchers based on their results this season. Neither is particularly talented on defense, so one might wonder if they could move to first base, but neither has ever played that position at the major league level. To be fair, Renfroe has only started there six times in his major league career.

Grossman, on his fifth team in three seasons, has a wRC+ of 93. Pham, on his seventh team in three seasons, has a wRC+ of 98, though he was at 103 before being traded to the Cardinals. Those aren’t elite numbers, to be sure, but even Vinnie only had a wRC+ of 106 before the injury sidelined him. With the two hitters, the Royals should be much better against lefties than they were before, and only slightly worse against righties. Pham and Grossman bring not only veteran presence but postseason experience to a roster that, while talented, is decidedly lacking in that regard.

GM JJ Picollo and owner John Sherman continue to show commitment and willingness to work aggressively to improve this team. None of these players make a lot of money – the Royals pay a prorated amount of their salaries, each of which is less than $2 million – but there was a time, not too long ago, when even that tiny amount of money seemed too much to ask of Royals owners.

The Royals improved today and are expected to remain favorites for the postseason and strong contenders for the division crown.

*EDIT: After this article went live, the Royals also announced that they had traded cash to Atlanta for 40-year-old first baseman Yuli Gurriel. This is possible because Gurriel was not on any 40-man roster. Joel Goldber revealed that the team expects him tomorrow along with Grossman and Pham, so another 40-man and 26-man roster move will be necessary.

Gurriel hasn’t been good since 2021, but he played well at AAA Gwinett, so the Royals will try to mix and match three Players who can match Vinnie’s performance. I don’t find Gurriel as exciting as the other two, but stranger things have happened.