Could grind of Royals' season include ... coffee grinds?

This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SURPRISE, Ariz. – The espresso machine. Let’s talk about it.

Team Italy has become the talk of the baseball world, and maybe a little bit beyond, at the World Baseball Classic – and right in the middle of it all is Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, whose personality is on full display as the Italian captain. One of the several Italian-themed celebrations Pasquantino and his team have brought to the tournament is the espresso shot home run celebration, which is exactly what you think it is: Every Italian player who hits a home run is greeted back in the dugout with a jacket to put on and an espresso shot to down, presented by Pasquantino along with two kisses on the cheek. Unless, of course, Pasquantino himself is the one who hits it out of the park.

Up until Wednesday night, Pasquantino was in charge of manning the machine with his own bat yet to catch fire. That all changed during Italy’s rout of Mexico on Wednesday, when Pasquantino made Classic history by homering three times.

Of course, his Royals teammates were watching back in Surprise. A few of them caught the first home run as the clubhouse was emptying out following their Cactus League game.

“That was unbelievable,” Royals catcher Carter Jensen said. “I texted him after the first one, said, ‘Let’s go,’ and then he just kept going. I bet he barely slept all night.”

Three home runs meant three espresso shots. Pasquantino was wired after the game, which made for some hilarious postgame interviews (which also shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who follows the Royals closely).

But now, obviously, the question has to be asked: Will the espresso machine be making its way to the Royals’ dugout this year?

We can’t get a clear answer right now because the main team leaders and decision-makers are at the WBC. Pasquantino is one of them, but he would have to get the all-clear from Royals captain Salvador Perez, along with Bobby Witt Jr., Maikel Garcia and some pitchers, too, like Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha.

But manager Matt Quatraro brings up a good point: “If it was a guarantee that someone or we as a team would hit three homers in a game, we would have as many as we could get,” he said.

Fair enough.

Espresso aside, the Royals have loved watching their stars take over the WBC, whether it was Witt’s great night for Team USA earlier this week, Jac Caglianone’s big home run against USA on Tuesday, Pasquantino’s historic game on Wednesday – the list goes on. They’ve tuned into Venezuela’s games because of Perez, Garcia and Luinder Avila, and they’ll definitely be watching Lugo, whose nickname is “Quarterrican”, pitch for Team Puerto Rico against Italy on Saturday.

“That’s like my dream, right? To be able to brag about the guys,” Quatraro said. “They’re making it easy from their performance, from their personality, from all of it. And obviously Salvy does that every day, all the time, but for the fans to get to know these guys at a deeper level, it’s really special.”

And he hopes that the experience each of these players is having will follow right over to the Royals’ season.

“They’re charged up to the highest level they can be in March, right?” Quatraro said. “You want that hunger for that level of baseball to stay as much as possible, and it’s one of the things we talked about all offseason – taking no pitches off. That’s what they’re currently doing. Will that happen in a Spring Training game? Probably not, but once the season starts, that’s what we want: Intensity from pitch one.”

One more caffeinated note: The Royals’ dugout usually has a jug of coffee in it, but an espresso machine for a home run celebration is a whole different story. It might not work as well as it does for Team Italy right now, though – drinking espresso, celebrating with wine and fully leaning into their Italian heritage? It’s too perfect. The Royals might need to create their own home run and/or team celebration around the group they have in their own clubhouse.

But there are some espresso fans on the roster.

“Well, Vinnie and I were actually talking about one before he left for the WBC, because Salvy’s got this little one over here,” reliever Matt Strahm said, nodding to a coffee machine next to Perez’s locker in the clubhouse. “I told Vinnie to get a Breville ordered, and I’d foot half the bill if he ordered it. We should have one.”

Let’s just say this story isn’t over.

“They would enjoy it in the dugout,” Strahm said. “Got to keep them ‘beaned up.’”