KANSAS CITY -- The Royals lost a middle-of-the-order bat when they placed veteran right fielder Hunter Renfroe on the 10-day injured list on Sunday, but the club is hoping to replace that production with one of its hottest swinging prospects as Tyler Gentry was recalled from Triple-A Omaha ahead of the series finale against the Phillies.
Manager Matt Quatraro said Renfroe had been dealing with general back and leg soreness recently, but it wasn’t until he felt something in the outfield on Saturday night that a move was required to place Renfroe on the IL with a right hamstring strain.
The Royals hope his return will be quick. Quatraro said he believed Renfroe would have been out for three-to-five days, but 14 games in 13 days -- including a doubleheader on Monday against first-place Cleveland -- necessitated a move.
That move was calling up Gentry, ranked as the Royals’ No. 15 prospect by MLB Pipeline. The 25-year-old outfielder is slashing .256/.346/.429 with 13 home runs in 105 games for the Storm Chasers this season, but he’s really turned things around post-All-Star break.
“Since June, he’s been really swinging the ball well,” Quatraro said. “My impressions are [that] he’s a gamer. He plays hard. He’s got a great arm. He puts good at-bats together. He drives the ball to all fields. It’s exciting that he’s put the last few months together to get himself up here.”
Gentry, who was selected in the third round (No. 76 overall) of the 2020 MLB Draft, hit just .215 with a .675 OPS and four homers over 61 games in the first half, but has belted nine long balls and put together a .903 OPS across 17 fewer games in the second half.
Gentry was struggling with spraying the ball all over the field, which he called his “bread and butter,” to begin the season, but a mechanical adjustment to his swing has fixed those issues.
“It was really just my front shoulder flying open and really controlling my swing, because it’s really hard to stay through the middle of the field, [which is] what you want to do,” Gentry said. “But when your front shoulder is flying open from the beginning, it’s making you cut across everything, and there were points where I was just yanking everything, hitting over the top of everything.
“And so just working on that helped me stay through the middle a lot better, [that] was the key to it.”
Those changes found immediate results. Gentry hit .170 in April and .195 in May before slashing .400/.477/.627 with a 1.104 OPS over 21 games in July.
“ … I got off to a really, really bad start this year in Triple-A, which was really frustrating,” Gentry said. “But just knowing that, [and] working with the hitting coach, [that] I’m still a good hitter. I can still get things done. So I’ve been working ever since then and got my swing in a good spot again about the middle of June. And [I’ve] just been running it since then.”
The Royals hope Gentry can provide an impact offensively and defensively while the club goes through one of its most important stretches of the season with series against Cleveland, Houston, Minnesota and the New York Yankees.
For Gentry, whose parents were in the stands on Sunday, it’s an opportunity to establish himself as a Major Leaguer during a postseason push.
“It’s really exciting. A dream come true,” Gentry said. “Just being here, it’s something that you’ve been working for, really, ever since you’re a little kid. So just excited to be here, really glad to be on the team that’s playing really well right now.”