LOU
Kyle Isbel, OF
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Scouting report
If you just look at his 2019 statline, it feels like Isbel made some kind of dramatic leap in skill, which in turn facilitated his 2021 debut. But due mostly to injury, you can toss out his 2019 regular season statistical performance. After a red hot first few weeks of the season -- .348/.423/.630 -- he pulled a hamstring, and shortly after he returned to game action in Extended, he broke his hamate and was shelved again until mid-July. As is typical for hitters coming back from that injury, Isbel's numbers were poor -- .216/.282/.361 overall at Wilmington -- and improved the further away from surgery he got, culminating in a strong back half of August and Fall League; his Fall League look especially assuaged concerns. Then he spent 2020 at the alternate site (Kansas City opted out of data/video sharing) before his hot 2021 spring training earned him a spot on the Royals' Opening Day roster. If there is a more recent reason to alter Isbel's evaluation, it's been his ability to play center field. He got pretty consistent reps there during spring training and looked perfectly fine. I think he'll be supplanted by a superior defensive center fielder (as is currently the case, with Michael A. Taylor getting big league time instead of Isbel) but will be a plus corner defender. That gives him a little more room to play every day since Isbel is more likely to be a solid offensive player than a spectacular one, with the kind of output typical of a corner guy. He's a compact athlete with a compact swing, which helps him impact pitches middle-in and down. His home run damage comes to his pull-side, though Isbel's capable of peppering the opposite field gap with doubles power. He can't really put top-of-the-zone velocity into play but he can get the bat up there to foul it off. He strikes me as a consistent role player, the larger half of a platoon in an outfield corner. He could somewhat outpace that by taking a Josh Reddick trajectory where, because of his defense, he still starts but hits at the bottom of the order against lefties. (Alternate site)