Welcome to this edition of the Royals Beat newsletter. My name is Anne Rogers, and I’ll be delivering news and insight to your inbox all Spring Training long. Thanks for following along!

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Nick Loftin learned very quickly last year that playing first base wasn’t going to be as easy of a transition as he thought it would be. He’s a player who doesn’t like to think when he steps onto the field, letting his instincts take over, but playing first base had him thinking all the time.

“Ball’s hit to the wall, you’re trailing the runner to second base,” Loftin said. “You’re now the cutoff to center field and right field. You’re holding guys on base. You’re in the action. Every pitch, I was thinking, ‘All right, if this ball is hit, where am I going? Where do I need to be?’ But it was fun. I enjoyed it, and something I get more and more comfortable with every day I play the position.”

Loftin, the Royals’ No. 5 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, logged 40 innings across eight games at first base in his short stint in the Majors last year, but his versatility is going to be his biggest asset in 2024, whether he makes the Opening Day roster or comes up throughout the season. He’s played all over the field in his professional career but mainly at third base, second and shortstop. 

Now, Loftin is getting reps at first base and in the corner outfield this spring in case he’s needed there as depth for first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino or the several outfielders competing for a roster spot. Every morning on the back fields, Loftin is working with Royals infield coach José Alguacil at a different position on the dirt or shagging balls in the outfield during batting practice.

“I’m embracing that utility role and understanding that I’m just going to be everywhere this year,” Loftin said. “That’s where my career is going to be taking me.”

Because of that versatility, manager Matt Quatraro has options when it comes to slotting Loftin in the lineup, and if he has a big spring, the Royals will want to find ways to have his contact-oriented bat playing every day. Loftin impressed in a small sample size last year after his debut in September, when he posted an .803 OPS in 19 games. His hit tool has always been his calling card, both as an amateur at Baylor and through his pro career after the Royals drafted him No. 32 overall in the 2020 Draft.

“The quality of his at-bats was what stood out the most,” Quatraro said. “We put him in some tough spots, pinch-hitting him knowing they were going to go to a righty when he came in the game. He put up some good at-bats against those guys. And his defensive versatility was a big factor.”

Now that Loftin has a taste of the Majors, with some success and some adversity, he used the offseason focusing on the little things in his swing that got exposed, like handling pitches on the inner half and doing damage early on in counts.

“I noticed that last year, I lost direction a lot,” Loftin said. “I had the right approach and plan, I would just lose direction simply because my shoulders were collapsing and also the bat path wasn’t as clean as I would like it to be. Understanding what my body is supposed to be doing allows me to kind of fix it as the season goes on when my body wears down.”

Whether Loftin begins the season in Kansas City or with Triple-A Omaha remains to be seen, but with a month of Cactus League games to go, he’s not worrying about where he’ll be playing at the end of March.

All he’s thinking about at the end of the day is peeking at the whiteboard in the clubhouse to check where on the field he’s playing the next day.

“It’s almost like a surprise for me,” Loftin said. “It’s a lot of fun being able to go from first to second to short to third, even the outfield. Mix it all up.

“My motto is win pitches, not win a job. If I can win pitches every single day, everything else will take care of itself. I have no control over whether I’m on the team or not. That’s out of my control regardless of how I play. I just focus on going out there and winning pitches every single day and having fun doing it.”

How about Walter Pennington early on in the Cactus League? The 25-year-old lefty has faced six batters across two innings in game action this spring and struck out all six of them. That has led to a small corner of the whiteboard in the Royals’ clubhouse dedicated to "Pennington’s Punchy Count" -- with six tallies underneath entering Thursday.

“I have seen it, but I’m trying to keep my head down,” Pennington said with a small laugh. “I’m just trying to make them hit that first pitch. It’s pretty funny. I have no idea who wrote it. It’s cool to see, but you’ve got to stay level. I’m thankful for a good start.”

Pennington had a solid 2023 season with Triple-A Omaha, posting a 3.69 ERA across 61 innings (41 games). In his first big league camp as a non-roster invitee, he’s worked hard with the Royals’ pitching coaches on the importance of first-pitch strikes and the blend of analytics and feel for pitching.

“The focus on first-pitch strikes really opens things up for playing to my strengths,” Pennington said. “There’s a lot more resources they’ve given us on the analytic side of things, and the bridge between the two has been great recently.”

Pennington will be a good depth piece for the Royals this season in Omaha again -- and with young players in big league camp, these spring first impressions mean a lot.

• Brady Singer had a strong spring debut on Wednesday while breaking out his new pitches and repertoire plan for 2024.

• Nerves? Yes, Seth Lugo has them. And he embraces them: “That’s the best feeling about baseball.”

• Due to an early injury, the Royals’ revamped bullpen depth will be put to the test early.

“I try not to really look at who’s in the box whenever I’m in there. Just focused on Sandy [Leon’s] mitt and tried to execute a plan we had going into the game. Try not to make eye contact with any of those guys to get me out of my game. I was real happy with how the ball was coming out. Definitely some stuff to work on with some of the command. Got away with some mistakes today, but just overall, pretty pleased with the results, for sure. But this felt like a step in the right direction getting built up.” -- Royals starter Michael Wacha on facing former teammates Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado in Wacha’s Cactus League debut on Tuesday

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