The Kansas City Royals have made a move to charge up an offense that has struggled through the first month of the 2022 season.
Hitting coach Terry Bradshaw was relieved of his duties on Monday, with the move effective immediately. Senior director for player development Alec Zumwalt will join the team full-time and oversee all hitting efforts, according to the team’s press release.
Zumwalt is in his 12th season with the Royals, and third in his current role. He was originally hired as a Pro Scout in 2011 and was awarded the 2015 Art Stewart Scout of the Year Award for his efforts during the World Series Championship season. He spearheaded a shift in hitting development that helped produce significant improvements in productivity, including Bobby Witt Jr. being named Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year and MJ Melendez winning the Joe Bauman Award as minor league home run champion in 2021.
Bradshaw played in 1995 and 1996 for the Cardinals and has worked in the Royals system since 2000 and played a key role in the development of Royals stars like Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer before being elevated to Major League Hitting Coach in 2018. In that time, Whit Merrifield led baseball in hits twice (2018 and 2019), doubles (2021) and triples (10). Jorge Soler led the American League and broke the Royals single season record with 48 home runs in 2019, which Salvador Perez matched in 2021.
