Royals Call Up Speedy Outfield Prospect Following Michael A. Taylor COVID News

Veteran outfielder Michael A. Taylor was scratched ahead of the Kansas City Royals' game on Wednesday against the Chicago White Sox due to COVID-19 contact tracing. Unfortunately, Taylor's situation has resulted in bad news for the Royals, who've since called up a speedy outfielder to be his replacement.

Michael A. Taylor COVID News

The Royals announced on Thursday that they have officially placed Taylor in COVID protocol. That's some pretty big development considering he was only in the contact tracing stage less than 24 hours earlier.

As a result of Taylor's situation, the Royals have called up outfielder Dairon Blanco from Triple-A Omaha.

Kansas City Royals Roster News

The 29-year-old Blanco is about as speedy as they come, proven by him racking up a total of 41 stolen bases across a combined 117 Double- and Triple-A games last year. He already has 13 SBs in 31 games with the Storm Chasers so far this season.

Blanco has looked fairly solid in the batter's box as well, tallying five home runs and 15 RBIs while slashing .263/.381/.442 in 95 at-bats. He's also demonstrated a knack for getting free passes, recording 17 walks — six more in 36 fewer Triple-A at-bats compared to last year.

Despite his call-up, Blanco was not in the starting lineup against the White Sox on Thursday afternoon. However, Royals manager Mike Matheny did say "we'll see how we can use [Blanco]" before the game began.

Devon Platana is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Devon Platana also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username PepeSilvia0. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.