The Kansas City Royals are in a unique position right now. At the time of this article, they sit at 8-10 and 2.5 games behind first place in the AL Central. For a 162-game season, that is a respectable record at this time of the year.
The pitching staff has been outstanding, as expected. They returned their top three starters from a year ago (Ragans, Lugo, and Wacha) and brought Michael Lorenzen and Kris Bubic back.
Ragans has stood out as one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. He has struck out 10 or more batters in three consecutive starts, which has only happened once in Royals history.
They rank 4th in MLB in ERA (3.21), Cole Ragans leads the MLB in strikeouts (34), and the Royals new closer, Carlos Estevez, is tied for 4th in the MLB in saves (5).
The pitching has been the Royals’ strength this season, and that is not by accident. Kauffman Stadium is a pitcher’s paradise. The Royals know their offense is not an “elite” phase of the team, so they ensured the pitching staff was a group they could lean on.
However, every baseball diamond has two sides, and the Royals have looked lost when generating offense.
17 games into the season, their lineup is underperforming. It is virtually the same team from last season. In 24′, their offense was middle of the road. So far this season (albeit a very early and small sample size), they are in the bottom third of almost every MLB offensive metric.
The only piece the Royals added in the off-season was infielder Jonathan India, who has just been OK. He has added some on-base ability but has not started hitting like we need him to.
The Royals have a few issues holding their offense back from their potential. Let’s highlight the problem areas, and then I’ll outline how the Royals can solve them (no, guys, Jac Caglianone is not the answer).
Currently, the Royals have three players that opposing pitchers “fear” or feel they have to be careful with. These are the guys that can hurt you with one swing of the bat and do damage to the baseball. The Royals’ best players are Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, and Salvador Perez and MLB teams are well aware of this.
You like to swing the bats a little better,” Royals manager Matt Quartraro said. Sometimes, you have to give credit to the opposing pitcher, too. We had a couple of walks in the first inning and were not able to capitalize on them. It’s not going to be 10, 12 runs every night, but we need to do a better job stringing some bigger innings together.
-Royals manager Matt Quatraro
Everyone outside those big three falls into these categories: glorified utility players, Quadruple-A players, and over-the-hill players.
Maikel Garcia, Kyle Isbel, Michael Massey, MJ Melendez, and Cavan Biggio fall into the glorified utility player group. These players are versatile on defense, can play multiple positions, and occasionally provide a spark. They aren’t the type of player that should play every day, or they could be exposed to a long sample size. They are winning players, but they are below-average hitters throughout the season. Garcia and Isbel could be bucking that trend, as they have gotten off to good starts offensively but are below-average hitters statistically and provide little in the extra-base hits and power realm.
Drew Waters falls into the quadruple-A player category. This is a player who has proven to be a good player at the highest level of the Minor Leagues (AAA) but has enough of a sample size in the Major Leagues that shows he is overmatched. Over the course of 425 at-bats, Waters has not stood out as a player the Royals want on their Major League roster. They had an extended look at him in 23’ when he played in 98 games. He hit .228
Mark Canha and Hunter Renfroe are in the over-the-hill grouping. Canha and Renfroe were once good MLB players, but age has caught up with them, and they aren’t as productive as they once were. Canha had a good start to the 25′ campaign before landing on the IL, and Renfroe has not been good for the Royals since he was signed in 24′.
The Royals have three guys they can count on to produce, and the rest are wild cards. When an opposing pitcher only has three players to worry about, it makes it easy to pitch around those guys and go after the rest of the guys in the lineup and force them to beat you.
Even out of the big three, Bobby Witt Jr. is the only player in the lineup who has found consistent success. Vinnie and Salvy haven’t got hot yet, but their track record speaks for itself. I’m not going to worry about those guys until I have a reason to. That being said, Witt Jr. is the only hitter in the lineup hitting over .300 and hit his second home run of the season against the Yankees on Monday night. He is the last one to show any panic about his guys.
I know what we’re capable of doing… it’s just a matter of time,” Witt Jr. said. We just have to keep preparing and getting better every day. That’s what we are going to continue doing.
-Bobby Witt Jr
That is what other teams have done to the Royals so far. It is a testament to how good they are as a team that they are still 8-9 despite all the offensive woes. There’s nothing the Royals can do except hope the guys in slumps will hit their way out of it.
MJ Melendez and Hunter Renfroe are the two main culprits for the rage of Royals fans. Melendez has options so he can be sent down to AAA without the risk of losing him to another team.
Renfroe is out of options at 33, so he would need to give the Royals permission to send him to the minor leagues. He would need to be designated for assignment (DFA), meaning the team would have a set period (seven days) to either bring Renfroe back on the 40-man roster, trade him, place him on waivers where other teams can claim him, or release the player into free agency. Renfroe will likely be DFA’d by early to mid-May if he continues to struggle at the plate and in the field.
The Royals could then call up several guys from the minors to take their places. Gavin Cross is their best outfield prospect in the farm system and played last season at Double-A. He is currently still at Double-A and could get a promotion this season as the club wants to see what their first-round pick from 2022 can do. Tyler Gentry is another name to look out for, as he played three games for the Royals last season as a late-season call-up. He’s not a great player, but someone who can play multiple positions and provide solid defense.
We need to enjoy the baseball we are getting right now because it has not always been like this. I’ve seen seasons where the Royals were virtually done and out of the playoff race by the time the NFL draft rolls around. In the past, all we’ve asked for is a competitive team that is fun to watch through the entire season. Last season showed the team was ahead of schedule, so expectations changed. We’ve seen the Royals win a wild-card game with a less than 100% Pasquantino. We want to see if the Royals can make a deep postseason run. We want improvement, and it’s difficult to see that with the offense being as inconsistent as it is.
Just have some patience with this. We cannot go into baseball season with a football mindset. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Let’s revisit this “State of the Royals” discussion for early June. At that point, we will have an even larger sample size to rely on to start drawing some conclusions about this team.
Until then, enjoy baseball and get out to The K.
Bank On It! 
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