The Royals’ 20-13 start to the season on the heels of an active offseason that saw Kansas City spend more than $100MM on nine free agents – to say nothing of trades acquiring relievers John Schreiber and Nick Anderson – has plenty of people buzzing.
The Royals are right in the thick of things in a largely improved AL Central that looks more like a four-horse race than the perennially weak division that’s been won in a romp in each of the past three seasons (Twins in 2023, Guardians in 2022, White Sox in 2021). Every team except the again-rebuilding White Sox has a legitimate chance at postseason play as of this writing.
A frequently maligned Royals pitching staff is at the heart of Kansas City’s early run. Lefty Cole Ragans hasn’t been quite as dominant as he was following the trade to acquire him from the Rangers last year but has nonetheless looked like a quality big league starter. Brady Singer looks more like the 2022 breakout version of himself than the 2023 version that struggled to a 5.52 ERA.
Free-agent signees Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha have been a needed boon. Lugo’s strikeout rate is down, and Wacha has been more steady than great, but they’ve provided needed, competitive veteran innings. Even fifth starter Alec Marsh has been sharp, though his K-BB profile is rather worrying and he’s on the shelf at the moment after being struck by a comeback liner.
The bullpen has been sound, though free-agent additions Chris Stratton and Will Smith have both struggled. Even still, K.C. relievers are eighth in the majors with a 3.28 ERA. Like some of the starters, their lowly 18.4% strikeout rate (second-lowest in MLB) and 10.2% walk rate call into question whether that ERA can be sustained. But the early results have still contributed to a nice start.
The Royals, to no one’s surprise, are getting strong offensive commitments from perennial slugger Salvador Perez, talented young first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino and emergent face-of-the-franchise shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.
Put more concisely: a lot is going right in Kansas City! It’s a good time to be a Royals fan – perhaps not relative to 2014-15 but certainly relative to the eight years since that consecutive pair of World Series appearances.
If there’s one area that has to remind Royals fans of that eight-year drought, however, it’s the team’s once-again middling outfield. Kansas City outfielders are hitting .190/.254/.323 on the season. The resulting 63 wRC+ indicates they’re 37% worse than league-average at the plate as a group. That ranks last in Major League Baseball. Let's get into the grisly details.
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Never surprising that Steve Adams has doubts about the Royals. If I remember correctly, he did so in 2014 and 2015 too.
So now that the Royals are somewhat decent we have to pay to read these articles, that’s ridiculous. Way to lose some readers.
This site is depressing wanting people’s $ every time. Nba rumors and nfl rumors don’t have this level of greed… not yet at least.
I can tell you haven’t actually been following the Royals closely because you say that Ragans “hasn’t been quite as dominant.” Ragans has been outstanding with the exception of one start, where he gave up 50% of his runs for the season in 4% of his innings pitched. His ERA going into that start was 1.93 and he has given up 1 ER each in his two starts since that day. 7 starts on the season, in 4 of them he gave up 0 or 1 run. Sounds pretty dominant to me.
I still have hope for Melendez to become at least a league average hitter, and his defense has shown marked improvement this year. I expect Gentry to be better than he is currently showing and I don’t know what’s happened with Cross over the last season+. The amount of swing and miss with Velasquez will always be a concern, though. If Massey continues his recent surge at the plate, don’t be surprised to see Waters and/or Loftin up in the “next man up” mentality.
Sorry guys love ur site but just like the athletic not gunna pay and get tricked by half an article anymore. The HUSTLE is out
Unfortunately, considering the OF has done zip – they are a Perez/Witt slump or injury away from seeing their strong start wasted, especially with the Twins surging and the Guardians remaining solid.
Why would I want to pay for some more half-baked analysis by writers whose expertise are in transactions? Fangraphs is free and would deliver something much more insightful than this site did in the few non-paywalled paragraphs they show here.