In part two of our Hater’s Guide to the AL Central, we preview the Kansas City Royals. The Royals are one of those teams that I feel like sucks for a decade straight, then rips off a random World Series win, then retreats back into obscurity for another ten years. And then somewhere down the line you see someone pitching for the Dodgers, Rangers, Yankees, or Braves, and you go, “wait a minute, didn’t they used to play for KC?” and then you check out for the rest of the game watching Zack Greinke meltdown compilation videos on YouTube. While the Royals will be far from mediocrity and obscurity this year, they feel like one of those teams that’s primed for a deep run within the next three to four years. Having said that, let’s take a look at how Kansas City should fare this year…

Kansas City Royals

2024 Record: 86-76 

2025 Projection: 4th in the AL Central

(side note: this really feels like a toss up between Minnesota and Kansas City for 4th place in the AL Central. For reasons I will explain in next week’s article, I cannot exist in a timeline where Minnesota shits the bed AGAIN, so I give them the benefit of the doubt here. Having said that, I could totally see that happening, me losing more money on Minnesota futures, and time/Minnesota’s professional sports teams proving yet again to be nothing more than a flat circle)

Projected Starting Lineup:  

1B: Vinnie Pasquantino (didn’t his dad or grandpa or somebody used to coach defense for us under Matt Patricia?)

2B: Jonathan India

SS: Bobby Witt Jr. (this guy fucking rocks- more on him later)

3B: Maikel Garcia

LF: MJ Melendez

CF: Kyle Isbel

RF/TE: Hunter Renfroe

C/AARP: Salvador Perez

DH: Michael Massey

Projected Starting Rotation:

Cole Ragans

Seth Lugo

Michael Wacha

Kris Bubic

Alec Marsh

Key Offseason Acquisitions:

2B Jonathan India

OF Joey Weimer

Key Offseason Departures:

OF Robbie Grossman (wait a sec..)

RHP Brady Singer

LHP Will Smith

2B Adam Frazier

1B Yuli Gurriel

SS Paul DeJong

OF Tommy Pham

The Kansas City Royals, much like the Detroit Tigers last year, seemed like one of those teams that caught fire running into the playoffs and stunned a team (Baltimore) that everyone projected to make a deep push into the playoffs. Credit where credit is due, they do a fantastic job cultivating talent in their minor league system, and then injecting these players into a major league lineup that is sprinkled with veterans throughout. I feel like they’ve always been really bad when the Tigers are really good, so in my mind, I’m always like “damn, we’ve got KC? That should be a three game sweep” and then, inevitably, I’m nervously checking The Score app in game three because I made a lunch bet with my buddy at work who is a die hard Royals fan. I learned to stop making those bets a few years ago when the Tigers were trotting out a borderline AAA team, but now that both teams are functional, respectable organizations, I may see some more Chipotle in my future.

Let’s go through some reasons for hope:

Pitching Depth                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Cole Ragans is the lynchpin of this rotation, but hot damn do the Royals have some depth at SP. Seth Lugo was fantastic down the stretch last year, and despite being in his 10th year in the MLB, continues to develop other pitches (which I think are up to four or five now). KC obviously felt pretty confident with Wacha, who they extended in the offseason, but I think what makes them particularly scary is the possible return of Kyle Wright to the rotation. I got to watch a lot of Wright when he was in Atlanta, and he always felt like one of those sneaky great starters- kind of like Doug Fister when he played for the Tigers. If Wright can bounce back from shoulder surgery, which prevented him from playing last year, this starting rotation is going to be a nightmare to play against.

Bobby Motherfucking Witt Jr.

Back when the reality of Javy Baez began to really sink in, I was feeling pretty down in the dumps, so I started looking at young, up-and-coming SS that the Tigers could possibly fleece from an unsuspecting organization. The Royals, with their tendency to trade away fantastic players because they can’t/won’t pay them, seemed like a prime candidate, so I began to pay attention to Bobby Witt Jr. pretty closely. He seemed pretty raw at the time, so when my buddy began talking about “nah, he’s gonna be legit”, I thought to myself, “sure, I’ve heard this one before.” Boy, was I wrong. Since then, Bobby Witt Jr. has won the batting title, made an All-Star team, won a  Gold glove, and a Silver Slugger Award. Oh, and he’s also 25. Oh, and he also signed an 11 year, 288 million dollar extension. So yeah, those dreams are no more. But damn, this guy is super fun to watch. He’s gotten even better at SS over the last year, so if this trajectory continues, the Tigers can look forward to playing against the second coming of Cal Ripken Jr. for the next decade and some change. Fun times.

Front Office

As stated before, Kansas City for years has felt like a farm system for major market teams like LA and Atlanta. Because of this, much like the Tampa Bay Rays, they’ve gotten really good at doing more with less. A lot of credit can go to their GM, JJ Picollo, who was kind of like the GM in waiting under Dayton Moore, who constructed the 2015 roster that won the World Series. Picollo got a lot of flak for passing on great college hitters like Riley Greene and Andrew Vaughn in favor of some high school kid named Bobby Witt Jr, but it’s that kind of shit that really shows you know what you’re doing. Either that, or you’re extremely lucky. Let’s hope it’s more of the latter, and not the former.

And reasons why it could turn to shit:

The AL Central

I know, I know. “Hurrrr it’s the weakest division in baseball”. Can we stop with that shit? The AL Central, despite not having seemingly multiple billion dollar payrolls like coastal elite divisions, ended up with three teams in the divisional round of the playoffs, and one in the championship round. If the Twins, Guardians, and Tigers are all as competitive as I think they could be, then one team is going to have to lose out. The Royals could end up like the Penn State of the Big Ten East.

The Outfield

Outside of Hunter Renfroe, the outfield is a huge question mark. They don’t really have any proven, reliable talent that could play every day in the outfield, and when you go into the season with the expectation that you’re going to have to platoon, that usually ends up in disaster. Kyle Isbel is the next best outfielder they have, I think? But the guy hits .161 against lefties, so that seems like kind of a problem.

Catcher

But wait, didn’t you say that vets provide stability in the lineup for some of the younger guys? I did. But, here’s the thing. When you have guys like Salvador Perez who are 35, projected to be the everyday catcher, that seems like a great plan, until it isn’t. Remember when Victor Martinez seemingly fell off a cliff towards the end of his career? If there’s any position in baseball that puts wear and tear on a guy, it’s catcher. There’s definitely the possibility of slotting Salvy at DH to prolong his viability in a lineup, but with an increased chase rate last year, that might not be the big-brain move that KC hopes it to be.

Overall, Kansas City is a solid organization that seems to be moving in the right direction. They’ve depleted their farm system over the past few years with moving guys up to the MLB, but usually when that happens, it means that a team is primed for a run. Given their performance last year, it seems like KC is moving closer to that, than moving away from it. But honestly, that’s kind of bullshit. Given how dominant the Chiefs have been over the past five years, it feels unfair that KC fans get to jump from dominant football, to meaningful baseball games late into the summer. Despite all of this, I cannot gather myself to hate on Kansas City fans with the same degree of contempt that I feel towards Chicago White Sox fans. Every interaction I’ve had with a KC fan is always one where they seem to have an “aw shucks” demeanor and attitude about them. I remember going to a game in like 2003 when the Royals had a guy named Mike Sweeney, and the seats that my dad used to get with his company were awesome- like 12 rows from the Tigers dugout. This guy a few rows ahead of us would shout “Mike Sweeney, you’re a weenie”, and to a middle school boy, this was quite possibly the funniest thing I had ever heard in my life. We were sitting close enough that I could actually see Mike Sweeney smiling to himself as Mike Maroth struck him out, and this kind of endeared me to the Royals and Royals fans. If that same shit happened to a White Sox player, he probably would’ve flipped the guy off and walked away, and Ozzie Guillen would’ve asked that the usher throw the guy out. But, since they play in the AL Central, I have no choice but to hate on them and their stereotypical Midwestern pleasantness. RIP to the 2025 KC Royals.