Powering up at the finish

It's another season in the books for the Royals. They close out an incredibly disappointing 2026 season with a 3-2 victory over the Cleveland Guardians. It was win number 69 against a whopping 93 losses. The season began with an eye on October. It ends with the team in last place in the AL Central.

When a team fails so spectacularly, it's never just one thing that caused the derailment. For the Royals, it was a range of things from injuries to the starting rotation to a dreadful bullpen to an offense, with few exceptions, that once again failed to distinguish itself.

The 162nd game always carries a whiff of the last day at school. It's usually a brisk affair as players are more focused on moving on to what's next. For the Guardians, it's a first round bye in the postseason before they resume in the ALDS. For the Royals, it's packing up and heading to their winter destinations. These games have been our companions for the last six months. We won't see these guys on the field until mid-February. At least pending a new collective bargaining agreement.

Vinnie Pasquantino finished the season on a high note, homering twice on Sunday with the second one providing the final margin of victory. It was a frustrating open to the season for The Pasquatch, who was hitting .194/.279/.326 on May 19. He was showing improvement before he went on the IL a month later after undergoing surgery to remove the hamate bone in his right wrist. He rushed back and needed another stint on the IL in early August.

Since coming back from that second turn on the injured list, he's been in a groove, hitting .289/.366/.617 over 145 plate appearances. He hit nine doubles, 11 home runs and drove in 28. He had 14 walks and 16 strikeouts, which is outstanding.

Now if he can just figure out how to post those kinds of numbers out of the gate.

Lucas Erceg put a bow on the season and win number 69 with a save. It was his first save since early June and his 13th on the season. After his month in Omaha, Erceg made five appearances over these last couple of weeks, tossing five scoreless frames. He struck out three and walked three—with all of those walks coming in his appearance on Friday.

More important than the stats is his confidence, which has to be back after his last couple of weeks. The dude was just in a perpetual state of shell-shock prior to his demotion. The confidence stems from the aforementioned results and the fact he was throwing straight gas. He touched triple digits once on Sunday and twice in his outing earlier in the week against the White Sox. His four-seamer and sinker averaged 99.6 mph in the season's final game.

Watching those results, I can't help but wish the Royals had sent him down earlier. I know they needed innings from the bullpen, but he just wasn't in a competitive state, especially after the All-Star Break. At least he's heading into the offseason in the right frame of mind.

Prior to the game the Royals made a roster move, putting pitcher Tony Gonsolin on the 15-day IL with an "allergic reaction." The corresponding move was to reinstate reliever James McArthur from the injured list.

Snark aside about making a transaction like this on the last day of the season and with the reason being an allergic reaction, but how about McArthur being back on a major league roster? The guy last threw a pitch on a big league mound on September 16, 2024. Since then, he's undergone three elbow surgeries and numerous setbacks on his journey to get back. It doesn't matter that he didn't make it into Sunday's game. The guy got activated. Congrats to him.

You know how practically everyone who follows the team bemoans a strong September because it seems to give the front office cover for not doing much over the winter? I'm not sure that was ever really a thing outside of a couple of years, but after this September, that's really not a thing as the Royals won only seven games against 17 losses. That's a .292 winning percentage and by far their worst month of the 2026 season.

I don't believe the team quit down the stretch. I believe the craptastic nature of this ballclub finally caught up with them. I think that they will stay the course with dugout leadership with the onus squarely on General Manager JJ Picollo and his staff to assemble a team that can perform to expectations on the field.

That's a wrap on my 22nd season independently writing about the Royals. It was probably the most challenging. Early this season, the team alternated between incredibly awful and excruciatingly boring. That's a bad mix. They showed flashes of what could've been at times, but it was never enough. They have had a lock on last place in the AL Central pretty much since the start of June. By any measure, this season was a massive disappointment.

If it's difficult to write about a team like this, I imagine reading about it can be a chore as well. This is my opportunity to thank you for subscribing, clicking, commenting and sharing the newsletter this season. I don't take your readership and support for granted. It's been a good year in terms of growth for Into the Fountains; while you may think the disappointment of the team coupled with the looming lockout has dampened my enthusiasm for writing about the Royals, I don't think that's the case. I have a number of things planned for the offseason so there will be a steady flow of newsletters to your inbox this winter. We keep moving.

Thank you!