These Royals contain multitudes

All wins are good wins, so Sunday’s 10-3 victory over the Phillies was a pleasing way to spend the afternoon. Yet in the aftermath of the series loss, there are two storylines that shoved their way to the front.

First, the playoff picture.

As a refresher, this is how things stood as the Royals embarked on this seven-game road trip to Cleveland and Philadelphia.

Quite a bit has happened in the space of a week.

For starters, a Seattle Mariners fan paid, via Etsy, $15.99 for a self-described “spell caster” to fix the Mariners. Since visiting the Etsy Witch, the Mariners have reeled off nine wins in a row. Who knew all it took to get a team into the postseason was $16? The Rangers, who had been warming up, also continued their winning ways. And the Guardians, after taking three of four from the Royals, took care of business by curb-stomping the White Sox, sweeping their series.

So now we’re here:

It’s not like the Royals were making any kind of moves, but it certainly doesn’t help that the hottest teams in the AL are those in the thick of the Wild Card race. The enemy prior to this week had been the Royals schedule in that they were simply running short of games to push their way into that last spot. Now? I think it’s pretty much done and dusted at this point. The Royals are six games back with 12 to play and have three teams ahead of them. FanGraphs has their odds of making the Wild Card at 0.2 percent. That’s right…Not two percent. It’s 0.2 percent. At this point, the best-case scenario is if they finish their upcoming homestand against the Blue Jays and those Etsy Witch-powered Mariners without finding themselves mathematically eliminated from the postseason.

There will be plenty of time to sort through the reasons the Royals fell short, but since you’ve been subscribed to this newsletter, the root cause is obvious—the lineup just wasn’t good enough.

It’s ultimately frustrating that the Royals took a step back this season. Yet progression in baseball is seldom linear…no matter what Dayton Moore might tell you.

What was good about this season is that the Royals dug themselves out of an early hole and they were relevant in the playoff picture in September. I know, I know…close doesn’t cut it. And the way they bottled it this last week certainly wasn’t fun. I suppose what makes it easier for me is that the Royals were never in that elusive final Wild Card spot. They were pushing for it, but never got there. So it’s not like they let it slip away. It was almost within their grasp.

Just two years ago, the Royals lost over 100 games. Last season, they were in the playoffs. This season, they were in the mix until mid-September. I think this team is still on the right track.

On Saturday, with one swing, Salvador Perez collected both his 300th home run and 1,000th RBI. For a sport that puts a tremendous emphasis on round numbers, that’s incredibly cool that The Captain was able to hit both marks at the same time. (For what it’s worth, I appreciate the round numbers, too.)

I think it’s wild that Perez’s career high for home runs in a season came four years ago. And his second-highest home run tally is his current mark of 28 dingers. These are Perez’s top five home run seasons:

2021 - 48 HR
2025 - 28 HR
2017 - 27 HR
2018 - 27 HR
2024 - 27 HR

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Perez went on a serious power binge after missing all of 2019 and subsequently playing in just 37 games in the Covid-shortened 2020 season. Amazing what a fresh Perez could do in the power department.

As you undoubtedly know, Perez, with 301 home runs, is just 16 behind George Brett for the most in franchise history. As long as the Royals sort out Perez’s contract situation for next year by picking up his option or extending him in some way, I would assume he pulls level with Brett sometime around the All-Star Break next year.

While I’m less a fan of RBI as a statistic, I can still appreciate what collecting 1,000 of them means in a career. Perez added five more to his totals on Sunday and now stands at 1,005 RBI in his career, just seven behind Hal McRae for second place on the Royals franchise list. Brett, naturally, is the all-time Royals leader with 1,596 RBI. That feels safe for quite some time.

I vividly recall the final years of Brett’s career, where seemingly every movement on the diamond moved him past another player on another list. Perez isn’t quite on that level, but it’s still great fun to see him motor upwards on various franchise leaderboards.

From Stathead, here are the players who were primarily catchers in their careers with 300 home runs and 1,000 RBI. It’s a short list:

Eight players, with six of them in the Hall of Fame. A veritable who’s who of premier backstops. And now Salvy is on that list.

We are lucky he’s called Kansas City home for all these years.

Sunday’s game would’ve been delightful, had the Royals been in the thick of the hunt. Starter Noah Cameron gave up a pair of solo home runs in the first, but steadied himself and finished with seven strong innings. Those homers were the only runs he allowed and he surrendered just two more hits on the day after that first inning. He also struck out seven over seven innings. Just another routine day on the mound for Mr. Cameron.

The Royals didn’t have a baserunner until the fourth and finally broke through against Phillies starter Aaron Nola in the fifth when Jac Caglianone clubbed a 404-foot home run to right-center. I remain impressed by what Caglianone can do to a baseball and I’m convinced he will take this experience and come back better in 2026. In fact, I think he’s going to be a power monster.

The Caglianone home run tied the game at two. The Royals untied it an inning later with this sequence:

• Bobby Witt Jr. triple
• Vinnie Pasquantino double
• Maikel Garcia single
• Salvador Perez home run.

It really can be that easy. Four batters. Four runs. The Royals would not be bothered for the rest of the afternoon. From there, Perez added a two-run single with two outs in the seventh and Witt hit his 22nd home run of the season in the ninth. With the seven total bases on the day, Witt’s slugging percentage is back above .500. He’s been flirting with that mark all summer, but it’s a far cry from last year’s .588 slugging percentage. Unless he goes on some kind of homer binge, he’s going to fall short of a third consecutive 30-30 season.

That’s just me being selfish. Witt is still an absolute stud.