Searching for answers after a "disappointing" Royals season

The Royals held their annual wrap-up press conference on Wednesday. In a year where they expectation was playoffs and the reality was 69 wins, this was a grim autopsy on a season that manager Matt Quatraro said was “frustrating” and General Manager JJ Picollo termed “disappointing.” I would concur with both of those adjectives. Entering the season, expectations were high. It was obvious fairly early on that they wouldn't come close to meeting those expectations.

As usual, I'll highlight some of the key moments from the press conference by quoting Picollo or Quatraro. Then, I'll add a little analysis for my take.

We start with the news that broke on Tuesday that hitting coach Alec Zumwalt will not be in the Royals dugout next year. Funny…nobody really knows how to categorize what the Royals did with Zumwalt. He didn’t get reassigned necessarily. He is still the Senior Director of Hitting Performance. He just lost the title of Hitting Coach. His responsibilities have shifted? His duties have become more focused?

Whatever happened, according to Picollo, the shift in focus to the minor leagues for Zumwalt was part of the long-term plan when he joined the major league staff.

“This was something that was anticipated the day he was brought to the major leagues. He came up in the middle of ’22. Alec had a tremendous history with all of the guys that are most of the guys on our team, but the core that you all have seen play here for two or three years. So it was important to have him on the staff when we did, and he did a good job.”

According to Picollo, Zumwalt leaving his hitting coach role in 2026 was part of the motivation behind adding Connor Dawson and Marcus Thames last year to the staff as hitting coaches along with Zumwalt. They serve as continuity as Zumwalt moves out of the dugout. And Picollo says the club will fill the spot Zumwalt is vacating. He anticipates that will be done sometime in October.

Seems like a lot of dominios the front office was trying to align. According to Picollo, he and Zumwalt had the “is it time to return to the minors?” talk in the last couple of winters.

“Alec and I had a conversation to end of every season about is this the time to go back to the minor leagues. So this is really about succession planning. And there was succession plans in place. And there's a lot of confidence in what Alec did as a minor league coordinator and even some of the things he did in the major leagues...And the truth of the matter, he's good. He's a good hitting coach.”

You may disagree with Picollo’s assessment of Zumwalt and, honestly, I’m not sure where I land. I don’t think he’s as terrible as a segment of the fanbase would have you believe. But the results are the results and, as I showed yesterday, they haven’t been good enough.

From what I could glean, Dawson and Thames will be co-leads, so to speak.

“As we get deeper into this offseason with Connor and Marcus, we'll hear more about their ideas. As assistants, they don't get to make the final call. Now those two will work together, and we'll find out more about what changes they may want to make.”

I had heard rumblings that the belief in the organization is that the improved offense over the season was due to Thames and Dawson making inroads with players. Building relationships takes time. If that was truly the case, the progress made was tangible.

A co-lead position is an interesting alignment where you have to coaches with very different backgrounds having an equal say. I don’t think the Royals would do this if they didn’t already have a good working relationship. Maybe this is the case where you don't really need a lead so to speak, but a couple of different voices for players when they're searching to unlock something. Still, it seems like this could sideways if there isn’t rock-solid alignment. Worth a shot, I suppose. They had to do something.

Picollo opened the presser noting that not only would Zumwalt not be returning to the dugout, but almost the entire major league medical staff—Head Athletic Trainer Kyle Turner, Assistant Athletic Trainer Chris DeLucia and Major League Rehab Coordinator Jeff Blum—would be leaving the club. Also moving to a minor league role is Melissa Lambert who was Director of Behaviorial Science.

This feels pretty seismic. Turner had been with the Royals for 17 years. DeLucia was with the team for 20 years and Blum was here for 19 years. The trio had all been in their current positions for five seasons. Lambert is returning to a focus on the minor leagues after four seasons in her role in the dugout. She’s been with the team since 2020.

Picollo on the cashiering of the major league medical staff:

“The way to look at that, most of those injuries there you have an idea going into it that there's an indicator that somebody may not have 10 years left three years left whatever and there were some indicators with some of our pitchers. You just don't want it to all happen at once… We try to do our best to prevent injuries. I think what we want to move to is a little more efficient way of getting guys back on the field. We've had some guys that haven't had surgeries that missed a significant amount of time. This is where I think the different departments all have to work together.”

I believe what Picollo is referring to about indicators is that pitcher injuries aren’t usually sudden. It’s something that teams are aware of where they try to manage the situation and milk as many innings out of their arms they can. And then there’s the rehab situation. Clearly, the Royals were not happy with the length of time some of these players needed to return to the field.

The thing that really stuck with me about the injuries from the 2026 season was how it seemed as though the Royals often dithered when making the call whether or not to put a player on the IL. They often played short-handed due to their indecisiveness. It was odd.

According to Sportrac, the Royals lost 1,796 days to the IL in 2026. That’s about the middle of the pack in the majors. For reference, though, the Royals lost just 994 days to the IL in 2024. Either way, in 2026 there were a lot of injuries and a lot of missed days.

Picollo was asked about how the Royals will address the avoiding another slow start in 2027 like the one that doomed them this year. The Royals were 15 games under .500 and 11 games out of first place in the AL Central on May 31. The record was the culmination of a March and April where they went 12-19 and followed that up with a May where they were even worse at 10-18.

“One thing I've thought about, and I know Q thinks about a lot, we come out of Arizona, which is a very offensive environment. So what's in your mind coming out is “hit”. And then the reality is you come here and it's cold. You go somewhere else and it's raining and sleeting. You don't have ideal conditions. But how do we combat that?…There's no magic formula for it. You just have to try to prepare. I do think, not just the Kansas City Royals, but I think there were several teams across baseball that were impacted by the WBC. We didn't have our team in spring training…We know all the players from the Royals that played. They did well. They were a national story. But when we got back together, it was like beginning of March again. But it was time to go. It was a regular season.”

I get it. The ball jumps in Arizona in Spring Training. It’s quite a different environment when the regular season starts in Kansas City the last week of March. And they did have plenty of players at the World Baseball Classic. Except the above statement feels like thin gruel given that those issues were often the same for every single team in the league. And the supposed hangover from the WBC and the shift from Arizona to colder weather lasted for a long time. Two months!

It just feels flimsy to point to those two things as factors in the team not performing up to expectations. I couldn't tell you why it happened, but I do know having your closer serve up a walkoff grand slam in the second game of the season followed by slow starts from several key offensive players followed by the buildup of injuries to the rotation and the general underperformance from the bullpen certainly seemed to snowball as the early weeks moved by. These sorts of things happen. Usually not all of them at once, but they happen. To point at having Spring Training in Arizona and the WBC as reasons seems a bit farfetched.

An area of focus this winter will be the bullpen. Obviously. Picollo noted that the Royals have been in the top five in spending on their bullpen over the last three years. He also acknowledged that splashing the cash on relievers, who are naturally finicky, may not be the best use of resources.:

“There's other ways to match up. And neutral relievers, neutral split relievers, left-on-left guys, guys that dominate right-handers, which is not usually the one you need the most of. There's different ways to do it, different arm slots. If you look at some of the acquisitions we had in the latter part of this year, we had some guys who were straight power, where we want to refine their command, and some guys are different arm slot guys. Let's see how that works for us.

Now it's a matter of just trying to put it all together. There's not a clear definitive answer on how to put a bullpen together, but I think the variety of different looks, different stuff, type of relievers is the way we're probably going to go.”

As for the closer, Picollo said they didn’t have anyone they were focused on for that role in 2027. They don’t think that they have one currently on the roster. I believe if it’s anyone, it’s Lucas Erceg. Especially if he can bottle those 100 mph fastballs. He was a completely different pitcher when he returned from Triple-A. Dare I say, closer-esque.

As for the position players, Picollo said Jac Caglianone will stay in right field and Vinnie Pasquantino is the primary first baseman going forward. He said that a focus will be finding more production—and better defense from left and center field. Carson Roccaforte, coming off a 30/30 season between Double and Triple-A has earned a look in center. It kind of makes me wonder if they’ll tender a contract to Kyle Isbel. He earned $2.7 million in 2026 and is eligible for arbitration the for the third time. He doesn’t break the bank, but his offensive degraded to the point that his defense couldn’t compensate. And his defense took a step back due to his foot issues.

The Royals lineup, as Picollo noted, is a bit left-handed heavy. They will be looking for balance. I kind of doubt they’d play the free agent market for a center fielder. Maybe Roccaforte has pushed his way to the front. For left field, there are a couple of right-handed hitters who will be available in the open market. Randy Arozarena is one, but he would command some dollars. Taylor Ward is another option, one that would be less expensive. He did well starting the season in Baltimore but then cratered after he was dealt to Seattle. Sliding down the scale, Ian Happ would be an even less expensive option. All three players are in their early 30s.

A couple of quick hits to wrap:

• After opening the season with nine pitchers they felt could slot into the starting rotation and finishing the year with just three of those guys healthy, Picollo will never take starting pitching depth for granted.
• Daniel Lynch IV has earned the opportunity to compete for a role in the rotation.
• Picollo expects the Royals will pick up the option on Tony Gonsolin.
• It doesn’t sound as if the Royals will be talking contract extensions with Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen this winter. They’ll wait until they have two full years of service time before they open those talks.
• Picollo is open to making trades to add to the roster, but he’s looking for major league talent. Not prospects. The goal is to win now.

Overall, a typical end of the season wrap from Picollo and Quatraro. I realize I didn't pull any Q quotes but he said a few things that I'll look into a little deeper in the coming days. Otherwise, it feels like the focus is on the right things going forward in addressing the injuries and rehab time to get players back on the field, along with shuffling the hitting coaches. The upcoming lockout will also play a factor in how the Royals move once the postseason wraps up.

This is a pivotal offseason for the Royals. After the shortcomings in 2025 and the absolute failure of 2026, they have to get it right for 2027.