When it comes to life as a small-market team, finding undervalued skills can have an outsized impact on your fortunes. The Kansas City Royals proved that in spades during their 2015 World Series championship year, which saw them lean into contact skills and bullpen excellence while everyone else was chasing power and starting pitching.
That doesn’t negate the need for star power, of course, but with Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia locked up long-term, the Royals have that with hopefully more to come.
One area of opportunity for Kansas City was its ability to produce on the bases. The Royals ranked 21st in base running runs as a club, coming in at minus-4.1. Part of that was due to a slightly below average stolen base total, 111, which ranked 17th, but the other important factor was simply having speed, and guys who know how to make the right reads and take the extra base.
With all that in mind, the Royals have some internal options in speedsters Dairon Blanco and Tyler Tolbert, but can they do better and bring in more well-rounded players who can not only improve the base running, but also contribute in other ways? These two free agents might help.
Two baserunning mavens who could give the Royals’ bench a boost
1. INF/OF Willi Castro
Willi Castro fits the bill as a potential Adam Frazier replacement, serving as a guy who can play all over the diamond and bring above-average production with the bat. That has value, but it’s not the only thing that Castro can do well.
While he might not be a burner, Castro does have above-average sprint speed, coming in at the 72nd percentile at 28.2 feet per second. Thanks to that and some solid instincts on the bases, Castro produced a positive run value of one as a base runner.
There might be the potential for more, however. It’s been a couple of years, but when Castro arrived in Minnesota back in 2023, he swiped 33 bases in 38 tries, good for an 86.8% success rate. If given the green light more often, we could see the versatile utility man get back over the 20-hump in his age-29 season.
2. Utilityman Dylan Moore
Like Castro, Dylan Moore is a guy who can put forth decent glove work all over the diamond. He won’t produce as much with the bat; however, with a 10.5% career walk rate, he’ll typically get on base at a decent clip, and from there, he can make his mark.
Moore struggled more than usual offensively in 2025. That will depress his price and make him a buy-low candidate. Even with those struggles, he still managed to produce one BSR, though with 57th percentile sprint speed, he does his damage on the bases more via instincts than blazing speed.
If Moore can revert to his 2024 form, he could be a real terror. That year, he stole 32 bases and produced 2 BSR per Statcast. Combine that with double-digit home run power off the bench, and you can live with his excessive strikeouts as a utility man who doubles as a pinch-running threat.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
