Series salvaging win prime example of why Royals must continue to make lineup tweaks

The Kansas City Royals were able to avoid disaster in the AL Wild Card race on Wednesday night by managing to take home a road victory and not get swept by the Boston Red Sox.

Before finding their way back into the win column though, manager Matt Quatraro made a pretty significant lineup change. He sent his usual leadoff man, Jonathan India, down in the order to the seven spot and moved the newly acquired Mike Yastrzemski up into the leadoff position.

Quatraro stated that this move was less performance based and “far more matchup based” according to Anne Rogers of MLB.com, as with Red Sox righty Dustin May on the mound, the left handed hitting Yastrzemski would get more ABs against him at the one spot.

Whatever his motivation was for the rare switch from India hitting leadoff worked wonders, as both players had terrific games. Yastrzemski would go 2-for-3 with a run scored, while India would go 2-for-4 with a HR, three RBI and come around to score twice.

While matchups may’ve been his primary motivating factor when it came to this individual switch, the performance based side of things cannot be overlooked either, as the Royals might be onto something here after this tweak.

Matt Quatraro should continue to search for the Royals best possible lineup on a nightly basis

Delving deeper into the India-Yastrzemski swap on Wednesday, there’s plenty of reason as to why India should be hitting deeper in the order a lot more.

India has played 106 of Kansas City’s 115 games this season and all but three of them have come as the leadoff man. For those doing the math at home, that means the Royals have utilized a leadoff hitter other him just 12 times this season.

And looking at his season splits this year, perhaps his constant use in the leadoff role shouldn’t continue. Now, considering he’s been a leadoff man for much of his career, both with the Royals and the Cincnnati Reds, I’m not saying he should be scrapped from the role entirely. That being said, he’s never been more than 109 wRC+ hitter since his NL Rookie of the Year campaign back in 2021 – where he posted a 122 wRC+ – so perhaps some variety could do him good.

While the sample sizes in his three games outside of the leadoff spot aren’t nearly large enough to draw any legitimate conclusions, what can be said about India is that 2025 has not been kind to him as a ledoff man. In his 103 games at the top of the order, he’s hitting just .236 with a .658 OPS and 84 wRC+.

What also works as an advocate for him to hit lower in the order is how well he’s hit with both men on base and with runners in scoring position this season.

With simply men on base, India is hitting .270 with a .790 OPS and 121 wRC+. Then, with RISP, he’s hitting .296 with an .895 OPS and 143 wRC+. Compare all this to when the bases are empty – which as the leadoff hitter he’s guaranteed to be in this situation one time every game – he’s hitting just .224 with a .614 OPS and 71 wRC+.

If he’s so much more productive with runners on base, wouldn’t it make more sense to have him hitting behind the core group of guys in the middle of the order who are consistently on base more than anyone else in this lineup?

Then moving to Yastrzemski who, based off a his season splits, is only suited to hit against righties. Against RHP he’s sporting a very solid .772 OPS and 120 wRC+. Versus LHP on the other hand, he’s posted a dismal .398 OPS with a 10 wRC+. But that goes into the matchup specific argument that Quatraro made on Wednesday.

From more of a performance based perspective, more time in the leadoff role could be smart when Yastrzemski is the lineup against righties.

Between his time in San Francisco and now Kansas City, Yastrzemski has found himself batting leadoff more than any other place in the lineup.

And other than his eight games and 20 plate appearances in the eight spot – which his his second lowest occupied spot in the order this season – the leadoff role has been where he’s thrived the most.

In 200 plate apppearances now across 46 games in the one hole, Yastrzemski is hitting .246 with a .742 OPS and 112 wRC+. This is night and day from India’s totals here.

Then, there’s the fact that with the bases empty, Yastrzemski also hits at his best, with .263 AVG, .736 OPS and 112 wRC+. Again very different from India.

So far, the element of a very rigid leadoff man has not gotten the Royals where they need to be, as there sub-.500 record (57-58) and 4.0 game gap between them and the final AL Wild Card spot would indicate.

Quatraro needs to be more willing to switch things up frequently and find that optimal lineup. There’s countless ways to do this and we could look at hypotheticals all day. For the purpose of not rambling though, let’s look at one more practical example of a logical switch that the Royals’ skipper could make, and it once again has to do with the leadoff spot.

As our Drew Banks pointed out on X ahead of Wednesday’s game, Maikel Garcia has been a suitable name to leadoff a game in 2025 when called upon. In 43 plate appearances in the one spot, Garcia is hitting .405 with a .953 OPS and 162 wRC+.

Now, Garcia has built himself into an All-Star this season, primarily hitting from three to five in the lineup. I don’t want to advocate for constantly putting him the leadoff spot and removing that solid production from the heart of the order. That being said, as has been mentioned already, Yastrzemski seems capable of holding down more leadoff time against righties, so perhaps Garcia is an option to see some more work leading off against lefties when Yastrzemski is likely on the bench.

The point is, Quatraro is not doing the Royals any favors by keeping this lineup rigid. At this point they need all the advantages they can get to make up this Wild Card deficit, so fluid thinking with the goal of achieving an optimal lineup should be this team’s goal on a nightly basis.