The Kansas City Royals’ playoff pursuits are officially over, so let’s start looking ahead to the 2026 campaign.
Though this wasn’t a bad Royals team, per se, it was one that couldn’t measure up to expectations. There’s still a bright future here, especially if the starting pitching can stay healthy next season, but some tweaks are needed to fix an offense that ranked 26th in scoring entering Wednesday.
We’ll cover the necessary additions ad nauseam throughout the offseason, but for now, let’s shift our focus to three Royals players that shouldn’t return to optimize this roster for next season.
We begin with an obvious name. Kansas City’s rotation is stacked moving forward; Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Kris Bubic, Michael Wacha, Noah Cameron, Ryan Bergert, and Stephen Kolek all profile as more exciting options than Lorenzen next season.
So although the 33-year-old might have a chance to crack a rotation elsewhere, it’s hard to envision the Royals attempting to broker a reunion when the offense is clearly a more pressing need.
This might be the boldest prediction, because just one offseason ago, India was the prized acquisition in Kansas City. The Royals traded a real arm to get him, and after a rough season, his value is now at a low point.
But the Royals simply can’t have another season trying to scrape together production at second base. They’ve got to move on from either India or Michael Massey and either find an impact second baseman (in free agency or a trade) or find a new third baseman and shift Maikel Garcia to second.
India is the one with only one year left on his contract, so he seems like the easiest one to package together with some prospects in a potential trade.
The case could be made that Yastrzemski still fits this team next season, as rookie Jac Caglianone is far from established as the team’s starting right fielder. However, after a hot start in Kansas City, Yastrzemski cooled off, and it’s up for debate whether the money the Royals would spend on him could be better used elsewhere.
In a perfect world, the Royals would find a corner outfielder with a bit more pop than Yastrzemski, but he’s a solid enough player. The guess here, though, is that some other team (perhaps even his old squad, the Giants) will be willing to pay more for him than the Royals are to bring him back.
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