The Kansas City Royals don’t seem to be in the mood for a major shakeup, but it’s clear some tweaks need to be made.
The Royals put together an 82-80 season and missed the playoffs, just a year removed from their first trip back to October in nearly a decade. They had largely the same roster from a year ago, even bringing in some brand-name players at a couple of positions, but in many respects, they underperformed.
General manager J.J. Picollo isn’t taking those perceived failures lightly. In fact, he wants Royals fans to know that there are likely going to be some changes made to the coaching staff.
On Tuesday, in his season-ending press conference, Picollo confirmed that much-maligned hitting coach Alec Zumwalt would be back for the 2026 campaign. However, the GM also hinted that other changes to the staff were a strong possibility, specifically to the offensive side of the operation.
“We’ve got to make some decisions on the hitting side,” Picollo said, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. “What I will say is, Alec Zumwalt is going to be our hitting coach. How do we support Alec in a way that allows him to have the most success with the roster that we have?
“Those decisions haven’t been made yet. We still have to work through that. It might just be tweaking our staff. How do we tweak the staff? What don’t we have? What can we do, from an analyst standpoint, from a holistic standpoint, to try to help our offense improve?
Currently, Zumwalt has two assistant hitting coaches — Keoni De Renne and Joe Dillon. Would Picollo consider supplementing them with additional pieces, or will one or both be replaced? These are the decisions the GM seems to be referencing.
Coaches don’t solely determine whether players come through with runners in scoring position (a particular struggle for the Royals in their light-hitting first half of the season). But the Royals are right to look for answers, because they’re not yet close to where they need to be as an offense.
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